Through the ages, inventors and innovators of time have seized opportunities countless times at the expense of personal lives to create what the world is benefiting now. Often, these men and women are so capable of innovative thought that they don’t make just one contribution to the world, but many. Featured here are three of the greatest.

Thomas Alva Edison – Brilliance of Light and Motion Picture

Before Edison’s invention of the light bulb, candles and gas lamps were the source of light. When electricity provided the possibility of an option for a lighting device, it’s no surprise that Edison jumped the chance. In 1879, he announced his invention of the electric bulb, and the rest is history with electric lighting becoming a basic home fixture and necessity.

Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was a prolific inventor, best remembered for his light bulb and motion picture. Dubbed the “Wizard of Menlo Park” named after his research lab site in New Jersey, he first found fame with the phonograph, an early device for playing recorded sound.

Edison virtually introduced electricity to the world, inventing the first electric light and power system, the first true motion-picture camera, and many more wonders. However, it is for his light bulb that Edison is best remembered. Thomas Alva Edison owned more than a thousand U.S. patents.

Alfred Nobel - Dynamite Invention and the Nobel Prize

Famous for the Nobel Prize and as inventor of dynamite, Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) was a great chemical industrialist. Born in Stockholm, Sweden, he was educated in St. Petersburg, Russia. While training as chemical engineer, he took great interest in the powerful liquid explosive nitroglycerin. Tragically, an experiment in 1864 went wrong that tragically killed his younger brother Emil and several others. This troubled him immensely. His work with nitroglycerin was banned in Stockholm.

Eventually, Nobel found a way to make nitroglycerin into a paste shaped into rods and inserted into drilling holes for blasting rocks. In 1867, he patented this as ‘dynamite’ along with a detonator that could be ignited by a fuse. His invention made a huge impact to the Industrial Revolution. It greatly reduced the cost of blasting rock, digging canals, cost of blasting rocks and all other kinds of construction work. It made Nobel a very rich man.

Among others, Alfred Nobel held other patents involving synthetic rubber and artificial silk development. He held about 355 patents. Nobel bequeathed funds to found awards in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and literature. There is another Nobel Prize awarded for activities in the pursuit of peace.

Leonardo Da Vinci - His Notebooks, Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and Vetruvian Man

An all-around genius, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is often cited as the model of the “Renaissance Man.” Born near Florence, nothing much is known of his childhood. He developed an insatiable curiosity and became active as artist, inventor, scientist, musician, and writer. He was also a respected teacher, and known for his physical charms.

His most famous paintings are the “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper.” Although he left relatively few works of art behind, he is best remembered for his many notebooks and sketch-books that included his designs for various inventive ideas, from a helicopter to a solar-powered device, and even a calculator.

Leonardo Da Vinci made accurate anatomical drawings, the most famous being the “Vetruvian Man,” whose limbs spread wide within a circle.

Photo Credit of Thomas A Edison: Wikimedia Commons

Article Sources:

Ellyard, David. Great Inventions of our Time. Sydney: New Holland, 2007

Farndon, John, etal. The Great Scientist. London: Arcturus Publishing, 2005