List of inventions named after people
This is a list of inventions followed by name of the inventor (or whom it is named after). For other lists of eponyms (names derived from people) see Lists of etymologies.
The list
A to G
- Appertization (canning for food preservation) – Nicolas Appert
- Archimedes' screw – Archimedes
- Argand lamp – Ami Argand
- Armstrong breech-loading gun – William George Armstrong
- Bakelite – Leo Baekeland
- Becquerel radioactivity unit – Henri Becquerel
- Bessemer converter – Henry Bessemer
- Biro, (ballpoint pen) – Laszlo Biro
- Blacker Bombard – Lt Col Blacker
- Bowie knife – Jim Bowie
- Braille – Louis Braille
- Browning Automatic Rifle – John Browning
- Bunsen burner – Robert Bunsen
- Carnot cycle, Carnot heat engine – Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot
- Colt revolver – Samuel Colt
- Coffey still – Aeneas Coffey
- Cunningham (downhaul) – Briggs Swift Cunningham II
- Daguerreotype – Jacques Daguerre
- Davy lamp – Humphry Davy
- Dewar flask – James Dewar
- Daniell cell – John Frederic Daniell
- Diesel engine – Rudolf Diesel
- Dolby noise reduction system – Ray Dolby
- Doppler radar – Christian Doppler (see also: Doppler effect)
- Ericsson cycle heat engine – John Ericsson
- Erlenmeyer flask – Richard Erlenmeyer
- Ferris wheel – George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr.
- Foucault pendulum – Jean Bernard Léon Foucault
- Franklin stove – Benjamin Franklin
- Fresnel lens – Augustin-Jean Fresnel
- Galil assault rifle – Israel Galili
- Galvanic cell – Luigi Galvani
- Gatling gun – Richard J. Gatling
- Gatsometer – Maurice Gatsonides
- Geiger counter – Hans Geiger
- Geiger-Müller tube – Hans Geiger and Walther Müller
- M1 Garand rifle – John Garand
- Gillette safety razor – King C. Gillette
- Glauber's salt – Johann Rudolf Glauber
- Gore-Tex – Bill Gore
- Guillotine – Joseph-Ignace Guillotin did not invent the guillotine, but proposed the use of the mechanical device to carry out death penalties in France.
H to Q
- Hallidie ropeway – Andrew Smith Hallidie
- Halligan bar – Hugh Halligan
- Hammond Organ – Laurens Hammond
- Hoover – William Henry Hoover
- Hutchinson Patent Stopper – Charles G. Hutchinson
- Jacquard loom – Joseph Marie Jacquard
- Josephson junction – Brian David Josephson
- Kalashnikov guns (eg the AK-47) – Mikhail Kalashnikov
- Kipp's apparatus – Petrus Jacobus Kipp
- Land Camera – Edwin H. Land
- Leigh light – Humphry de Verde Leigh
- Macadam road – John Loudon McAdam
- Mae West inflatable life jacket – named after actress Mae West
- Macintosh (the waterproof coat) – Charles Macintosh
- Marconi rig (sloop) – Guglielmo Marconi – a satiric reference to complicated spreaders and shrouds that had the appearance of radio antennas of the time.
- Mason jar – John Mason
- Maxim gun – Hiram Maxim
- Melba sauce, Peach Melba and Melba toast – Dame Nelly Melba
- Molotov cocktail – invented by the Finnish army, and named after Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet Minister of War
- Monkey Wrench – Charles Moncky
- Moog synthesizer – Robert Moog
- Morse code – Samuel Morse
- Owen gun – Evo Owen.
- Pavlova – Anna Pavlova
- Pasteurization – Louis Pasteur
- Patchett gun
- Peavey (tool) – Joseph Peavey
- Petri dish – Julius Richard Petri
- Pulaski (tool) – Ed Pulaski
- Pupin coil – Michael I. Pupin
- Prusik knot – Karl Prusik
R to Z
- Raman spectroscopy – C. V. Raman
- Richter magnitude scale – Charles Richter
- Rubik's Cube – Ernő Rubik
- Rumford fireplace – Count Rumford
- Sandwich – Earl of Sandwich
- Saxophone – Adolphe Sax, Belgian music instrument designer
- Shrapnel shell – Henry Shrapnel
- Schick test – Béla Schick
- Sousaphone – John Philip Sousa
- Soyer stove – Alexis Soyer
- Stark spectroscopy – Johannes Stark
- Sten gun – Shepherd, Turpin (and their employer RSAF Enfield)
- Stiefografie – Helmut Stief, inventor of a German shorthand system
- Stirling engine – Rev. Robert Stirling
- Strowger switch (part of the first automatic telephone exchange) – Almon Strowger
- Thompson submachine gun – John T. Thompson
- Tesla coil, Tesla turbine – Nikola Tesla
- Theremin – Leon Theremin
- Uzi submachine gun – Uziel Gal
- Vernier scale – Pierre Vernier
- Voltaic pile – Alessandro Volta
- Wagner tuba – Richard Wagner
- Wankel engine – Felix Wankel
- Wedgwood porcelain – Wedgwood family
- Wellington boot – Duke of Wellington
- Westinghouse air brake – George Westinghouse
- Winchester repeating rifle – named after chief investor Oliver F. Winchester
- Zeppelin – Ferdinand von Zeppelin