Brittanica "Great Inventions" list – Democracy fosters innovation

Warren D. Smith August 2007

This is a list of 322 "Great Inventions" compiled by the 2003 Encyclopædia Britannica Almanac. Our contribution was to color each invention red if it happened in 1800 or later in (what was at the time) a non-democracy. Of these, only 60 occurred before 1800, the rest, (262) after. [You can also see the next section about an independently compiled list of 100 inventions.]



Of the 262 great inventions after 1800, all but 30, i.e. 88.5%, occurred in ostensible democracies, despite the fact that a majority of the world's population during this period lived in non-democracies. It appears that important inventions occur about 10× faster in democracies.





INVENTION YEAR INVENTOR COUNTRY
aerosol can 1926 Erik Rotheim Norway
air conditioning 1902 Willis Haviland Carrier USA
airbag, automotive 1952 John Hetrick USA
airplane, engine-powered 1903 Wilbur & Orville Wright USA
airship 1852 Henri Giffard France
alphabet c. 1700–1500 BC Semitic-speaking peoples eastern coast of Mediterranean Sea
American Sign Language 1817 Thomas H. Gallaudet USA
animation, motion-picture 1906 J. Stuart Blackton USA
answering machine, telephone 1898 Valdemar Poulsen Denmark
aspartame 1965 James Schlatter USA
aspirin 1897 Felix Hoffmann (Bayer) Germany
assembly line 1913 Henry Ford USA
astrolabe c. 2nd century
AstroTurf 1965 James M. Faria, Robert T. Wright USA
audiotape 1928 Fritz Pfleumer Germany
automated teller machine (ATM) 1968 Don Wetzel USA
automobile 1889 Gottlieb Daimler Germany
baby food, prepared 1927 Dorothy Gerber USA
bag, flat-bottomed paper 1870 Margaret Knight USA
Bakelite 1907 Leo Hendrik Baekeland USA
ball bearing 1794 Philip Vaughan England
balloon, hot-air 1783 Joseph & Étienne Montgolfier France
bandage, adhesive 1921 Earle Dickson USA
bar code 1952 Joseph Woodland USA
barbed wire 1874 Joseph Glidden USA
barometer 1643 Evangelista Torricelli Italy
battery, electric storage 1800 Alessandro Volta Italy
beer before 6000 BC Sumerians, Babylonians Mesopotamia
bicycle 1818 Baron Karl de Drais de Sauerbrun Germany
bifocal lens 1784 Benjamin Franklin USA
bikini 1946 Louis Réard France
blood bank late 1930s Charles Richard Drew USA
blow-dryer 1920 Racine Universal Motor Co., Hamilton Beach Manufacturing Co. USA
bomb, atomic 1945 J. Robert Oppenheimer, et al. USA
bomb, thermonuclear (hydrogen) 1952 Edward Teller, et al. USA
boomerang c. 15,000 years ago Aboriginal peoples Australia
Braille system 1824 Louis Braille France
brassiere (bra) 1913 Mary Phelps Jacob USA
bread, sliced (bread-slicing machine) 1928 Otto Frederick Rohwedder USA
button c. 700 BC Greeks, Etruscans Greece, Italy
buttonhole 13th century Europe
calculator, electronic hand-held 1967 Jack S. Kilby USA
calculus 1680s Isaac Newton & Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (independently) England & Germany
calendar, modern (Gregorian) 1582 Pope Gregory XIII Italy
camcorder 1982 Sony Corp. Japan
camera, motion picture 1891 Thomas Alva Edison, William K.L. Dickson USA
camera, portable photographic 1888 George Eastman USA
can, metal beverage 1933 American Can Co. USA
can opener 1858 Ezra J. Warner USA
candle c. 3000 BC Egypt, Crete
canning, food 1809 Nicolas Appert France
carbon-14 dating 1946 Willard F. Libby USA
cardboard, corrugated 1871 Albert Jones USA
cards, playing c. 10th century China
cash register 1879 James Ritty USA
cat litter 1947 Edward Lowe USA
catalog, mail-order 1872 Aaron Montgomery Ward USA
cellophane 1911 Jacques E. Brandenberger Switzerland
celluloid 1869 John Wesley Hyatt USA
cement, portland 1824 Joseph Aspdin England
cereal flakes, breakfast 1894 John Harvey Kellogg USA
chewing gum (modern) c. 1870 Thomas Adams USA
chocolate c. 3rd–10th century Maya, Aztecs Central America, Mexico
chronometer 1762 John Harrison England
clock, pendulum 1656 Christiaan Huygens The Netherlands
clock, quartz 1927 Warren A. Marrison Canada/USA
cloning, animal 1970 John B. Gurdon UK
coffee, drip 1908 Melitta Bentz Germany
coffee, decaffeinated 1905 Ludwig Roselius Germany
coins c. 650 BC Lydians Turkey
compact disc (CD) 1980 Philips Electronics, Sony Corp. The Netherlands, Japan
compass, magnetic c. 12th century China, Europe
computed tomography (CT scan, CAT scan) 1972 Godfrey Hounsfield, Allan Cormack UK, USA
computer, electronic digital 1939 John V. Atanasoff, Clifford E. Berry USA
computer, laptop 1983 Radio Shack Corp. USA
computer, personal 1974 MITS (Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems) USA
concrete, reinforced 1867 Joseph Monier France
condom, latex c. 1930
contact lenses 1887 Adolf Fick Germany
contraceptives, oral early 1950s Gregory Pincus, John Rock, Min Chueh Chang USA
corn, hybrid 1917 Donald F. Jones USA
correction fluid, white 1951 Bette Nesmith USA
cotton gin 1793 Eli Whitney USA
coupon, grocery 1894 Asa Candler USA
crayons, children's wax 1903 Edwin Binney, C. Harold Smith USA
cream separator (dairy processing) 1878 Carl Gustaf Patrik de Laval Sweden
credit card 1950 Frank McNamara, Ralph Schneider (Diners' Club) USA
crossword puzzles 1913 Arthur Wynne USA
DDT 1874 Othmar Zeidler Germany
defibrillator 1952 Paul M. Zoll USA
dentures c. 700 BC Etruscans Italy
detector, metal late 1920s Gerhard Fisher Germany/USA
detector, home smoke 1969 Randolph Smith, Kenneth House USA
diamond, artificial 1955 General Electric Co. USA
diapers, disposable 1950 Marion Donovan USA
digital videodisc (DVD) 1995 consortium of international electronics companies Japan, USA, The Netherlands
dishwasher 1886 Josephine Cochrane USA
DNA fingerprinting 1984 Alec Jeffreys UK
doughnut, ring-shaped 1847 Hanson Crockett Gregory USA
door, revolving 1888 Theophilus von Kannel USA
drinking fountain c. 1905–1912 Luther Haws, Halsey W. Taylor (invented separately) USA
dry cleaning 1855 Jean Baptiste Jolly France
dynamite 1867 Alfred Nobel Sweden
elastic, fabric c. 1830 Thomas Hancock UK
electric chair 1888 Harold P. Brown, Arthur E. Kennelly USA
electrocardiogram (ECG, EKG) 1903 Willem Einthoven The Netherlands
electroencephalogram (EEG) 1929 Hans Berger Germany
electronic mail (e-mail) 1971 Ray Tomlinson USA
elevator, passenger 1852 Elisha Graves Otis USA
encyclopedia c. 4th century BC or 77 AD Speusippus (compliation of Plato's teachings) or Pliny the Elder (comprehensive work) Greece or Rome
engine, internal-combustion 1859 Étienne Lenoir France
engine, jet 1930 Sir Frank Whittle UK
engine, liquid-fueled rocket 1926 Robert H. Goddard USA
engine, steam 1698 Thomas Savery England
escalator 1891 Jesse W. Reno USA
eyeglasses 1280s Salvino degli Armati or Alessandro di Spina Italy
facsimile (fax) 1842 Alexander Bain Scotland
fiber optics 1955 Narinder S. Kapany India
fiberglass 1938 Owens Corning (corp.) USA
film, photographic 1884 George Eastman USA
flashlight, battery-operated portable 1899 Conrad Hubert Russian-in-USA
flask, vacuum (Thermos) 1892 Sir James Dewar Scotland
food processor 1971 Pierre Verdon France
foods, freeze-dried 1946 Earl W. Flosdorf USA
foods, frozen c. 1924 Clarence Birdseye USA
Fresnel lens 1820 Augustin-Jean Fresnel France
fuel cell 1839 William R. Grove UK
genetic engineering 1973 Stanley N. Cohen, Herbert W. Boyer USA
Geiger counter 1908 Hans Geiger Germany
glass c. 2500 BC Egyptians or Phoenicians Egypt or Lebanon
glass, safety 1909 Édouard Bénédictus France
greeting card, Christmas 1843 John Callcott Horsley England
guillotine 1792 Joseph-Ignace Guillotin France
guitar, electric 1941 Les Paul USA
gunpowder c. 10th century China or Arabia
hanger, wire coat 1903 Albert J. Parkhouse USA
helicopter 1939 Igor Sikorsky Russian-in-USA
holography 1948 Dennis Gabor Hungarian exile in Britain
hypodermic syringe 1853 Charles Gabriel Pravaz France
in vitro fertilization (IVF), human 1978 Patrick Steptoe, Robert Edwards UK
ink c. 2500 BC Egypt, China
insulin, extraction and preparation of 1921 Sir Frederick Grant Banting, Charles H. Best Canada
integrated circuit 1958 Jack S. Kilby USA
Internet 1969 Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) at the Dept. of Defense USA
iron, electric 1882 Henry W. Seely USA
irradiation, food 1905 US/UK
jeans 1873 Levi Strauss, Jacob Davis USA
JELL-O (gelatin dessert) 1897 Pearle B. Wait USA
jukebox 1889 Louis Glass USA
Kevlar 1965 Stephanie Kwolek USA
Kool-Aid (fruit drink mix) 1927 Edwin E. Perkins USA
laser 1958 Gordon Gould and Charles Hard Townes, Arthur L. Schawlow (invented separately) USA
laundromat 1934 J.F. Cantrell USA
lawn mower, gasoline-powered c. 1940 Leonard Goodall USA
Lego late 1940s Ole Kirk Christiansen Denmark
light bulb, incandescent 1879 Thomas Alva Edison USA
light bulb, fluorescent 1934 Arthur Compton USA
light-emitting diode (LED) 1962 Nick Holonyak, Jr. USA
linoleum 1860 Frederick Walton UK
lipstick, tube 1915 Maurice Levy USA
liquid crystal display (LCD) 1963 George Heilmeier USA
lock and key c. 2000 BC Assyrians Mesopotamia
locomotive 1829 George Stephenson England
longbow c. 1000 Wales
loudspeaker 1924 Chester W. Rice, Edward W. Kellogg USA
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) early 1970s Raymond Damadian, Paul Lauterbur USA
margarine 1869 Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès France
matches, friction 1827 John Walker England
metric system of measurement 1795 French Academy of Sciences France
microphone 1878 David E. Hughes UK/USA
microscope, compound optical c. 1600 Hans & Zacharias Jansen The Netherlands
microscope, electron 1933 Ernst Ruska Germany
microwave oven 1945 Percy L. Spencer USA
miniature golf c. 1930 Garnet Carter USA
mirror, glass c. 1200 Venetians Italy
missile, guided 1942 Wernher von Braun Germany
mobile home 1919 Glenn H. Curtiss USA
money, paper late 900s China
Monopoly (board game) 1934 Charles B. Darrow USA
Morse code 1838 Samuel F.B. Morse USA
motor, electric 1834 Thomas Davenport USA
motor, outboard 1907 Ole Evinrude Norway/USA
motorcycle 1885 Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach Germany
mouse, computer 1963–64 Douglas Engelbart USA
Muzak 1922 George Owen Squier USA
nail, construction c. 3300 BC Sumerians Mesopotamia
necktie 17th century Croatia
neon lighting 1910 Georges Claude France
nuclear reactor 1942 Enrico Fermi USA
nylon 1937 Wallace H. Carothers USA
oil lamp 1784 Aimé Argand Switzerland
oil well 1859 Edwin Laurentine Drake USA
pacemaker, cardiac 1952 Paul M. Zoll USA
paper c. 105 Ts'ai Lun China
paper clip 1899 Johan Vaaler Norway
paper towel 1931 Arthur Scott USA
parachute, modern 1797 André-Jacques Garnerin France
parking meter 1932 Carl C. Magee USA
particle accelerator 1929 Sir John Douglas Cockcroft, Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton Ireland/UK
pasteurization 1864 Louis Pasteur France
pen, ballpoint 1938 Lazlo Biro Hungary (soon fled to Argentina)
pencil 1565 Conrad Gesner Switzerland
periodic table 1871 Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev Russia
personal watercraft, motorized 1968 Bombardier, Inc. Canada
petroleum jelly 1870s Robert Chesebrough USA
phonograph 1877 Thomas Alva Edison USA
photocopying (xerography) 1937 Chester F. Carlson USA
photography 1837 Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre France
photography, instant 1947 Edwin Herbert Land USA
Play-Doh 1956 Noah W. & Joseph S. McVicker USA
plow, steel 1836 John Deere USA
pocket watch c. 1500 Peter Henlein Germany
polyethylene 1935 Eric Fawcett, Reginald Gibson UK
polygraph (lie detector) 1921 John A. Larson USA
polyvinyl chloride (PVC) 1872 Eugen Baumann Germany
Post-it Notes mid-1970s Arthur Fry (3M corp.) USA
potato chips 1853 George Crum USA
printing press, movable type c. 1450 Johannes Gutenberg Germany
Prozac 1972 Ray W. Fuller, Bryan B. Molloy, David T. Wong USA
radar c. 1904 Christian Hülsmeyer Germany
radio 1896 Guglielmo Marconi Italy
radio, car early 1920s William P. Lear USA
rayon 1884 Louis-Marie-Hilaire Bernigaud, count of Chardonnet France
razor, electric 1928 Jacob Schick USA
razor, safety c. 1900 King Camp Gillette USA
reaper, mechanical 1831 Cyrus Hall McCormick USA
record, long-playing (LP) 1948 Peter Carl Goldmark USA
refrigerator 1842 John Gorrie USA
remote control, television 1950 Robert Adler USA
respirator c. 1955 Forrest M. Bird USA
revolver 1835–36 Samuel Colt USA
Richter scale 1935 Charles Francis Richter, Beno Gutenberg USA
rifle, assault 1944 Hugo Schmeisser Germany
roller coaster 1884 LeMarcus A. Thompson USA
rubber, vulcanized 1839 Charles Goodyear USA
rubber band 1845 Stephen Perry UK
saccharin 1879 Ira Remsen, Constantin Fahlberg US, Germany
saddle c. 200 BC China
safety pin 1849 Walter Hunt USA
satellite, successful artificial earth 1957 Sergey Korolyov, et al. USSR
satellite, communications 1960 John Robinson Pierce USA
saxophone 1846 Antoine-Joseph Sax Belgium
Scotch tape 1930 Richard Drew (3M) USA
scuba gear 1943 Jacques Cousteau, Émile Gagnan France
seat belt, automotive shoulder 1959 Nils Bohlin (Volvo) Sweden
sewing machine 1841 Barthélemy Thimonnier France
shoelaces 1790 England
silicone 1904 Frederic Stanley Kipping UK
skateboard 1958 Bill & Mark Richards USA
skates, ice 1000 BC Scandinavia
skates, roller 1760s Joseph Merlin Belgium
ski, snow c. 2000–3000 BC Sweden, Finland, Norway
skyscraper, steel-frame 1884 William Le Baron Jenney USA
slot machine 1890s Charles Fey USA
snowmobile 1922 Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada
soap 600 BC Phoenicians Lebanon
soft drinks, carbonated 1772 Joseph Priestley UK
sonar 1915 Paul Langevin France
stamps, postage 1840 Sir Rowland Hill UK
stapler 1866 George W. McGill USA
steamboat, successful 1807 Robert Fulton USA
steel, mass-production 1856 Henry Bessemer UK
steel, stainless 1914 Harry Brearley UK
stereo, personal 1979 Sony Corp. Japan
stereophonic sound recording 1931 Alan Dower Blumlein UK
stethoscope 1819 René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laënnec France
stock ticker 1867 Edward A. Calahan USA
stove, electric 1896 William Hadaway USA
stove, gas 1826 James Sharp UK
straw, drinking 1888 Marvin Stone USA
submarine 1620 Cornelis Drebbel The Netherlands
sunglasses 1752 James Ayscough UK
sunscreen 1944 Benjamin Green USA
supermarket 1930 Michael Cullen USA
synthesizer, music 1955 Harry Olson, Herbert Belar USA
synthetic skin 1981 Ioannis V. Yannas, John F. Burke USA
tampon, cotton 1931 Earle Cleveland Haas USA
tank, military 1915 Admiralty Landships Committee UK
tea bag early 1900s Thomas Sullivan USA
teddy bear 1902 Morris Michtom USA
Teflon 1938 Roy Plunkett USA
telegraph 1832–35 Samuel F.B. Morse USA
telephone, wired-line 1876 Alexander Graham Bell Scotland/USA
telephone, mobile 1946 Bell Laboratories USA
telescope, optical 1608 Hans Lippershey The Netherlands
television 1923, 1927 Vladimir Kosma Zworykin, Philo Taylor Farnsworth Russian-in-USA, USA
thermometer 1592 Galileo Italy
thermostat 1830 Andrew Ure UK
threshing machine 1778 Andrew Meikle Scotland
tire, pneumatic 1888 John Boyd Dunlop UK
tissue, disposable facial 1924 Kimberly-Clark Co. USA
tissue, toilet 1857 Joseph Gayetty USA
toaster, electric 1893 Crompton Co. UK
toilet, flush c. 1591 Sir John Harington England
toothbrush 1498 China
tractor 1892 John Froehlich USA
traffic lights, automatic 1923 Garrett A. Morgan USA
transistor 1947 John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, William B. Shockley USA
typewriter 1868 Christopher Latham Sholes USA
ultrasound imaging, obstetric 1958 Ian Donald UK
vaccination 1796 Edward Jenner England
vacuum cleaner, electric 1901 Herbert Cecil Booth UK
Velcro 1948 George de Mestral Switzerland
vending machine c. 100–200 BC Egypt
Viagra 1997 Pfizer Inc. USA
video games 1972 Nolan Bushnell USA
videocassette recorder 1969 Sony Corp. Japan
videotape 1950s Charles Ginsburg USA
virtual reality 1989 Jaron Lanier USA
vision correction, laser 1987 Stephen Trokel USA
washing machine, electric 1907 Alva J. Fisher USA
wheel about 3500 BC proto-Aryan people or Sumerians Russia/Kazakhstan or Mesopotamia
wheelbarrow 1st century BC China
wheelchair 1590s Spain
windmill 644 Persia
wine before 4000 BC Middle East
World Wide Web 1989 Tim Berners-Lee UK
wristwatch, digital 1970 John M. Bergey USA
X-ray imaging 1895 Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen Germany
Zamboni (ice resurfacer) 1949 Frank J. Zamboni USA
zipper 1893 Whitcomb L. Judson USA

An independent compilation

I also found the book Inventing the 20th century, 100 inventions that shaped the world by Stephen Van Dulken (NYU Press 2000). It discusses 100 inventions. According to Dulken, all were invented in the USA, UK, and Canada except for these 17:

  1. Synchonized machine gun to fire from propellor aircraft (F.Schneider, Germany 1913)
  2. Military tank (G.Burstyn, Austria 1912)
  3. "Theremin" first electronic musical instrument (L.S.Termen, Soviet Union 1924)
  4. Ballpoint pen (L.J.Biro, Argentina 1943) [Fraudulent pseudo-democracy toppled by 1943 military coup]
  5. "Lego" toy bricks (G.Christiansen, Denmark 1958)
  6. 3-point seat belt for cars (N.I.Bohlin, Sweden 1958)
  7. Velcro hook & loop fastener system (G.de Mestral, Switzerland 1951)
  8. The pill (3 inventors, one in USA other two in Mexico 1951) [Mexico at time was under One-party rule]
  9. Wankel rotary engine (F.Wankel, W.Germany 1958)
  10. "Personal stereo" (A.Pavel, Italy 1977)
  11. "Smart card" (R.Moreno, France 1974)
  12. "Rubik cube" (E.Rubik, Hungary 1975. Larry Nichols in the USA had patented a similar cube but held together by magnets, not a mechanism, in 1972, and later won a patent infringement suit.)
  13. Antitheft steering wheel lock for cars (M.Tamir, Israel 1985) [Apartheid state]
  14. Water desalinator (S.Gibelius, Sweden 1984)
  15. Modern wind turbine (M.Abe, Japan 1980)
  16. Cellular phone (J.Tattari, Finland 1989)
  17. "Predator" soccer boot (C.Johnston, Australia 1991)

And of these 17, only the 5-and-one-sixth with red font were invented in countries considered at the time to be undemocratic. One can quibble over the precise meaning of "democratic," but anyhow, according to this reckoning, 94.8% of the best inventions of the 20th century were invented in democracies despite less than 50% of the world's population living in them. Again, this is compatible with over 10× greater invention rate in democracies.


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