# People with more than one major invention **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 14, 2017, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127 "2017-03-14T02:27:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127/1 "2017-03-14T02:27:15Z")
Who are some people with more than one invention The obvious example is Steve Jobs with > **[Steve Jobs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs)** > > Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American business magnate, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a member of The Walt Disney Company's board of directors following its acquisition of Pixar; and the founder, chairman, and CEO of NeXT. He was a pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, along with his early business partner and ... Apple/Mac Ipad Iphone Pixar (to some extent) But also there is Chuck Peddle > **[Chuck Peddle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Peddle)** > > Charles Ingerham Peddle (November 25, 1937 – December 15, 2019) was an American electrical engineer best known as the main designer of the MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, the KIM-1 single-board computer, and its successor, the Commodore PET personal computer, both based on the 6502. > Peddle was born in Bangor, Maine, United States on November 25, 1937. He worked in a radio station while in high school. > In 1955, Peddle joined the United States Marine Corps. He attended the University of Mai... On the team with the 8080 processor Led the 6502 Processor development Developed the Commodore PET Computer which was then used as the basis of the VIC 20 Built another computer, the Victor 9000 (ahead of its time) but it could not overcome the PC dominance. There is also Thomas Edison > **[Thomas Edison](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison)** > > Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, which include the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and early versions of the electric light bulb, have had a widespread impact on the modern industrialized world. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of organized Edison was... He had 1093 Patents :eek: including the light bulb, phonograph, motion picture camera, stock ticker, car battery, electric utility, and a few more Anyone else ? ---
**Author:** ![Mithras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mithras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mithras)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127/2 "2017-03-14T02:34:21Z")
[Thomas Midgeley](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127/3 "2017-03-14T02:42:22Z")
How is Thomas Edison not the obvious example? Geez Louise. Man, Steven Jobs. The other one is Hipster Thomas Edison, aka Nikolai Tesla, who [invented or at least messed around with alternating current, radio, and remote-controlled vehicles](http://www.history.com/topics/inventions/nikola-tesla), among other things. ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127/4 "2017-03-14T02:55:28Z")
Here is a list of Inventors > **[List of National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_National_Inventors_Hall_of_Fame_inductees)** > > The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) inductees includes over 600 inventors spanning three centuries of lifetimes. John Fitch was the earliest born inventor inducted into the NIHF (1743), while Barrett Comiskey is currently the most recently born (1975). I can see also Robert Rines - Sonar and Radar Thomas Midgley jr - Ethyl Gasoline and Fluorocarbon refrigerants Wilhelm Maybach - Carburetor and Radiator Howard Head - Oversized Tennis Racket and Laminated Ski William Goddard - Hard Drive and Floppy Disc Emile Berliner - Gramophone and Microphone Luis Walter Alvavez - Radio Distance and Direction and Hydrogen Bubble Chamber However, in terms of numbers of inventions, it is Steve Jobs and Thomas Edison from what I can tell ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127/5 "2017-03-14T03:05:48Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > How is Thomas Edison not the obvious example? Geez Louise. Man, Steven Jobs. > > The other one is Hipster Thomas Edison, aka Nikolai Tesla, who [invented or at least messed around with alternating current, radio, and remote-controlled vehicles](http://www.history.com/topics/inventions/nikola-tesla), among other things. Thanks I did mention Thomas Edison at the end of my original post but Steve Jobs came to my mind first as he is the most recent multiple inventor. I suppose Elon Musk could be added as well but he is still going > **[Elon Musk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk)** > > Elon Reeve Musk FRS (/ˈiːlɒn/; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman and investor known for his key roles in space company SpaceX and automotive company Tesla, Inc. Other involvements include ownership of X Corp., formerly Twitter, and his role in the founding of The Boring Company, xAI, Neuralink and OpenAI. He is one of the wealthiest people in the world; as of July 2024\[update\], Forbes estimates his net worth to be US$221 billion. > Musk was born in Pretoria to model Maye and businessman an... SpaceX, Paypal, Telsa, Gigafactory ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127/6 "2017-03-14T03:10:49Z")
It feels like someone should mention George Washington Carver, with the paints and the adhesives and the soaps and the laxatives and the shoe polish and so on. ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127/7 "2017-03-14T03:11:41Z")
> [@Mithras](#): > > [Thomas Midgeley](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.) Adding Lead to Gasoline (which worked) but it also caused an environmental disaster including poisoning himself. Also, his cause of death was interesting:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127/8 "2017-03-14T03:31:11Z")
Dr. Jonas Salk invented the polio vaccine, then demonstrated that one could give such a thing away for the good of humanity. ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127/9 "2017-03-14T03:46:21Z")
Charles Kettering, founded Delco and head of GM Research division, holder of 186 patents, some big ones. An interesting (to me) one is Oscar U. Zerk, who held around 300 patents, but the one that made him the most money was the specific type of check-ball grease fitting on millions of cars and trucks and equipment even today. > **[Oscar Ulysses Zerk (1878-1968) - Find a Grave...](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21910566/oscar-ulysses-zerk)** > > Engineer and inventor, the son of Flora and Bernard Zerk, a textile merchant in the former Austro-Hungarian empire. Zerk's surname is permanently attached to the check-valve lubrication fitting known worldwide as the Zerk fitting. He arrived in... ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127/10 "2017-03-14T05:34:23Z")
Does Jobs really count? After the initial Apple computers, the Macs were based on ideas developed by others at Xerox. Did he really “invent” the iPod and iPhone, or did he have an idea which his team developed? Not in the Thomas Edison sense (although I’m sure Edison had assistants), and Edison’s inventions covered a pretty wide area, whereas Jobs’ “inventions” were all computing devices. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127/11 "2017-03-14T05:44:52Z")
Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod, bifocal glasses, the flexible catheter, swimming fins, and the Franklin stove. ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127/12 "2017-03-14T05:54:30Z")
With 4,711 US utility patents [Kia Silverbrook](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kia_Silverbrook) is considered the most prolific inventor of all time, at least in terms of number of patents. [Shunpei Yamazaki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunpei_Yamazaki) is a close second with 4,063. Edison clocks in about 9th and Jobs doesn’t make the list. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127/13 "2017-03-14T06:22:18Z")
Dean Kamen is not nearly as well known as he deserves to be. He’s best known for the Segway, but he’s done a lot more than that. > [@](#): > > As an inventor, he holds more than 440 U.S. and foreign patents, many of them for innovative medical devices that have expanded the frontiers of health care worldwide. While still a college undergraduate, he invented the first wearable infusion pump, which rapidly gained acceptance from such diverse medical specialties as chemotherapy, neonatology, and endocrinology. In 1976, he founded his first medical device company, AutoSyringe, Inc., to manufacture and market the pumps. At age 30, he sold that company to Baxter International Corporation. By then, he had added a number of other infusion devices, including the first wearable insulin pump for diabetics. > **[Dean Kamen](https://www.firstinspires.org/about/leadership/dean-kamen)** > >   ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127/14 "2017-03-14T06:59:15Z")
> [@TSBG](#): > > Does Jobs really count? After the initial Apple computers, the Macs were based on ideas developed by others at Xerox. ?? I had the impression that Steve Wozniak was really the inventor of the Apple I, while Jobs was the businessman. ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127/15 "2017-03-14T07:56:44Z")
> [@TSBG](#): > > Does Jobs really count? After the initial Apple computers, the Macs were based on ideas developed by others at Xerox. Did he really “invent” the iPod and iPhone, or did he have an idea which his team developed? Not in the Thomas Edison sense (although I’m sure Edison had assistants), and Edison’s inventions covered a pretty wide area, whereas Jobs’ “inventions” were all computing devices. It should go without saying that everyone on this list benefited from the work done by others before them. The PARC project at Xerox inspired Jobs to invent something that they hadn’t invented. Despite having much of the technology for the Mac in bits and pieces it hadn’t occured to them yet what they could do with it all. Steve Jobs has 313 patents in his name which is certainly no slouch on the invention scale but not even the same ballpark as someone like Edison. His talent was hiring the right people to make his vision reality (Apple as a company holds many thousands of patents) but if there is any one legacy that could be rightfully considered all his it was ‘inventing’ the Macintosh. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127/16 "2017-03-14T09:26:22Z")
For a long time now anything worth inventing has required input from _a number of_ geniuses. But we still like to have this fantasy of a single visionary in his private workshop having a eureka moment, but it’s just not like that in most cases. And ironically the OP picked classic problematic examples in Steve Jobs and Thomas Edison. e.g. With Jobs and the iPhone…obviously the iPhone is a complex device and we can discuss how much credit he should get versus many of the employees at Apple, the people who’ve written killer apps for the device, the people who’d already thought about how such a device would interface (e.g. pinch to zoom out), and of course there’s Wozniak. Finally there were already somewhat smart phones out there…clearly the iphone was a big jump but we get into the subjectivity of what we consider a fresh invention to be. And with edison, it’s even more subject to dispute. Many of his most famous inventions he just bought a patent, and the patent wasn’t even for the most revolutionary step. But he was much better than most engineers at getting his name out there and getting credit (and money) for things. ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127/17 "2017-03-14T10:56:12Z")
Excellent points, thanks for all the input. Yes, I am well aware that a lot of these inventions are build on other people’s ideas and the person who takes credit for it is the one who knows it the best. Very good point with Steve Woznick and Steve Jobs. Yes, Woz was the technical genius behind the Apple but it was the Steve Jobs combination of making it useable and presenting as a great idea to the public. Also, a lot of the subcomponents of the Apple (Floppy Drive and Hard-drive for example) were developed by others but it was Steve Jobs that put it all together in one package first. Same point with the Macintosh, as mentioned, in that Steve Job took an idea that was already in development and assembled it together and got it out to the public. Same point with Thomas Edison as no doubt he had a large staff supporting him, but there has to be someone putting this all together and history has given him credit even though others may have done more of the ground work. There is also something to be said about being the first to develop a product in that it has name recognition even if the following products are better or more used. Case in point: Xerox (the company) built the first photocopier and other companies have built better ones since then, but Xerox is still be used when referring to making a few copies. My point on bringing this up, is that after developing a major inventions, I was wondering to see if any inventor/engineer ever had success in a subsequent invention. (Literally, lightening striking twice!! considering how rare multiple success were.) Generally what I found is that the ones who had multiple successes were usually in the same field or related. IE, Steve Jobs and his series of telecommunication/computing devices, although Pixar is slightly different but it still used a computers to present a graphic display. Thanks for the comments and anymore are welcome ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127/18 "2017-03-14T11:00:14Z")
> **[List of prolific inventors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prolific_inventors)** > > The 100 known most prolific inventors based on worldwide utility patents are shown in the following table. While in many cases this is the number of utility patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, it may include utility patents granted by other countries, as noted by the source references for an inventor. > This table is usually updated every Tuesday evening in US Eastern time, and is current as of April 11, 2023\[update\]. > The columns are defined as follows: > This table ... This is another good list of inventors - quite interesting and Steve Jobs is NOT on this list. ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127/19 "2017-03-14T11:13:14Z")
Another interesting item is that almost all of these people with multiple patents are male. 😃 It must be something about the Male mind that leads to invention although there certainly are exceptions. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127/20 "2017-03-14T12:00:53Z")
[http://appft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/index.html](http://appft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/index.html) US Patent office search. Interesting to see some of the patents put out. Here is one for a vehicle capture [http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=982&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&p=20&S1=weatherford&OS=weatherford&RS=weatherford](http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=982&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&p=20&S1=weatherford&OS=weatherford&RS=weatherford) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-more-than-one-major-invention/782127.md?page=2)