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Garret Morgan invented the first electric automatic traffic signal in 1923. Though other versions of the traffic signal had been used since 1868, this design was revolutionary. -
Before electronic televisions, there were mechanical televisions. The first electronic television was invented by Philo Taylor Farnsworth in 1927. -
Hans von Ohain is the designer of the first working jet engine even though Frank Whittle is credited with the invention. Frank Whittle registered a patent in 1930 but did not perform a flight test until 1941 -
The electron microscope was invented by Max Knott and Ernst Ruska in 1931. Its development helped advance the understanding of cell structure greatly. -
The microwave oven was developed and patented by Percy Spencer in 1945. During an experiment with radar, he had noticed that a magnetron was emitting heat-generating microwaves. -
The first vinyl record was introduced in 1948. It used microgroove plastic to allow a 12-inch
record to play 12 minutes of sound per side. -
The wide-spread credit card was introduced by the Diners’ Club, Inc., in 1950. -
The first definitive electronic pacemaker was implanted in 1958 by Senning and Elmqvist. -
The technology for a laser was invented in 1960. Theodore H. Maiman is credited with designing the first laser. -
Ralph Baer started work on prototyping game consoles in 1966 and finished his work in 1968. The console was first demonstrated in 1972. -
The cell phone was invented by Martin Cooper in 1973. The first commercial cell phone was released ten years later. -
In 1975 Terry Walker, Harry Garland, and Roger Melen invented the digital camera. The camera developed pictures at a maximum size of 32 by 32 pixels. -
Though the idea behind computing started in the ‘70s it wasn’t until 1981 that the personal computer was launched by IBM. -
The disposable camera was introduced by Fujifilm in 1986. It quickly became a tourism staple. -
Sony released the first PlayStation in Japan in 1994. It was released in the US a year later. -
In 1996 Nintendo 64 was released in Japan. It was the first home console with an analog stick as the main controller. -
Camera phones became officially available in the year 2000. The first to the market was Sharp's J-SH04. -
Although patented in 1999 by M-Systems, the first USB flash drive wasn’t sold until 2000 by IBM. -
The Blu-ray disc was launched in 2002. Blu-ray discs have greater storage capacity and higher definition of video than CD-ROM and DVD. -
Voice recognition systems like Siri and Alexa were invented in the 2010s. Siri in 2011 and Alexa in 2014. -
Chromecast was released by Google in 2013. It allows people to stream from any device but have it play on the TV.