Nicola Tesla.

He invented modernity. Pretty much all of it.

Morton Aberwacky

some Aryan

what? nobody's going to respond?

hmm... depends how you define inventor. Someone who invented an object, a process, an ideology? Can Luther/Einstein/Newton/Marx be considered inventors as much as Edison? What about Artists/Musicians? Where do you draw the line between an inventor and a pioneer/trailblazer in a certain field?

Thomas Newcomen - his steam engine powered the early days of the industrial revolution that gave birth to the modern world.

Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web.

I just though of a really good one.
Cai Lun inventor of paper.

whoever invented agriculture

Best inventor of all time? That would be me! I invented a time machine! (Well I will one day...)

Allan B. Calhamer, surely?

Octavious +1

@ speakerroaliens, if you will invent the time machine, why hasn't your future you come to the past to give it to you?

mikhail kalashnikov, inventor of the Automat Kalishnikov - Model 1947 (more commonly known as the AK-47). While I am a pacifist, you can't argue that he dramatically influenced world history with his gun.

Octavious has just won. Hands down.

Octavius +1

Octavius :)

@mangofretzer:He did/I have/he is/I am/we are/he will/I must. Oh wait! What's that noise? Sounds like a rough piece of string being repeatedly pulled through a small hole in a shoe box.

@Octavious:Nice one! I wish I'd thought of that.

Edward Binney

@ Tergem

I would not consider Mikhail Kalashnikov to be any better than John Moses Browning. If I had to pick one weapon inventor, I would say that John Moses Browning is the best of all time.

@ hthefourth

At the risk of this becoming another philosophical and/or political thread, let us try to stick with physical inventors. The Wright Brothers, Ransom Eli Olds, etc.

@ Gunfighter, I never said best. I said most influential, but that is debatable.

How about Heron Of Alexandria? Steam engine, automated doors and the like.

"If I see further than anyone else it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants" - Newton

I think inventors are usually the people most well placed to take advantage of a niche which appeared. It's hard to think of an invention which wouldn't have been invented at the same time anyway, and any great invention you can think of has likely had a lot of equally clever improvements made between conception


That having been said I would say Fritz Haber for his invention of the (small scale) Haber-Bosch process (which Bosch scaled up), which lets us create the huge amounts of fertilizer we need to support such a huge population (apparently half the nitrogen in your proteins will have been taken out of the atmosphere using this process)

@ Tergem

If you say most influential, then there are a lot more men that I could say. John Garand, Eugene Stoner, Samuel Colt, Dr. Gatling, Hiram Maxim, etc.

@Gunfighter All the people you list were very influential (much more so than Kalashnikov) in the realm of firearm design. However in terms of global political impact Kalashnikov made a gun that would play a major role in many land forces, good or bad.

Octavious +1

But I have to add Harley Earl. He reimagined the Corvette.

@ Tergem

I understand what you are saying, but Kalashnikov's design, while very good, was not revolutionary. Gas-operating fully-automatic rifles had been in service for years, most notably the Browning Automatic Rifle.

Kalashnikov just happened to be in the right place at the right time. If he hadn't designed the AK-47, someone else would have designed a similar weapon system at around the same time, which would not have changed the world significantly.

Archimedes-hydraulics, the odometer, the Archimedes screw, block and tackle,

Blaise Pascal.
His Pascaline(or calculator).
1642.
Forefather of computer technology.

@ Spymany Tim Berners-Lee did NOT invent the World Wide Web. That invention was Al Gore Jr.'s

@Czech, well we can't overlook Al Gore now can we ;-) But Gore was not the inventor of the World Wide Web; in fact Al Gore was the inventor of the Internet, which is a much greater achievement (just ask him).

I thought Al Gore invented the internet... And blue jeans.

It must be Al Gore... Here is the list of things he invented.

The Slinky
Stairs that Slinky goes down on.
Belt Buckles
Pants that the Belt Buckles hold up
Holes in the fence
Drills that put the holes in the fence
Silly Putty
Hula Hoop (large ones. smaller versions were invented by Einstein)
Condoms
Flaming Indian arrows
Fire
Antacids
Headaches that people get when talking about Al Gore
Fingernail clippers
All the "As Seen on TV" items
Postage Stamps
The new Florida voting booths
8 Track Tapes
The Indianapolis Colts

*sigh* Draug, Al Gore never claimed to have invented the internet. He was wildly misquoted.

He did not invent the slinky either.

Draugnar, that made my day.

Draugnar + 1

MapleLeaf: +1 for originality and historical knowledge!

@Mafia - I know. He claimed to have created it. But even that claim is specious considering the internet's history dates back to when he was still in college.

tesla

Edison doesn't hold a torch to Nikola Tesla, period. Edison used brute force, Tesla was just naturally brilliant. There are things Tesla invented that we aren't using today, but could (like electrical power transfer without wires). He was soooo far ahead of his time.

@ Cachimbo

I am not original for saying Ransom Eli Olds? Ransom Eli Olds was the forefather of modern industry, and probably one of the most underrated inventors of all time.

I like the agriculture one, but my choice would be the inventor of fermentation. There were probably many martyrs who gave their lives to the cause as the science was being perfected.

John Deere

obviously the inventor of the flush toilet has done the most good. Mr Crapper I presume?

Whoever invented the wheel has probably done the most good.