About German Inventors

About The Rich, The Famous and The Beautiful:

German Inventors

by Bernd Ebersberger

Dec. 2002

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What does an invention mean to a German inventor?

• The invention turns into an innovation.

• The inventor is credited for the invention.

• Eventually the invention, a street, a university or a whole industrial trust is named after the inventor.

Money, a lot of money.

Fame, quite a lot of fame.

• Let’s have a look at German inventors...

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1440

Movable type printing

J. Gutenberg

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1709

Alcohol thermometer

D. G. Fahrenheit

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1850

Geissler flourescent tube

Heinrich Geissler

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1867

Dynamo generator

Werner von Siemens

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1876

Ammonia refrigerator

Karl von Linde

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1877

4-stroke internal combustion engine

Nikolaus August Otto

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1884

Nipkow scanning disk

Paul Nipkow

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1885

Automobile

Karl Benz / Gottlieb Daimler

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1885

Diesel engine

Rudolf Diesel

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1888

Electro magnetic waves

Heinrich R. Hertz

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1895

X-ray

Willhelm C. Röntgen

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1896

Glider

Otto Lilienthal

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1897

Cathode-ray tube

Karl Ferdinand Braun

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1899

Aspirin

Felix Hoffmann

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1900

Rigid airship

Graf Ferdinand von Zeppelin

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1920

Athletic shoe

Adi Dassler

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1945

Z1 - Z4 computers

Konrad Zuse

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1954

Rotary cylinder engine

Felix Wankel

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Gutenberg, Fahrenheit, Daimler, Benz, Diesel, Hertz, Wankel, Zuse, Dassler ...

The German inventions are a success story.

Money and fame everywhere.

NO...

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What also can happen is:

• The inventor becomes famous

but not for the invention.

• The inventor is ahead of anybody else

but not credited for his / her invention.

• The invention is technically a success

but it is not economically successful.

NO MONEY

NO FAME

but stories that are fun to tell...

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Hedy Lamarr (1913 - 2000)

• In 1942 together with the composer George Antheil she patented a technology to encode the remote control signals for torpedoes the frequency hopping technology

• The patent expired 1956. • The U.S. military never used this patent before it

expired.• First used in experiments in the 1960s.

no money

• Today the spread spectrum technology used for cellular phones is similar to the frequency hopping technology.

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Hedy Lamarr (1913 - 2000)

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Hedy Lamarr (1913 - 2000)

• What is she known for?

• Hedy Lamarr was an actress.

• She had 6 husbands.

• Movies together with Clarke Gable, James Stewart, Spencer Tracy and Judy Garland

• Delilah in “Samson and Delilah” (1949)

• First nude scene in a cinema movie “Ecstasy” (1933)

at least some fame

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Anton Flettner (1885 - 1960)

• Developed the Flettner-Rotor (approx. 1924)

• The idea is an application of the Magnusen-effect:

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Anton Flettner (1885 - 1960)

• Used to propel a ship in 1924

• one prototype vessel and one commercial vessel

• victims of the great depression and of cheap fuel

no money

no fame

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Johann Philipp Reis (1834 - 1874)

• Telephone invented by four different people:

• Alexander G. Bell

• Elisha Gray

• Antonio Meucci

• Johann Philipp Reis

• First experiments for the artificial ear in 1852.

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Johann Philipp Reis (1834 - 1874)

• Prototype of the first telephone in 1861

• Lecture ‘Telephony Using Galvanic Current’

• Sold 50 telephones in Germany and more than 50 in Great Britain.

no money

no fame

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Johann Philipp Reis (1834 - 1874)

• For his experiments for the artificial ear in 1852, Reis used

• a violin

• a knitting needle

• a large cork

• a coil of wire

and

• a sausage