swap_horiz James Hargreaves Alternatives

1

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was an American polymath whose lightning experiments in the 1750s advanced electrical science and popu...

18TH Century American Electricity Lightning

9.3 Excellent

2

Bartolomeo Cristofori

Bartolomeo Cristofori was an Italian keyboard maker credited with inventing the piano around 1700, allowing players to v...

Music 18TH Century Italian Instrument

9.1 Excellent

3

Frank Whittle

Frank Whittle was a British engineer who patented a turbojet engine in 1930 and helped launch Britain’s first jet aircra...

20TH Century British Aviation Jet Engine

8.9 Great

4

Henry Bessemer

Henry Bessemer was an English engineer whose 1856 Bessemer process made large-scale, low-cost steel production possible...

19TH Century Steel Industrial British

8.9 Great

5

Donald Davies

Donald Davies was a British computer scientist who coined packet switching and built the NPL network in the United Kingd...

Internet Networking 20TH Century British

8.7 Great

6

Richard Arkwright

Richard Arkwright was an English inventor whose 1769 water frame used water power to spin stronger cotton yarn and helpe...

18TH Century British Textile Factory

8.7 Great

7

Joseph Marie Jacquard

Joseph Marie Jacquard was a French weaver whose 1801 Jacquard loom used punched cards to automate complex textile patter...

French 19TH Century Textile Loom

8.7 Great

8

Tommy Flowers

Tommy Flowers was an English engineer who designed Colossus, the programmable electronic computer used at Bletchley Park...

Cryptography 20TH Century Computing British

8.5 Great

9

Richard Trevithick

Richard Trevithick was a Cornish engineer who built high-pressure steam engines and ran an early steam locomotive in Wal...

Engine 19TH Century British Transport

8.5 Great

10

Thomas Newcomen

Thomas Newcomen was an English inventor whose 1712 atmospheric steam engine became the first practical engine for pumpin...

18TH Century Mining Industrial English

8.4 Great

11

Eli Whitney

Eli Whitney was an American inventor whose 1793 cotton gin made short-staple cotton processing faster and reshaped the U...

18TH Century American Manufacturing Interchangeable

8.3 Great

12

Carl von Linde

Carl von Linde was a German engineer who developed practical refrigeration machines in the 1870s and later advanced air...

German 19TH Century Industrial Refrigeration

8.3 Great

13

Ada Lovelace

Ada Lovelace was a British mathematician whose 1843 notes on Babbage's Analytical Engine include a pioneering published...

Software Algorithm 19TH Century Computing

8.2 Great

14

Norbert Rillieux

Norbert Rillieux was a Louisiana Creole engineer who built the first industrially practical multiple-effect evaporator f...

American 19TH Century Evaporation Industrial

8.2 Great

15

Robert Stephenson

Robert Stephenson was an English railway engineer whose firm built Rocket, the locomotive that won the 1829 Rainhill Tri...

Civil Engineering 19TH Century British Railway

8.2 Great

16

Joseph Aspdin

Joseph Aspdin was an English bricklayer who patented Portland cement in 1824, naming it for its resemblance to Portland...

19TH Century Construction British Cement

8.2 Great

17

Samuel Crompton

Samuel Crompton was an English inventor who created the spinning mule around 1779, combining earlier machines to produce...

18TH Century Industrial British Textile

8.2 Great

18

Elias Howe

Elias Howe was an American inventor who patented a lockstitch sewing machine in 1846, a major step in mechanized garment...

American 19TH Century Home Sewing Machine

8.1 Great

19

Harry Brearley

Harry Brearley was an English metallurgist credited with developing stainless steel in Sheffield in 1913 while seeking e...

20TH Century Stainless Steel British Materials

7.9 Good

20

Edmund Cartwright

Edmund Cartwright was an English cleric and inventor who patented a power loom in 1785, an early step toward mechanized...

18TH Century Industrial British Textile

7.9 Good