Inventors from United States

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Americans Inventors of all time. This list of famous Americans Inventors is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Americans Inventors.

1. #1

   

   Thomas Edison

   1847 - 1931

   HPI 91.65189 langs

   Thomas Edison is most famous for inventing the electric light bulb.

2. #2

   

   Henry Ford

   1863 - 1947

   HPI 82.33148 langs

   Henry Ford is most famous for the invention of the assembly line.

3. #3

   

   Samuel Morse

   1791 - 1872

   HPI 80.4992 langs

   Samuel Morse is most famous for inventing the telegraph.

4. #4

   

   Eli Whitney

   1765 - 1825

   HPI 76.7544 langs

   American inventor of the cotton gin

5. #5

   

   Lee de Forest

   1873 - 1961

   HPI 76.6052 langs

   American inventor

6. #6

   

   Jimmy Wales

   b. 1966

   HPI 75.20185 langs

   Jimmy Wales is most famous for being the founder of Wikipedia.

7. #7

   

   Samuel Colt

   1814 - 1862

   HPI 74.9467 langs

   Samuel Colt is most famous for inventing the Colt revolver.

8. #8

   

   Bob Kahn

   b. 1938

   HPI 73.9639 langs

   Bob Kahn is most famous for his work with Vint Cerf on the TCP/IP protocol.

9. #9

   

   Herman Hollerith

   1860 - 1929

   HPI 73.5957 langs

   Herman Hollerith is most famous for inventing the punch card tabulator.

10. #10

    

    Robert Fulton

    1765 - 1815

    HPI 73.3964 langs

    Robert Fulton is most famous for inventing the first commercially successful steamboat.