Famous Inventors Born in April

Dean Lawrence Kamen 

Date of Birth: April 5, 1951

Profession:  American engineer, inventor

Notable Works: He is known for his invention of the Segway and iBOT, as well as for founding the non-profit organization FIRST with Woodie Flowers. Kamen holds over 1,000 patents.

His company DEKA holds patents for the technology used in portable dialysis machines, an insulin pump and an all-terrain electric wheelchair

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Hoover Medal (1995); Heinz Award in Technology, the Economy and Employment (1999); National Medal of Technology and Innovation (2000); Lemelson–MIT Prize (2002); ASME Medal (2007); Lindbergh Award (2011); Global Humanitarian Award (2013)

Linus Yale Jr.

Date of Birth: April 4, 1821

Profession: American mechanical engineer

Notable Works: He is best remembered for his inventions of locks, especially the cylinder lock, and his basic lock design is still widely distributed today.  He patented an “unpickable” lock, called the “Yale Infallible Bank Lock,” in 1855. Mr. Yale  co-founder with Henry R. Towne of the Yale Lock Company

Prestigious Honours and Awards: National Inventors Hall of Fame

Zénobe Théophile Gramme 

Date of Birth: 4 April 1826

Profession: Belgian electrical engineer

Notable Works: He invented the Gramme machine, a type of direct current dynamo capable of generating smoother (less AC) and much higher voltages than the dynamos known to that point.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Commander in the Order of Leopold. Officer in the Legion of Honour.

Melvin Ellis Calvin

Date of Birth: April 8, 1911 

Profession: American biochemist; Nobel laureate 

Notable Works: He discovered the Calvin cycle along with Andrew Benson and James Bassham

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Centenary Prize (1955); Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1961); Davy Medal (1964); Priestley Medal (1978); National Medal of Science (1989)

Sébastien Érard

Date of Birth: 5 April 1752

Profession: French instrument maker 

Notable Works: He specialized in the production of pianos and harps, developing the capacities of both instruments and pioneering the modern piano.

In November 1794 Érard filed the first English patent for a harp 

Érard’s grand piano action (English patent no 4,631, 1821) is the predecessor to those used in modern grand.

William Keith Kellogg 

Date of Birth: April 7, 1860

Profession: American industrialist 

Notable Works: Noted American vegetarian Will Keith Kellogg was the founder of the Kellogg Company and invented a process of making flaked cereal, corn flakes, for use as a healthy breakfast cereal.

Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann

Date of Birth: April 10, 1755

Profession: German physician

Notable Works: He is best known for creating the pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine called homeopathy

Percy Lavon Julian

Date of Birth: April 11, 1899

Profession: American research chemist

Notable Works: He invented a drug for the treatment of arthritis called cortisone. He was the first to synthesize the natural product physostigmine

Prestigious Honours and Awards:  Spingarn Medal(1947); National Inventors Hall of Fame (1990);  National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Adriano Olivetti 

Date of Birth: April 11, 1901

Profession:  Italian engineer, industrialist

Notable Works:  He was known worldwide during his lifetime as the Italian manufacturer of Olivetti typewriters, calculators, and computers. 

James Wimshurst 

Date of Birth: April 13, 1832

Profession: English inventor,  engineer and shipwright

Notable Works: Though Wimshurst did not patent his machines and the various improvements that he made to them, his refinements to the electrostatic generator led to its becoming widely known as the Wimshurst machine.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Fellow of the Royal Society