Les Paul, an unhip-looking inventor from Waukesha, Wis.
He explained that he had been a "garage inventor" from a young age.
Mr. Kurzweil said he knew he wanted to be an inventor from the age of 5.
An engineer and inventor from Yorkshire, England, named Mason Pearson invented this mostly handmade hairbrush in 1885.
The son of an immigrant inventor from London, Midgley grew up in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Columbus, Ohio.
He had all the instincts, if not the actual expertise, of an inventor from an early age.
Koenigsegg (pronounced KOH-nig-segg) was founded by Christian von Koenigsegg, an inventor from a wealthy Swedish family, in 1994.
Uk Do Lee, 81, a retired inventor from South Korea, said he had been trying since April to apply for subsidized medical coverage for low-income older people.
"I always wanted to be an inventor from a young age and was keen to explore ways of helping wheelchair users, so I chose to study medical engineering".
And John Caldwell, an inventor from Plano, Texas, has received two patents for a three-wheeled cycle, pedaled with the arms, that he calls the Bicep Bike.
Wayne Lin, an inventor from California and chief executive of a company called HomeGopher Inc., was the first to do just that.
