Bell was also the first person to demonstrate publicly that people could talk over distances through electrical devices, in 1876 he sent to his assistance the first words ever across a telephone, and those were: “Mr. Watson, come here!”

Graham Bell’ biggest insight came when he was transmitting musical notes across electrical circuits. He realized that the harmonics of the notes were also being transmitted, meaning that with a couple of modifications it would also be possible to transmit voice.

This insight, however, was only possible because Bell had a very trained ear after spending many years teaching deaf children and studying the sound and its properties. The takeaway from this story is that even apparent “eureka” moments have their foundation on years of hard work and dedication.

In 1954, following Einstein’s principle, Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow developed the maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation). This device was very close to the laser as we know it today, but instead of visible light it operated using radio signals.

Townes and Schawlow even arrived to calculate that a laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) would be theoretically feasible, but it was Theodore Maimam who created the first laser beam in 1960 using a dilute of ruby.

The interesting thing about the laser is that it was invented as a result of pure research, the people involved were driven by scientific curiosity rather then financial rewards. The first widely recognized application of the laser appeared only in 1974 with the introduction of bar code scanners.

Since that time the laser has found applications in many fields including medicine, consumer electronics, defense and science. Every year more than $4 billion worth of laser products are shipped worldwide.

It was not until the early 1800s that some forms of matches started appearing commercially. An English chemist named Jones created what he called the “Promethean Matches”, where he mixed the sulfur with chlorate of potash and sugar to improve the inflammability. Those matches, however, were not friction ignited but required a pair of pliers that were sold separately.

The final step occurred around 1830 when the phosphorus was substituted by antimony, creating the “congreve”. Those were the first real friction matches, and since the boxes were relatively cheap they acquired a huge popularity in many countries.

It is interesting how we tend to think that inventions appear overnight, with a solitary genius sitting on his desk and suddenly exclaiming Eureka! In reality the most important inventions have a very long period of maturation before they actually start changing people’s lives.

The first demonstration of the transistor was carried by William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, and the three would later receive the Physics Nobel Prize for their contribution to the project.

One of the most important discoveries related to the transistor was the fact that some materials were neither electrical conductors nor electrical resistors, they were in fact semi-conductors. Silicon, for instance, is a semi-conductor and William Shockley figured that he could change the properties of semi-conductors by “doping” it with certain substances.

The interesting fact about the invention of the transistor is that AT&T failed to transform it into innovation. The invention was obviously patented, but the organization was not able to find promptly an application for the new device. They did an outstanding job with the invention, but failed to commercialize it.

Precisely for that reason in 1952 AT&T decided to license out the transistor. For $ 25.000 companies like Texas Instruments, Sony and IBM acquired a technology that would produce billions of revenues in the coming years.

In 1884 the Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero invented the nitroglycerin, which was a much more powerful explosive but it was also very unstable, which made handling or transporting it very dangerous.

Alfred Nobel was convinced that nitroglycerin was the future of explosives despite the fact that large gunpowder firms like Du Pont were not investing in the technology. Shortly after Sobrero’s finding he started experimenting with different materials to make the nitroglycerin more stable and thus useful.

Some people defend that Nobel’s invention happened casually when some nitroglycerin leaked into a material called kieselgurh. The reality is that the dynamite was fruit of an extensive trial and error process and careful scientific analysis of the chemical components.

Once Nobel discovered the material that would make nitroglycerin stable and manageable he just needed to develop a detonating cap and the dynamite was born. He started selling the product under the name of “Nobel’s Blasting Powder”, and the fortune he managed to gather was used to found the Nobel Prize.