Stephanie Louise Kwolek is an American chemist who invented poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide, better known as Kevlar. She was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of New Kensington, Pennsylvania. In 1964, in anticipation of a gasoline shortage, her group began searching for a lightweight yet strong fiber to be used in tires. The polymers she had been working with at the time formed liquid crystal while in solution, something unique to those polymers at the time. However, Kwolek persuaded technician Charles Smullen to test her solution. She was amazed to find that the new fiber would not break when nylon typically would.

Stephanie Louise Kwolek is an American chemist who invented poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide, better known as Kevlar. She was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of New Kensington, Pennsylvania. In 1964, in anticipation of a gasoline shortage, her group began searching for a lightweight yet strong fiber to be used in tires. The polymers she had been working with at the time formed liquid crystal while in solution, something unique to those polymers at the time. However, Kwolek persuaded technician Charles Smullen to test her solution. She was amazed to find that the new fiber would not break when nylon typically would.

From Thomas Edison to Alexander Graham Bell to Benjamin Franklin to Henry Ford to the Wright Brothers, our country has been built upon a foundation of innovation. A melting pot of diversity, America harbors a collaborative spirit and inspires an exchange of ideas where what is developed by one inventor is adopted by others and pushed further, improved, and perfected, fusing different perspectives together as one. In this all-new special edition from TIME LIFE, American Inventors chronicles those minds that transformed the worlds of Industry, Information, Home, Health, and Transportation and inspired generations to come. Learn more about the inventors that went down in history for their vision, dedication and perseverance in this celebration of American ingenuity. As automotive inventor and businessman Charles Kettering once put it, although "the world hates change, it is the only thing that has brought progress" and this nation is composed of a rich history of genius that continues to inspire progress each and every day.

Philo Taylor Farnsworth was an American inventor and television pioneer. Although he made many contributions that were crucial to the early development of all-electronic television, he is best known for inventing the first fully functional and complete all-electronic television system, and for being the first person to demonstrate such a system to the public.

Maiman was a graduate of the University of Colorado, which awarded him a B.S. in engineering physics in 1949. Later, he received his Ph.D. in physics in 1955 from Stanford University and began work at the Hughes Research Laboratory (HRL). There he concentrated on creating a device capable of converting mixed frequency electromagnetic radiation into highly amplified and coherent light of discrete frequency. Maiman later found that the accepted calculations of the fluorescence quantum efficiency of ruby were wrong and that the material could be used for his research. His persistence with ruby eventually paid off, for on May 16, 1960, the device he built using it became the world's first operable laser.

George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. was an American engineer. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, where he was a member of the Rensselaer Society of Engineers, in the class of 1881 with a degree in Civil Engineering. He was made a member of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Alumni Hall of Fame in 1998. He is most famous for creating the original Ferris Wheel for the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition.

Introduce your readers to one of the most prolific musicians of all time. Les Paul was an American jazz, country and blues guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was the inventor of the electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is also credited with many recording innovations. Although he was not the first to use the technique, his early experiments with recording sound on sound, and changing speeds were among the first to attract widespread attention.