Robert Kearns – intermittent wiper blades.
Sir James Dyson – vacuum cleaners.
And while we are at it… a list of inventors who were first, but never really made much money:
Warren de la Rue – first lightbulb, didn’t last long enough. Edison succeeded roughly 60 years later!
Innocenzo Manzetti – Original inventor of the telephone (Italian).
Elisha Gray – second inventor of the telephone (American). He probably made lots of money off of other inventions.
Something to think about:
-Alexander Bell’s mother and wife were both deaf.