5 Famous Jewish Technology Inventors

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In the past, we have seen huge technological inventions made by Jewish people on the Eastern side of the world, just like the Western part of the world with countries like the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and the United States. Whether we get into technology, physics science or art, there have been a lot of breakthroughs made by Hebrew people. Even at times when Europe or the US was in a dark place with no significant discoveries, Israel has been spewing out various inventions.

Naturally, both sides of the world have made a huge impact on the world in the past, we are just trying to show that Israelis and Jewish people are as capable as all the others. It is amazing how such a small number of people have managed to contribute so much to the world, especially in the medical industry.

If you are interested in the most famous Jewish technology inventors, make sure you keep reading this article.

1. L.A.S.E.R – Albert Einstein

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Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, or more commonly known as just laser, was first theoretically established by none other than Albert Einstein (who was Jewish). Of course, the laser was first invented by a man named Theodore Maiman in the 1960s, but still, his project wouldn’t be possible without the theories Albert Einstein had set previously in 1917.

Today, we see the use of laser in our everyday lives. When you are at the supermarket and go to the self-check aisle, you need to run all your products through a barcode scanner. This scanner uses a laser to read the barcode. Another common use of lasers is in computers like reading CD or DVD storage.

The laser has also been used for many other scientific reasons. After the landing on the Moon in 1969 with Apollo 11, a set of retroreflectors were placed on the surface and aimed at the Earth. The laser was aimed and fired at that reflective surface. The time required for it to reach the moon and then return back to Earth helped scientists easily calculate the distance between these two bodies in space.

We have also seen the work of another Jew named Zhores Alferov who managed to create a laser that can handle much higher frequencies than we were used to before.

2. The Ballpoint Pen – László Bíró

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László Bíró, a Hungarian Jew working at a newspaper station quickly became frustrated of the idea having to fill up fountain pens every single day and dealing with smudged ink on newspaper pages. His frustration led to him noticing that the ink that was used in newspaper printing dried up much quicker than a fountain pen and that the chances of any smudges were almost zero. He tried using that same type of ink with a fountain pen but quickly realized that it was too think to reach the point of the fountain pen.

He then managed to create the ballpoint pen which uses a special type of ink that dries up quickly which means there are no smudges. Check out JewishShop for more interesting inventions and items that were made by Jews.

You might think that this kind of invention is not as important, but it is actually a very important invention. Today, almost every single person on this planet has used or is still using ballpoint pens. It has made humans more productive and efficient in many aspects of life. Children at school are not making crucial mistakes on a test because of a leaking fountain pen or a CEO ruining an important document and so on.

3. TV Remote – Robert Adler

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Another very Jewish invention that made our lives much more convenient. In the past, TVs had no way of changing the channels, increasing or reducing the sound without being right next to the TV. You would need to get up every single time you feel like the audio is too loud on a movie. Most people sat right in front of the TV so they wouldn’t have to get up which was bad for the eyes.

Fortunately, Robert Adler had the great idea of inventing a device that could easily change the channel when annoying commercials would come up. In the 1950s he finally made a remote control that used sound waves to send signals to the TV. Several years later he decided to improve the technology used in remotes to make the signal a bit more consistent. This technology was then used for the next 25 years until someone came up with the idea of using an infrared system which is used to this day.

4. Defibrillator and Pacemaker – Paul Zoll

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You probably already know just how important a piece of technology these two devices are. They are probably the reason for saving millions of lives on the planet.

A defibrillator with the use of a strong electrical charge can cause a heart to start working and pumping blood again after it has stopped. This device is carried in every single ambulance in the world and there is one in every hospital room in case of an emergency.

A pacemaker is a small device that can be implemented inside of the human body, next to the heart to help it keep pumping blood throughout the vascular system. The pacemaker sends short bursts of electrical impulses to the heart which helps it contract and expand.

These two devices became possible because of the great mind of Paul Zoll who was a Jewish cardiologist.

5. Google – Larry Page and Sergey Brin

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There probably isn’t any need for us to introduce Larry Page and Sergey Brin,  and there is especially no need to introduce Google. This online search engine changed the way how people can access information. With just a few clicks, anyone around the world could access any kind of information.

These two Jewish friends and colleagues definitely paved the way -for Internet technology. Today, Google has hundreds of different features whether it is online cloud storage (Google Drive), online program similar to Office (GoogleDocs) and a searching algorithm that is updated often, allowing people to do even more efficient searching.