Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 157 total)
  • Companies that invented something and are still major players
  • molgrips
    Free Member

    Or companies set up by the person that invented it.

    On the way back from the coffee shop, without googling, I came up with:

    Mercedes-Benz
    Dunlop
    Intel

    Mackem
    Full Member

    Thomas Cook.

    feartie
    Free Member

    GE

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    molgrips
    Free Member

    Thomas Cook, good one.

    What did GE invent?

    D0NK
    Full Member

    breville (did have to google to double check they did actually invent “commercialise” the sandwich toaster)

    edited
    are we having specialized for first production mountain bike?

    convert
    Full Member

    Dyson

    Though I think your need to define if you are talking about invention in a radical or incremental sense.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    microsoft, google, apple

    midlifecrashes
    Full Member

    UniLever
    Monsanto
    BASF
    Bayer

    feartie
    Free Member
    molgrips
    Free Member

    Just googled that, did not know GE was formed by Edison.

    Also – and I wasn’t sure of this without googling – AT&T can be traced back to Alexander Graham Bell.

    Oh and save my google fingers, tell us what the companies invented..?

    Mackem
    Full Member

    What did those 3 invent? Made better versions of something that already existed maybe but pretty sure o/s / search engines and home computers existed before.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Yes – Microsoft didn’t invent PC operating systems, Apple did not invent computers, and Google didn’t invent search engines.

    IBM invented PCs – and until relatively recently they still did, in the form of Thinkpads. They still make servers though but that’s not the same thing.

    jonba
    Free Member

    Facebook
    Virgin

    convert
    Full Member

    IBM invented PCs

    Henry Edward Roberts would have something to say about that (if he wasn’t dead).

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Hmm yes except that what we call ‘PC’ nowadays is actually still “IBM PC compatible”.

    Mackem
    Full Member

    What did Virgin invent?

    porter_jamie
    Full Member

    Ford

    Rubber_Buccaneer
    Full Member

    What did Virgin invent?

    Cola, maybe.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    Also – and I wasn’t sure of this without googling – AT&T can be traced back to Alexander Graham Bell.

    Weren’t they colloquially known as “Ma Bell” for a while?

    ahwiles
    Free Member

    Renishaw: the touch-trigger probe:

    kcal
    Full Member

    3M – for innovation and as I understand it, the support for that innovation.

    midlifecrashes
    Full Member

    Don’t forget Hewlett-Packard too, unbroken development from oscillators through to today’s test equipment, under brand names Agilent and Keysight, HP name went with PC and peripherals businesses sometime around 2000.

    batfink
    Free Member

    Victorinox

    Cougar
    Full Member

    Ooh, I know. ARM Holdings, formerly Acorn, of BBC Model B fame.

    Invented RISC OS and the ARM architecture for the Archimedes, the successor of which is probably powering your smartphone.

    johndoh
    Free Member

    Biro?

    molgrips
    Free Member

    3M – for innovation

    You can’t have that – I’m talking about specific products – in the case of Intel they invented (or developed commercially) the microprocessor, and they are still clearly a big player. I don’t think 3M invented innovation.

    ninfan
    Free Member

    I believe Dyno-Nobel are still manufacturing and selling dynamite.

    dragon
    Free Member

    Sikorsky Aircraft and Otis Elevator Company, but then both are owned by United Technologies.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    I didn’t know that ‘biro’ was actually a company..

    Just thought of another one – Sikorsky.

    EDIT DAMMIT dragon

    ampthill
    Full Member

    Gore invented Goretex

    Wild country invented friends (Ray Jardine Mark Vallance)

    good question

    Mackem
    Full Member

    Threadless headset (Aheadset) – Cane Creek.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    I don’t think 3M invented innovation.

    They (accidentally) invented crap glue for Post-Its, if memory serves?

    I think you may need to rephrase the original question. Companies formed on the back of an invention is a bigger ask than merely “companies that invented something.”

    bearnecessities
    Full Member

    Sellotape?

    essexbiker
    Free Member

    Honeywell

    cheekymonkey888
    Free Member

    xerox
    Philips
    Lego

    dragon
    Free Member

    Sony / Philips for the CD player.

    Martin-Baker ejection seats

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Yeah that’s a fair comment Cougar. But that would exclude say IBM from PCs. If they hadn’t already sold their PC business.

    dragon
    Free Member

    Lego wasn’t, it was actually a British guy who then he sold the rights, or something like that.

    Edric64
    Free Member

    Bic ,Gillette ?

    Mr_C
    Free Member

    Bayer – Heroin and Zyklon B

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 157 total)

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