If you’ve ever wondered where your remote control came from or how your computer ended up with a mouse, don’t worry. The Inventors’ Hall in Akron, Ohio has got your back.

The National Inventors’ Hall of Fame, founded in 1973, honors–you guessed it–inventors from around the globe. However, one requirement for being inducted is that the prospective inductee must be named as the inventor on a U.S. patent (which makes sense since the Hall was started by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office).

New inductees to the Hall were announced earlier this month. The online edition of the British newspaper The Independent has posted an article about the Hall of Famers-to-be.

Among them are familiar names like Frank J. Zamboni (ice rink resurfacing machines), Samuel Colt (the revolver) and Milton Bradley (board games). Some inventors on the list have names far less recognizable than their inventions, like safety pin creator Walter Hunt and wrinkle-free cotton genius Ruth Benerito.

Walter Hunt got the idea for what turned out to be one of the most practical and aesthetically pleasing inventions of his era by twisting wire one night in his shop in the year 1849. After registering his invention, he quickly turned around and sold the rights to pay off a $15 debt. Despite his inability to profit from one of his most notable inventions, the success of the safety pin earned Hunt the recognition of being one of the most important inventors of the Victorian era–not to mention securing him a place in the Inventors’ Hall.

Ruth Benerito had a similar experience in the 1950s when she discovered a way to treat the surface of cotton so that it would be wrinkle-resistant using a process called esterification, otherwise known as “crosslinking.” Thanks to Benerito, none of us have to be stuck in polyester outfits when it’s 95 degrees outside when the consequences of sweating could be disastrous.

Other inventors who made this year’s cut were behind inventions like flat-bottom paper bags, unpickable door locks, dishwashers and frozen food.

To read the full list of inductees and their descriptions, click here.

Images: ArtDeco.com, Ruel.net, Flickr

Tags: National Inventors’ Hall of Fame, John Deere, Hall of Fame inductions, inventions, inventors, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, The Independent

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