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Twenty inducted into
Inventors Hall of Fame

GPS, Dolby, insulin treatments
top list of achievements

updated 8:09 p.m. ET Feb. 11, 2004

Creators of super glue, the Dolby sound system and global positioning technology were among 20 National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees.

They will be inducted into the Akron-based hall on May 1.

The living honorees include Harry Coover, who invented super glue; Ray Dolby, creator of the hiss reduction system for recordings; and satellite-based GPS inventor Bradford Parkinson.

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Also, Edith Flanigen, inventor of a molecular sieve; Charles Kelman, known for his work involving outpatient cataract surgery; and HIV diagnosticians Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier.

Among the 13 deceased honorees are Vannevar Bush, inventor of the differential analyzer, a precursor to the computer; John Gibbon, creator of the heart-lung machine; and sewing machine inventor Elias Howe.

Inductees are selected by a committee including leaders in scientific and technical fields. The hall has more than 200 members.

Others inducted were:

  • Frederick Banting, Charles Best and James Collip: Developed the method for treating diabetics with insulin.
  • Wallace Coulter: Invented the modern automated blood test.
  • Ivan Getting: Responsible for GPS systems.   
  • Lloyd Augustus Hall: Invested food preservatives.
  • Bernard Oliver: Inventor of pulse code modulation, which allows today's technology components to speak in 1's and zeroes.
  • Norbert Rillieux: Invented key sugar refining process.
  • John Roebling: Famed suspension bridge architect.
  • Claude Shannon: His "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" was suggested information could be stored and transmitted in binary form.
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