This article was written by the original owner of startupguide.com, Ryan Allis, and published on his website in 2012. Read more about why Ryan was happy to hand over his website domain to us here.

Innovation is the process of creating something new that makes life better. Innovation is impossible without passion. Innovators see the world differently. They become obsessed with making the world better.

Many innovators in the for-profit sector focus incessantly on bringing value to market. Others focus incessantly on the core research needed to push the human race forward.

Regardless of the sectors we play in, we are all relentlessly focused on solving problems and creating a better world than the one that exists today.

See also: 'If you actually want to change the world, one of the best ways is to start a business'

Here’s a list of the 12 greatest innovators of all time.

1. Thomas Edison. One of the most significant innovators and inventors in American history, Thomas is perhaps best known for inventing the first long-lasting, commercially practical, incandescent light bulb.

He was the father of many other breakthroughs, including the first phonograph and the motion picture camera. He was influential in developing the first economically viable way of distributing light, heat, and power from a central station.

2. Steve Jobs. The iconic American entrepreneur and founder of Apple will go down in history as one of the great innovators.

As CEO of Apple in the 1980s and again in the late 90s and 2000s, Steve played a central role in the personal computer revolution and in developing its key products, including the McIntosh, the iPod and the iPhone.

3. Nikola Tesla. A great inventor, engineer, and futurist, Nikola helped develop the AC electrical delivery system. Infamous for his wild experiments and colorful personality, Tesla‘s creative work regarding the production and transmission of power was far ahead of his time.

4. Bill Gates. One of the great businessman/philanthropists of the last century, Bill founded and built Microsoft into an unmatched software behemoth, before leaving to start the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, a multi-billion dollar philanthropic enterprise working to enhance global healthcare and reduce poverty.

5. Benjamin Franklin. One of the founding fathers of the United States, Benjamin was a brilliant polymath, inventor, political theorist, scientist, statesman, and writer.

He had a prodigious scientific mind, and his interests varied widely, but in addition to politics, he is perhaps best known for his experiments with lightning and electricity.

6. Leonardo Da Vinci. The original “Renaissance man,” Leonardo is best known for his paintings (the Last Supper, the Mona Lisa), but he was also a philosopher, engineer, and inventor.

He left behind a collection of extraordinarily prescient drawings depicting future technologies (helicopter, tank, solar power).

7. Alexander Graham Bell. A Scottish inventor and engineer, Alexander Graham was awarded the US patent for the telephone in 1876. His work on telecommunications, aeronautics, and many other areas (he invented the metal detector) earned him a reputation as one of the great figures of the nineteenth century.

8. Sandford Fleming. A Scottish-Canadian innovator and inventor, Sandford used his engineering, surveying, and mapmaking skills to help build the transcontinental railways of the nineteenth century. He was also the inventor of worldwide standard time and the standard times zones used today.

9. Marie Curie. The first female winner of the Nobel Prize in 1903 (she won it twice in both physics and chemistry), Marie was a pioneering physicist and chemist who is known for her breakthrough ideas in radioactivity and her discovery of two elements.

10. The Wright brothers. Orville & Wilbur Wright invented and flew the world’s first successful airplane in 1903. Their persistence, experimentation, and work on the principles of flight made them legendary inventors and innovators.

11. Galileo Galilei. The legendary Italian genius whose breakthrough ideas helped usher in the scientific revolution in the seventeenth century, Galileo is often called the father of modern science.

Forced to defend his views of heliocentrism against the Roman inquisition, and spending most of his life under house arrest for heresy, Galileo has become an icon of scientific integrity in the face of religious dogmatism.

12. Richard Feynman. One of the great scientists of the twentieth century, Richard’s breakthrough ideas in Quantum theory helped revolutionize that field.

This is the first in a three-part series of articles that gives an overview of the greatest innovators up to the present day. Read the next part, which lists the best innovators from 1980 onward, here.

*This article was originally published on October 17th, 2018 and updated on December 11th, 2018.