The microwave was invented accidentally in 1945 by a self-taught engineer named Percy Spencer, who was leading a radar project for the defence giant, Raytheon.

While testing a new vacuum tube called a magnetron, he discovered that a chocolate bar in his pocket had melted from the heat.

The first telephone call was made on March 10, 1876, by Alexander Graham Bell. Bell demonstrated his ability to "talk with electricity" by transmitting a call to his assistant, Thomas Watson.

In 1895, a young Italian named Gugliemo Marconi invented what he called “the wireless telegraph” while experimenting in his parents' attic.

In 1698 Thomas Savery patented a pump with hand-operated valves to raise water from mines by suction produced by condensing steam.

In about 1712 another Englishman, Thomas Newcomen, developed a more efficient steam engine with a piston separating the condensing steam from the water.

In the early 1960s Philips Eindhoven tasked two different teams to design a tape cartridge for thinner and narrower tape compared to what was used in reel-to-reel tape recorders.

By 1962, the Vienna division of Philips developed a single-hole cassette, adapted from its German described name Einloch-Kassette.