List of Welsh inventions and discoveries
[1] William Jones, FRS (1675 – 1 July 1749[3]) was a Welsh mathematician, most noted for his use of the symbol π (the Greek letter Pi) to represent the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.
He strove to improve factory working conditions, promoted experimental socialistic communities, and sought a more collective approach to child rearing, including government control of education.
In a letter dated October 1838 but published in the December 1838 edition of The London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, Welsh physicist and barrister Sir William Grove wrote about the development of his first crude fuel cells.
[10][11] Sir Pryce Pryce-Jones (16 October 1834 – 11 January 1920) was a Welsh entrepreneur who formed the first mail order business, revolutionising how products were sold.
[12] Hugh Owen Thomas was descended from a line of Welsh bone setters and placed great importance on rest in treatment of fractures.
[19] David Edward Hughes (16 May 1831– 22 January 1900), was a Welsh inventor, practical experimenter, and professor of music known for his work on the printing telegraph and the microphone.
[citation needed] Following her graduation, Frances did post-graduate work at top medical schools in Vienna, Prague and Paris before returning to Britain.
[25] Isaac Roberts FRS (27 January 1829 – 17 July 1904)[26] was a Welsh engineer and businessman best known for his work as an amateur astronomer, pioneering the field of astrophotography of nebulae.
[28] Despite his poverty, he managed to construct the "Frost Airship Glider", which seems, in principle, to have resembled a vertical takeoff aeroplane, with gas-filled tanks.
[25] On 7 February 1896, Welsh orthopaedic surgeon Robert Jones (and Oliver Lodge) took a radiograph of the wrist of a 12-year-old boy to locate a bullet that could not be found by probing.
[34] Tudor Thomas (23 May 1893 – 23 January 1976) was a Welsh ophthalmic surgeon who came to note in 1934 when pioneering work on corneal grafting restored the sight of a man who had been nearly blind for 27 years.
Edward George "Taffy" Bowen, CBE, FRS (14 January 1911 – 12 August 1991)[36] was a Welsh physicist who made a major contribution to the development of radar.
Bevan was inspired by a system used by local miners and steel workers who paid weekly subscriptions to be covered for medical and hospital expenses, saying in 1947: "All I am doing is extending to the entire population of Britain the benefits we had in Tredegar for a generation or more.
Development of the RIB was originally undertaken by students and staff at Atlantic College in South Wales, under the direction of retired Navy Admiral Desmond Hoare, who headed the school.
A series of experimental and prototype solutions for effectively combining a hard hull form with an inflated fabric sponson lasted for over a decade.
[39] In 1965 Donald Davies conceived of packet switching, which is today the dominant basis for data communications in computer networks worldwide.
He shared the prize with physicists Leo Esaki and Ivar Giaever, who jointly received half the award for their own work on quantum tunnelling.
[54] A Dracoraptor fossil was first discovered in 2014 by Rob and Nick Hanigan and Sam Davies at the Blue Lias Formation on the South Wales coast.
[55][56] The Covid Emergency Ventilator device was designed by senior consultant at Glangwili Hospital including Dr Rhys Thomas, after being prompted by Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price.
[58] Dr Robert Lister, a dermatologist at Wrexham Maelor Hospital, noted a trend among patients failing to wear the compression devices for management of vascular conditions and chronic oedema and devised a two part slip on stocking that could make application and removal easier.
