tional Inventors Hall of Fame inducted such notable
1980’s U.S. inventors as Andrew J. Moyer, whose two
patents facilitated penicillin production. In 1980,
the USPTO commemorated the first fifty years of
plant patents.
Impact U.S. inventions during the 1980’s advanced
previous standards of transportation, communica-
tions, and biotechnology and permeated American
culture. People enjoyed playing portable video games,
conducting business with mobile cellular phones,
and using personal computers. Science fiction de-
picted new inventions and suggested future innova-
tions. Inventions such as lasers and genetically en-
gineered microorganisms surrounded people in
their daily lives, even when they were unaware of
them. Many 1980’s inventions contributed to U.S.
economic growth by enabling new employment via
telecommuting and providing electronic goods as
market assets consistently in demand.
Consumers, however, rejected some inventions,
because they did not consider them necessary, af-
fordable, or appealing. Although some inventions
created new types of jobs, such as programming
computers, others displaced laborers by performing
their tasks more efficiently. Occasionally, inventions
provoked a backlash, as when genetic engineering
upset people who believed that it was unethical.
Some inventions caused malicious behavior, as when
computer hackers broke into online systems or cre-
ated viruses to destroy data or disrupt networks.
Subsequent Events Many 1980’s inventions pro-
vided the foundation for future developments and
innovations in the next decade and early twenty-first
century. For example, Kodak’s 1986 invention of
the initial megapixel sensor preceded the develop-
ment of digital cameras and quality photography
not requiring film and processing. Legal victories
protecting patents facilitated the emergence of new
scientific and technological fields, such as genetic
engineering, which thrived and set precedents for
further investigations.
Further Reading
Brown, David E.Inventing Modern America: From the Mi-
crowave to the Mouse. Foreword by Lester C. Thurow.
Introduction by James Burke. Cambridge, Mass.:
MIT Press, 2002. This Lemelson-MIT Program for
Invention and Innovation publication describes
the work and impact of several 1980’s inventors.
Brown, Kenneth A.Inventors at Work: Interviews with
Sixteen Notable American Inventors. Foreword by
James Burke. Redmond, Wash.: Tempus Books of
Microsoft Press, 1988. Profiles mostly male U.S.
inventors, including those whose inventions were
significant during the 1980’s, providing insights
about their ideas and development.
Evans, Harold, with Gail Buckland and David Lefer.
They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the
Search Engine—Two Centuries of Innovators. New
York: Little, Brown, 2004. This detailed text ac-
companied a PBS documentary featuring inven-
tion. The section on the digital age examines
computational, genetic, medical, and telecom-
munications inventions.
Gausewitz, Richard L.Patent Pending: Today’s Inven-
tors and Their Inventions. Old Greenwich, Conn.:
Devin-Adair, 1983. The author is an engineer, in-
ventor, and patent attorney, who explains why the
legal system for patents in the early 1980’s needed
reform, providing case histories depicting various
patent-law issues.
Macdonald, Anne L.Feminine Ingenuity: Women and
Invention in America. New York: Ballantine Books,- Provides information about often-over-
looked female inventors in the 1980’s who con-
tributed to successful biomedical and aerospace
endeavors, in addition to women innovators who
created domestic inventions.
Petroski, Henry.Invention by Design. Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998. Discusses
how inventors’ personalities, culture, politics, and
economics influenced several 1980’s inventions.
___.Success Through Failure: The Paradox of De-
sign. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, - Explores how design mistakes inspire in-
vention improvements, discussing the 1980’s de-
velopment of PowerPoint software and the con-
struction and deployment of the space shuttle.
Van Dulken, Stephen.American Inventions: A Histor y
of Curious, Extraordinar y, and Just Plain Useful
Patents. Washington Square, N.Y.: New York Uni-
versity Press, 2004. Several 1980’s inventions are
included in this discussion of patents for toys, ex-
ercise equipment, entertainment devices, and hy-
giene and beauty items.
___.Inventing the Twentieth Centur y: One Hundred
Inventions That Shaped the World—from the Airplane
to the Zipper. Introduction by Andrew Phillips.
Washington Square, N.Y.: New York University
The Eighties in America Inventions 527