List of Swiss inventions and discoveries

The following list is composed of items, techniques and processes that were invented by or discovered by people from Switzerland.

Astronomy

• First exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star discovered by Swiss astronomers Didier Queloz and Michel Mayor in 1995 (51 Pegasi b), Nobel-prize laureates in Physics in 2019
• Earliest estimation of the "radiation of the stars” in his 1896 article "La Température de L'Espace" by Charles Édouard Guillaume

Biology

• Nucleic acid, DNA by Friedrich Miescher (1868)
• Restriction endonuclease by Werner Arber
• Research of the Immune system by Rolf M. Zinkernagel

Chemistry

• Laudanum by Paracelsus
• Aluminium foil by Robert Victor Neher
• Cellophane by Jacques E. Brandenberger
• DDT by Paul Hermann Müller
• Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) by Albert Hofmann
• Nickel–steel alloys he named invar, elinvar and platinite [it] by Charles Édouard Guillaume
• Reichstein process by Tadeus Reichstein
• Glyphosate by Henri Martin

Clothes and Fashion

• Velcro by George de Mestral
• Coil Zip fastening invented by Martin Winterhalter

Computing

• Computer mouse:
  • First computer mouse by René Sommer, co-inventor
  • First laser mouse (2004)
• Pascal programming language by Niklaus Wirth
• Smaky by Jean-Daniel Nicoud
• World Wide Web at CERN

Construction

• Construction machines
  • Walking excavator by Ernst Menzi, 1966 (Menzi Muck)
• Structural steel reinforced concrete revolution by Robert Maillart at ETH Zurich
  • three-hinged arch
  • deck-stiffened arch for bridges
  • beamless floor slab
  • mushroom ceiling for industrial buildings
• Tunnel waterproofing by Sika

Cuisine

• Absinthe
• Älplermagronen
• Aromat
• Bündnernusstorte
• Cheeses and cheese recipes
  • Fondue
  • Gruyère
  • Raclette
  • Sbrinz, the ancestor of the Parmiggiano Reggiano and the Pecorino romano
• Chocolates:
  • Conching by Rudolf Lindt
  • Hazelnut chocolate by Charles-Amédée Kohler
  • Milk chocolate by Daniel Peter (disputed)
  • White chocolate by Nestlé And his Partner
• Coffee
  • Capsule
  • Instant coffee by Max Morgenthaler
• Meringues
• Milk powder
• Muesli by Maximilian Bircher-Benner
• Rösti
• Stock cubes
• Tools:
  • Immersion blender by Roger Perrinjaquet
  • Rex vegetable peeler by Alfred Neweczerzal
• Zürcher Geschnetzeltes

Economics

• Discovery of economic cycles and propagation of Social policy against the classic liberal economy by Simonde de Sismondi
• Bank secrecy

Mathematics

Leonhard Euler

Leonhard Euler's work:

• Mathematical notations that he introduced:
  • Concept of a function (first to write f(x) to denote the function f applied to the argument x)
  • Letter Σ for summations
  • Letter i to denote the imaginary unit
  • Modern notation for the trigonometric functions
  • Natural logarithm (now also known as Euler's number)
• Differential equations
• Defined logarithms for negative and complex numbers
• Defined the exponential function for complex numbers and discovered its relation to the trigonometric functions
• Development of power series, the expression of functions as sums of infinitely many terms
• Euler–Bernoulli beam equation, a cornerstone of engineering
• Euler's critical load, the critical buckling load of an ideal strut
• Euler equations in Fluid dynamics
• Euler's formula$${\displaystyle e^{i\varphi }=\cos \varphi i\sin \varphi }$$
• Euler's identity$${\displaystyle e^{i\pi } 1=0}$$
• Introduction of exponential function and logarithms in analytic proofs
• Predicted the phenomenon of cavitation in 1754 before observing it
• Solution to the Basel problem (1735)

Bernoulli family

Jacob Bernoulli (1655–1705)

Jacob Bernoulli's work:

• Ars Conjectandi published in Basel in 1713, theory of probability from which resulted the Bernoulli trial.
• Bernoulli numbers
• Bernoulli differential equation solved y

${\displaystyle y'=p(x)y q(x)y^{n}.}$

• Discovery of the constant e by studying a question about compound interest

${\displaystyle \lim _{n\to \infty }\left(1 {\frac {1}{n}}\right)^{n}}$

• Introduces the term integral in calculus
• Lemniscate of Bernoulli
• Solution of differential equation by separation of variables

Nicolaus I Bernoulli (1687-1759)

Nicolaus I Bernoulli's s contributions:

• Orthogonal trajectories
• Probability and statistics research with the St. Petersburg Paradox

Nicolaus II Bernoulli (1695-1726)

Nicolaus II Bernoulli's contribution:

• He posed the problem of reciprocal orthogonal trajectories

Daniel Bernoulli (1700–1782)

Daniel Bernoulli's contributions:

• Bernoulli's principle is of critical use in aerodynamics.
• Expected utility theory
• He laid the basis for the kinetic theory of gases, and applied the idea to explain Boyle's law (Hydrodynamica 1738).
• He worked with Euler on elasticity and the development of the Euler–Bernoulli beam equation.
• Principle of superposition was first stated by Daniel Bernoulli in 1753 ("The general motion of a vibrating system is given by a superposition of its proper vibrations")

Other Swiss mathematicians

• Gabriel Cramer
  • Cramer's theorem (algebraic curves)
  • In 1750 he published Cramer's rule, giving a general formula for the solution for any unknown in a linear equation system having a unique solution, in terms of determinants implied by the system. This rule is still standard.

Medicine

• Artificial hip joint (Sulzer joint, by Maurice Edmond Müller)
• Diazepam (Valium) (1958, company Hoffmann-La Roche)
• Diclofenac (Voltaren) (1973, company Ciba-Geigy)
• Hydro-alcoholic gel (1995, Didier Pittet)
• Hydrogel skin cancer treatment (2022, University of Bern)
• Laudanum by Paracelsus
• Panthenol (Bepanthen) (1944, company Roche)
• Stent (1986, Medinvent, Hans Wallsten)
• Theodor Kocher
  • Anesthesia
    • Masks to deliver chloroform-ether narcosis
  • Surgical methodology
    • Hygiene rules
    • Techniques of sterilisation
    • Surgical records quantifying and analysing success and failures
  • Surgical procedures
    • Pre-operative preparation of patients to receive anaesthesia to avoid aspiration of gastric content
    • Reduction technique for shoulder dislocation
    • Thiroidectomy
  • Surgical tools
    • Artery clamp
    • Bowel clamp
    • Craniometer
    • Kidney holding forceps
    • Scissors chisels and files

Military

• Swiss Army knife
• Full Metal Jacket bullet

Physics

• Argand lamp by Aimé Argand
• Twisted nematic field effect by Hoffmann-La Roche
• Scanning tunneling microscope by Heinrich Rohrer (co-inventor with German Gerd Binnig)
• Super-twisted nematic display by Brown, Boveri & Cie
• Swatch Internet Time by Swatch
• Research on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance by Kurt Wüthrich

Sports

• Bobsleigh tracks
• Schwingen
• Hornussen

Technology

• Electricity production and transmission:
  • Transmission of electrical energy using high-voltage three-phase current developed by Brown, Boveri & Cie for the International Electrotechnical Exhibition
  • Research on steam and gas turbines developed at ETH Zurich with Aurel Stodola
    • Law of the Ellipse
    • First gas turbine electric generator in collaboration with Brown, Boveri & Cie
    • Aurel Stodola constructs a closed-loop heat pump in 1928 (water source from Lake Geneva) which provides heating for the Geneva city hall to this day.
• Electric kilns invented by Brown, Boveri & Cie
• Electric toothbrush, the Broxodent by Dr. Philippe Guy Woog
• Gearless cement drive developed by Brown, Boveri & Cie in 1969
• Internal combustion engine invented in 1806 by François Isaac de Rivaz, using oxygen and hydrogen.
• LCD projector at Brown Boveri & Cie
• Precision machinery:
  • Thread whirling by Tornos in the 1990s
  • Cam multispindle machine with the Tornos AS 14 (1958)
  • CNC multispindle machine (Tornos CNC 632, 1988)
• Precision valve steam engine (Sulzer, 1876)
• Shuttle-less loom (Sulzer, 1876)
• Ski lifts
• Turbocharger by Alfred Büchi
• Chronometry / watches:
  • Constant escapement by Girard-Perregaux
  • Cross-beat escapement and remontoire for watches by Jost Bürgi
  • Quartz watches (Centre électronique horloger)
  • Tourbillon by Abraham-Louis Breguet
  • Charles Édouard Guillaume's Guillaume balance (a type of balance wheel)

Transportation

• Azipod, first azimuth thruster with the motor located in the pod itself (by ABB Group)
• Bathyscaphe Trieste by Auguste Piccard
• Trains and tracks
  • Articulated locomotive by Anatole Mallet
  • Diesel electric locomotive traction control by Hermann Lemp
  • High-speed locomotive with drive shafts fitted exclusively in bogies developed by Brown, Boveri & Cie in 1944
  • Riggenbach rack system by Niklaus Riggenbach
  • Diesel-Sulzer-Klose GmbH, first train to run with a mechanical diesel power in 1912.
• Solar Impulse by Bertrand Piccard in co-operation with EPFL

Miscellaneous

• The Red Cross by Henry Dunant
• Helvetica Typeface by Max Miedinger
• World Health Organization

See also

List of Swiss inventors and discoverers

Notes

References

Sources

• Churella, Albert J. (1998). From Steam to Diesel: Managerial Customs and Organizational Capabilities in the Twentieth-Century American Locomotive Industry. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-02776-0.

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