Just over 100 years ago, the practice became more widely available with the invention of the electric tattoo machine in the United States.

BBC: More antibodies are created with the tattooing method

He got a patent for his invention in 2008 and now sells his machine all over India and in other emerging markets such as Africa and Latin America.

BBC: Indian Farmer builds frugal technology

Irving John Good famously described the development of an ultraintelligent machine as the "last invention that man need ever make, " for after that, humanity would cede innovation and technological development to its smarter progeny.

CNN: Is AI a threat to humanity?

Cigarette sales surged again with the introduction of the "White Burley" tobacco leaf and the invention of the first practical cigarette-making machine, sponsored by tobacco baron James Buchanan "Buck" Duke, in the late 1880s.

CNN: A brief history of tobacco

Founded in 1895 as U.S. Voting Machine Co. to exploit Thomas Edison's pioneering invention to make elections more honest, the company plodded along for decades and was sold to Rockwell International.

FORBES: Indestructible

Founded in 1895 as U.S. Voting Machine Co. to exploit Thomas Edison's pioneering invention to make elections more honest, the company plodded along for decades and was eventually sold to Rockwell International.

FORBES: Indestructible

The Pascaline was a significant breakthrough at the time of its invention, demonstrating, as it did, how complex arithmetic could be carried out by a machine.

CNN: Vintage tech 'firsts,' including Apple 1, up for auction

In the late 1950s Lillehei spearheaded the invention of several devices that would save thousands of lives--a safe, reliable bypass machine and, later, several models of pacemakers and heart valves.

FORBES: Brave heart