List of inventors and business leaders of Upstate New York
- Robert C. Baker, the "Thomas Edison of poultry," a Lansing native and food science professor at Cornell University.
- Willard Bundy, the inventor of the time clock for recording employee working hours
- Paolo Busti
- Willis Carrier, the inventor of air conditioning
- Theodore Case of Auburn is known for the invention of the Movietone sound-on-film sound film system.
- Harry Coover, inventor of Krazy Glue
- Ezra Cornell
- Erastus Corning
- George Crum, the head chef of Moon's Lake House, a resort in Saratoga Springs, and the inventor of the potato chip.
- Glenn Curtiss
- Abner Doubleday
- Charles F. Dowd of Saratoga Springs, who first proposed standard time zones for American railroads
- Frederick W. Eames of Watertown, inventor of a vacuum brake for railroad cars. His company was reorganized as the New York Air Brake company, which continues to operate.[1][2]
- George Eastman
- Joseph Ellicott
- William Fargo, Mayor of Buffalo and founder of the American Express Company
- Dr. Konstantin Frank, viticulturalist
- Carl Frink of Clayton, an innovator in the snow plow manufacturing industry [3][4]
- Robert Fulton, whose steamboat the Clermont (steamboat) served the Hudson River between New York City and Albany
- Stephen Gordon, Plattsburgh native and founder of Restoration Hardware
- Jay Gould of Roxbury, a financier who became a leading American railroad developer and speculator.
- William Henry Gunlocke, [5] [6] furniture manufacturer
- Wilson Greatbatch, who advanced the development of the pacemaker
- Seth Green, pioneer in fish farming, inventor of the fish hatchery
- Jesse Hawley of Geneva, influential proponent of the Erie Canal
- Herman Hollerith, born in Buffalo, a statistician who developed a mechanical tabulator based on punched cards. His company was eventually merged into others to form IBM.
- Birdsill Holly
- the Houghton family of the Corning Glass Works
- Elbert Hubbard
- John B. Jervis
- John D. Larkin of the Larkin Soap Company, who commissioned the Larkin Administration Building from Frank Lloyd Wright
- Edwin Albert Link
- Darwin D. Martin
- David Maydole, blacksmith and inventor of adz-eye hammer construction method. He founded the Maydole Hammer Factory, once the largest hammer factory in the nation, in Norwich.
- William Henry Miner, railroad equipment manufacturer, philanthropist, founder of the Miner Institute at Heart's Delight Farm in Chazy
- Hannah Lord Montague of Troy, inventor of the detachable shirt collar
- Robert Moog, who invented the music synthesizer while a graduate student at Cornell University. He founded his company Moog Music in Trumansburg.
- Edward John Noble, born in Gouverneur, founder of the Life Savers Candy Company and the American Broadcasting Company
- Karl Peterson, founder of the Crescent Tool Company of Jamestown, New York, maker of Crescent wrenches.[7]
- Robert C. Pruyn
- Eliphalet Remington, firearms and typewriter manufacturer. The Remington typewriter, later manufactured by Remington Rand, was the first typewriter to use the QWERTY keyboard layout
- Ben Serotta, builder of custom racing bicycle
- Isaac Singer, founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Company
- L. C. Smith, typewriter innovator and founder of the company that became Smith-Corona
- Charles Proteus Steinmetz
- Walter S. Taylor, founder of Bully Hill Vineyards
- Spencer Trask, Saratoga Springs venture capitalist and philanthropist, who backed Thomas Edison, rescued the New York Times and founded the artists' colony Yaddo
- Webster Wagner, an inventor of the railroad sleeping car and the parlor car. Born in Palatine Bridge, he founded the Webster Palace Car Company in Buffalo[8].
- Henry Wells, founder of American Express, Wells Fargo, and Wells College
- George West, the "The Paper Bag King"
- George Westinghouse, born in Central Bridge.
- Samuel Wilson, namesake of Uncle Sam
- Jethro Wood, inventor of a cast-iron plow with replaceable parts
- Frank Winfield Woolworth
- Benjamin Wright
- Linus Yale, Jr., Inventor of the Yale Lock