I bring you Royal Earl House, inventor of the printing telegraph http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Earl_House
And his nephew Henry Alonzo House http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Alonzo_House, the flavour of his life and work can best be got by taking the summary from Wikipedia:
2 Inventing years
2.1 Automatic buttonhole machine
2.2 Another sewing machine patent
2.3 Steam horseless carriage
2.4 Knitting machine
2.5 Other inventions
2.6 Paper dishes
2.7 Hat manufacturing
2.8 Fur work
2.9 Paper boxes
2.10 Metal polishing
2.11 Telegraphs and telephones
2.12 The flying machine
2.13 Boats
2.14 Miscellaneous inventions
2.15 Shredded wheat
Clearly there should be a TV series made of his life, perhaps Hugh Laurie could play him. I have a suggestion for the name of the series :-)
Also, did you know that Napoleon III had a fax machine?
http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/~eugeniik/history/caselli.html (with pictures)
