Inventors are what push us forward as a species - some of them slave for years with dogged determination, and some of them chance upon it by sheer accident - and these inventions fundamentally change the way we live our lives. In this list we tip our hats to the inventors who, for whatever reasons, never made a killing from their inventions. We use all of them to this day and our lives are all the more convenient for it.

Harvey Ball - The Smiley

A bit of harsh irony behind the most positive symbol of them all - the smiley!

Before the smiley went on to explode into its own language of emoji it was invented by Harvey Ball who first designed the emoticon in 1963. It was used to boost employee morale at an insurance company and he earned 45 dollars for the original design. He never patented it and the smiley took off and became very popular.