The Economic Times

In 1910, a Swiss law student who never finished his degree was trying to make hot air balloons more airtight; he ended up inventing aluminium foil now used in kitchens worldwide

Robert Victor Neher, a Swiss law student who never completed his doctorate, worked with two partners in 1910 to produce aluminium sheets suitable for food packaging, patented the process, and opened the world's first aluminium foil plant. He died in 1918 at 32. The material he created is now found in kitchens worldwide and wraps food, medicine, and drink on every continent.