René Laennec

René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec was born on 17 February 1781 in France, trained as a medical doctor, and spent his spare time crafting wooden flutes. That woodworking skill gave him the idea in 1816, while working at the Hôpital Necker, to roll up a tube and press it to a patient's chest - the first stethoscope. He pioneered using it to diagnose chest conditions that had been guesswork before. By 1822 he was lecturing at the Collège de France, became a professor of medicine the next year, and eventually led the medical clinic at the Hôpital de la Charité. On 13 August 1826, at forty-five, he slipped into a coma and died of tuberculosis - the very kind of lung disease his invention had taught doctors to hear.