Also, glad to see Berners-Lee not on this list as "credited with inventing the internet." A distinction he deserves, in all seriousness, less than Al Gore.
He invented (as much as anyone invents anything) the World Wide Web, which is conflated with the Internet by most people because to most people the Web is the Internet.
Not really anymore. Does your smartphone or iPad use the Internet? None of those apps on it use the world wide web. The conflation was indeed common for a long time but it has always been wrong.
the www is mostly just a common convention these days. The earliest Internet sites and many today don't have it, and if you took it away they would still work. But anyway I'm referring to apps like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tinder, Google Maps, Spotify, WhatsApp, Snapchat, etc etc etc etc.. you know... the things that people use their smartphones for.
Look again at the browser bar. Do you see a "www" in front of jetpunk? Internet domains were already being registered before Lee designed the network at CERN, Internet pages had already been created, the backbone of the Internet had been there for decades with a variety of different ways to use it and access it, and the term "web" was already being used to describe the global Internet. Lee helped popularize and commercialize the Internet (before this it was mostly, but not entirely, used for research and other less commercial pursuits); he developed early web browsers to make finding and viewing Internet sites easier; and he invented the hypertext link. Many people have been confused in to thinking that without the World Wide Web somehow it would be impossible to access Internet domains or view web pages. This isn't true. And today, very few Internet-based applications or services bother with the outdated tradition of referencing the CERN network.
but Joseph swan did get the credit and Edison attempted to steal the idea until the agreed that Edison could sell the product as long as swan got the credit
This should be indeed corrected. This is more of a misconception than an actual difference of opinion; Wikipedia says "In addressing the question of who invented the incandescent lamp, historians Robert Friedel and Paul Israel[8] list 22 inventors of incandescent lamps prior to Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison." and Google says Edison, Swan and Maxim
It is true that the incandescent light bulb was already invented, so the idea that Edison invented the light bulb is a misconception. Edison only found a new filament for the light bulb that lasted longer. So, I guess I could say that Edison came up with a new and improved light bulb, but not the original design.
So you're the reason that people who know how to spell correctly often get stuck with a letter left over in the answer box that interferes with the following question. THANKS.
Did the Wright brothers really get the credit for inventing the airplane? They made the first successful powered flight over any significant distance, but there had been less-successful versions, which were nonetheless airplanes, well before then.
The colloquial understanding of what an airplane/aeroplane is is a flying vehicle for transportation which is motorised. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, of flying transportation vehicles had been invented prior to the Wrights' machine, but they were all nonmotorised (such as the numerous means of gliding around invented previously or a parachute).
One of my attempts was actually winchester... got colt in the last few seconds (had also typed lots of stuff thrying to remember smiths and wesson (like west and smithson...)
was actually surprised that I knew 3 manufacturers (guns are illegal here, so I guess I picked up the names from movies, I guess a lot of info is obtained that way, by osmosis)
Gatlin! Just because it lagged a measle G at the end I figured I was wrong... wasn't even aware there was a G. :( --- also guessed Mendel for the periodic table, but yeah that's a different guy. And Polk for Polio, again a different guy though got close in how it sounds :)
My pov on Kellogg is, his name sits on your breakfast table in front of you every day, you ought to notice how it's spelled! I would say, however, that since most people believe "Kellogg" invented the cornflakes, you might as well put the guy who actually created Kellogg's, his brother Will. Though, as I now read in wikipedia, John and Will actually invented the flakes together. It's just that John didn't then get into the breakfast cereal business.
Yes he was, and still should be. However, as Americans are known to do, Alexander Graham Bell stole Meucci's invention and now everyone thinks of him as the man who invented the telephone.
Philipp Reis developed a working telephone around a decade before Bell. Bell had seen a prototype of the Reis telephone in 1862. (Bell's version was technologically far superior to Reis' version, though).
it's hard to say who invented older things because the farther back you go, the harder it is to find evidence of who it was. Like how gunpowder is said to be a Chinese invention, but it's not actually attributed to any particular person.
It's sad that more people don't know about the great Bucky Fuller. Synergetics, architecture and design, doing more with less, the Dymaxion world map and car, "There is no energy crisis, only a crisis of ignorance,"...he was a man ahead of his time. However, as with many others on this list he never claimed to "invent" the geodesic dome or most of the other objects and ideas associated with him, only to popularize or improve them. Walter Bausfield designed the dome twenty years before Bucky patented it. One of my favorite ideas of Fuller's is that we need to stop thinking about "up and down" as concepts on Earth, and instead think in terms of in and out - i.e. we actually go instairs and outstairs, - and since we now know the earth is not flat we should stop thinking of it as two-dimensional but rather in terms of sphere and volume and lots of other geometric concepts I do not understand.
Pretty bad how few know about Watt, the brackets "(condensation chamber)" make it seem like he didn't make that much of an impact. I imagine it's just because they don't teach much about non-American inventors in US schools. To be fair though, I don't remember being taught anything about Edison at school, more just from the imported popular culture.
Personally I think he should have more credit for his contributions to cinema and sound recording, his advances with the lightbulb weren't that big considering Swan had done most of the work but as a modest man let Edison do what he wanted as long as it didn't affect the UK.
I first learned about Watt at an American public high school. And plenty of other non-American inventors. And, of course, Edison, who was the most prolific inventor in history up until pretty recently.
He would be one of a few that I could ve named myself (without being asked specefic questions to be reminded first. I guess the list would be tesla, edison, volta, watt, bell, cury (x-ray right?) I know more but those are the first few that drift to the surface)
Almost all 'Inventions' are just improvements on previous ideas. It is very difficult to pinpoint a conclusive 'Invention'. Most of these listed are 'Improvements' rather than inventions. Edison had a stable of brainy individuals working for a wage who would pass on their ideas and models to Edison who would then patent them under his name. Without his business acumen and energy some of these prototypes may never have progressed beyond ideas.
True, Edison's employee, Dickson, developed the movie camera. After Dickson left and started his own company, Edison sued him for patent infringement. The US Court of Appeals ruled that Edison did not invent the movie camera, merely the sprocket system which moved the film through the camera. Today it's an accepted practice that employees of a company do not own the rights to something they develop or discover as an employee, using the company's labs, while on the company's payroll.
Seconded. The Gatling Gun operated using a hand crank and was fed by gravity - not in itself a 'machine'. Maxim made the first true machine gun that converted the power of a spent round into recoil energy, which operated the bolt, and in turn chambered the next round.
I suppose it depends on the definition of machine which varies from person to person. Personally I think the Maxim Gun was the first.
The Maxim gun changed everything and the reason World War One was such a motionless slaughterhouse. The Gatling gun? Mostly a movie prop, not really used much. It's like a hand crank ice cream maker versus an ice cream factory.
I've never heard anyone claim that the Wright brothers invented the airplane. They may have conducted the first successful flights, but that doesn't mean they invented it.
As mentioned above, if I "invent" a time machine but it doesn't work, have I really invented a time machine? no. They made the first working (powered) airplane. If you go with non-working ideas then you can say Da Vinci invented the helicopter and thats just ridiculous.
Anyone else shocked at the fact that Colt is guessed more often than Tesla, Marconi, Morse, Watt or Mendeleev? Not that it is specially surprising, but it's just sad.
https://www.jetpunk.com/......
It seems to me he deserves it more than Edison does for inventing the light bulb
was actually surprised that I knew 3 manufacturers (guns are illegal here, so I guess I picked up the names from movies, I guess a lot of info is obtained that way, by osmosis)
Personally I think he should have more credit for his contributions to cinema and sound recording, his advances with the lightbulb weren't that big considering Swan had done most of the work but as a modest man let Edison do what he wanted as long as it didn't affect the UK.
He would be one of a few that I could ve named myself (without being asked specefic questions to be reminded first. I guess the list would be tesla, edison, volta, watt, bell, cury (x-ray right?) I know more but those are the first few that drift to the surface)
The first machine gun was the Maxim gun, invented by Sir Hiram Maxim.
I suppose it depends on the definition of machine which varies from person to person. Personally I think the Maxim Gun was the first.