51–57 of 57 posts
I thought he was being ironic but it turned out he really assumed pretty much everything in the last 500 years or so had been invented in England.
I assume the equivalent belief is probably pretty widespread.
Invented by Czech inventor Jára Cimrman. Undisputed fact.
https://russiapedia.rt.com/of-russian-origin/the-ilyich-lamp...
If questions like this become political within a US-specific persepctive, they can have an element of nationalism when considered with a more global perspective. Many people in the UK know the story of UK-based Joseph Swan developing his own bulb, patenting it, setting up a company and selling it, supplying homes and businesses such as The Savoy, and then a US marketer called Edison later coming along and taking cred…
That not only applies to location ( nations ) but also time. An example being copernicus. When the catholic church was all powerful and copernicus was "heretical" with his heliocenstrism, the poles rejected him and painted him as a german. When catholic power waned and heliocentrism won over geocentrism, the poles embraced copernicus as their son. So for a time, germans could claim that they invented heliocentrism.
Of course copernicus didn't invent the idea of heliocentrism either.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristarchus_of_Samos
And it's highly likely aristarchus didn't invent the idea first either.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
well... like the telephone: everyone in italy know that the inventor is not Bell, but Meucci
and everyone in italy know that marconi stole the idea of the radio receiver from bose's coherer?
I really recommend "How Innovation Works" by Matt Ridley to better understand the history of different inventions and innovations. It also dispels the myth of the singular event of invention by a single person. Rather innovation is a process of compilation.
I would like to second - "How Innovation Works" by Matt Ridley is an excellent book. I see the kindle version is £1.99 on amazon.co.uk atm - what a bargain. Most innovations we all enjoy and cherish are a product of long chain of trial and error by different people at different times. Often the theory is understood poorly (if at all) at the time of the invention, and developed after. Luck plays a role in particular p…