# Fictional inventors of real things **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 29, 2015, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049 "2015-10-29T03:04:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/41 "2015-10-30T13:41:43Z")
Li, from Peter Dickinson’s novel **A Bone from a Dry Sea** , did not invent the fishing net and splints for broken bones. Willow, from Jim Kjelgaard’s novel **Fire Hunter** , did not invent basketry. Hawk, from the same book, did not invent the bow and arrow. And Jack and Annie from **The Magic Tree House** books by Mary Pope Osborne did not inspire Florence Nightingale to become a nurse, nor teach Alexander the Great how to tame Bucephalus, and a bunch of other things. ---
**Author:** ![Wargamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Wargamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wargamer)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/42 "2015-10-30T14:09:47Z")
> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > I never interpreted the scene in the movie as implying that Marty wrote it. I thought he just carried the tune that Chuck Berry wrote back to Chuck Berry so that he could write it. One of those infinite regression endless loop paradoxical time-travel thingies. > > And yes, “infinite regression endless loop paradoxical time-travel thingy” is a technical term among the time-traveling class. Or at least it will be. Or maybe it already was? I think the proper grammatical phrasing is ; “have been will be” ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/43 "2015-10-30T14:23:58Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Perhaps in your time, but in this time, the technical term for such a thing is a “genie”. Actually, it’s called a _djinn particle._ Djinn being the archaic term for a genie. (I suspect they deliberately chose this name because it is not associated with any characters from Disney movies.) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/44 "2015-10-30T16:38:02Z")
> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > …And yes, “infinite regression endless loop paradoxical time-travel thingy” is a technical term among the time-traveling class. Or at least it will be. Or maybe it already was? > [@Wargamer](#): > > I think the proper grammatical phrasing is ; “have been will be” I already will know you were are going to post that. > [@Senegoid](#): > > …All sorts of real-world things invented by little old Russian mothers and grandmothers, at least according to Pavel Chekov. He’s not the only one: [BBC News | Europe | Russia: mother of invention?](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/88802.stm) ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/45 "2015-10-30T17:13:39Z")
Dr. Nichols did not invent transparent aluminum based on a formula supplied by Montgomery Scott in Star Trek IV. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/46 "2015-10-30T17:22:26Z")
> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > I never interpreted the scene in the movie as implying that Marty wrote it. I thought he just carried the tune that Chuck Berry wrote back to Chuck Berry so that he could write it. One of those infinite regression endless loop paradoxical time-travel thingies. > > And yes, “infinite regression endless loop paradoxical time-travel thingy” is a technical term among the time-traveling class. Or at least it will be. Or maybe it already was? [Bootstrap paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causal_loop) ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/47 "2015-10-30T17:36:09Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Dr. Nichols did not invent transparent aluminum based on a formula supplied by Montgomery Scott in Star Trek IV. And how do you _know_? It was implied the good doctor would need decades to turn the formula into a workable product. (Actually, I misunderstood the story there the first time or two I watched ST4 - that they traded the formula for a big-ass sheet of plexiglas kind of slides through the dialogue, and I thought they were being absurd in having Nichols not only invent the stuff, but turn out a slab in the same day.) ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/48 "2015-10-30T18:58:51Z")
That’s easy, 6". We keep that size in stock. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/49 "2015-10-30T20:10:28Z")
> [@AncientHumanoid](#): > > That’s easy, 6". We keep that size in stock. It was years after seeing the movie that I found out this was a confusing plot issue for some viewers. It seemed perfectly straightforward to me - Nichols trades stock items for the nifty-looking formula. What’s actually a far _bigger_ plot hole is that one could make multiple deliveries of large Plexiglas sheets via helicopter to Golden Gate Park (or indeed any park within walking distance of San Francisco) and not attract a lot of attention. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/50 "2015-10-30T20:23:20Z")
They could have used the cloaking device for the helicopters, couldn’t they? ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/51 "2015-10-30T20:52:59Z")
Another minor nitpik, why did it have to be transparent anything? A steel bulkhead would work just fine. They can monitor things via the Trek-magic computer. :::following the whales and the whalers::: Kirk Boy: “On screen.” Whale Lovin Chick: “You can do that?” ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/52 "2015-10-30T22:09:54Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > They could have used the cloaking device for the helicopters, couldn’t they? They could have, but they didn’t. They actually showed the helicopter hovering, and the sheets disappearing while being loaded into the cloaked Bird of Prey. I guess the park was empty that day and everyone that lived nearby didn’t notice. (I actually did live near Golden Gate Park, so that entire thing was really hard to swallow. Let alone there’s no empty space that could have a cloaked Bird Of Prey sitting there for more than an hour of daylight without people bumping into it trying to play soccer / jog / play fetch with their dog / etc. I was OK with the time traveling Humpback whale part, however) ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/53 "2015-10-30T23:57:06Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > Willow, from Jim Kjelgaard’s novel **Fire Hunter** , did not invent basketry. Hawk, from the same book, did not invent the bow and arrow. Similarly, Hok the Mighty didn’t invent the bow and arrow either (from Manly Wade Wellman’s story “Hok Draws the Bow”). ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/54 "2015-10-31T02:57:40Z")
> [@AncientHumanoid](#): > > Of course not. It was a Klingon. :dubious: Just so long as it wasn’t Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Sussex. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/55 "2015-10-31T20:48:06Z")
In MEAN GIRLS, Gretchen Wieners is rich because her dad invented Toaster Strudel. She also keeps trying to make “fetch” happen, but it’s not going to happen. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/56 "2015-10-31T21:00:13Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Just so long as it wasn’t Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Sussex. The rotted swans lay festering in the putrid mire… ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/57 "2015-10-31T22:09:16Z")
Amos, the clever mouse and good friend of Ben Franklin in Robert Lawson’s kid’s book _Ben and Me_, inspires Franklin to invent the Franklin stove and bifocals, and plays a key role (ahem) in the scientist’s famous lightning experiment. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/58 "2015-10-31T22:51:24Z")
HBO’s _The Knick_ (set in a New York hospital at the start of the 20th Century) is into this, as well. In the most recent episode (it’s not really a plot point but spoilered anyway): Two characters discuss treatments for syphilis and come up with the idea of treating a patient by deliberately infecting him with malaria - the theory being that the sustained high fever will kill the virus without, hopefully, killing the patient, who can later be treated with quinine. In real life, the idea was discovered by Julius Wagner-Jauregg, who got a Nobel Prize for Medicine for it in 1927. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049/59 "2015-10-31T23:58:09Z")
Who cares about Derek Zoolander anyway? The man has only one look, for Christ’s sake! Blue Steel? Ferrari? Le Tigre? THEY’RE THE SAME FACE! Doesn’t anybody notice this? I feel like I’m taking CRAZY pills! I INVENTED the piano-key necktie, I INVENTED it! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-inventors-of-real-things/736049.md?page=2)