# Why we know certain inventors, and not others? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 1, 2015, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529 "2015-02-01T18:41:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2015, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/41 "2015-02-02T22:54:58Z")
> [@BruceVoigt](#): > > Discovering that a patent sets Piracy in motion. I suggest (if your not wealthy) spending approximately one hundred and fifty dollars to initiate a patent. Once you receive your file # abandon the patent thus saving lots of money that you didn’t have anyway. This will protect you of Law suits from the pirates. > > Sit back and wait. If your invention is brilliant it won’t be long before a pirate (that has lots of money) improves or changes your idea and files his own patent. > > Millions have now been spent bringing your invention to fruition and you can easily (with all that free advertising) go out and sell your improved prototypes. > > As an example > > SKATE WALKERS — Canada patent file #2,116,091 > > To raise money I contacted a large sport firm to sell them this patent. I was ignored and a year later came across my invention all improved in nice packaging with patent pending retailing for fifteen dollars. > > Well my heart sank and I really needed a cup of coffee. > > I rationalized it this way. They have spent mega bucks on dies, production, packaging etc. I will sit back and wait till these become popular then re approach these people to buy my patent advising them that I could produce my prototype like pop corn and put them in 7 ELEVEN retailing at $3.75 a pr. **Moderator Note** **BruceVoight** , General Questions is for factual answers. This post has little to do with the question in the OP. Let’s drop the hijack. Please confine your responses to factual ones that are pertinent to the OP. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2015, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/42 "2015-02-02T23:01:00Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > MS-DOS was invented by Bill Gates. > [@psychonaut](#): > > No it wasn’t. Bill Gates had nothing to do with it, other than buying it from its original developer and slapping his company’s name on it. Gates “invented” Microsoft BASIC 9with Paul Allen). It was simply an implementation of a variant of existing BASIC on a 8080 which fit in 4K or RAM. (think about that!) It was really quite extraordinary - he did not have a computer, so he bought the manual for the 8080 processor and wrote the code, then compiled it by hand. He then punched it onto a paper tape manually, from a teletype machine. The story goes that they took it to a computer show and tried it on a computer there, and it ran first time. If this is true, it is truly impressive. (And the last time Microsoft software ran without bugs). Dan Bricklin also 'invented" the spreadsheet. If you google Spreadsheet, the idea of turning a paper array into a computational model was not the least bit new at the time. Bricklin simply made it work interactively on a cheap computer (Apple II ). he was doing business accounting classes at the time and found paper spreadsheets tedious. The story goes that he showed it to his profs; one said it was a waste of time, the other said he could see the day when people would buy little computers just to run this program. ---
**Author:** ![Ionizer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5daacb/32.png) [@Ionizer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ionizer)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2015, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/43 "2015-02-03T00:25:22Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > There’s also the later story of the [3M engineer who invented Post-It notes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Fry), although like the inventor of Velcro, the story is known but not the inventor’s name. ARGH! I was gonna mention this fellow. I once x-rayed him in Austin for a minor illness, and he casually mentioned to me about his Post-It invention/development and the name stuck with me due to his low-key profile he seemed to want. I used Post-Its on most films sent to off-site-office Radiologist with patient sx’s, etc, and when he saw me stick the note on his films, he asked me if I knew the story behind them. A longish conversation of his thoughts at time of development began afterwards (w/ Doc being fascinated as well); very humble guy, Mr Fry was. Seemed like he enjoyed reminiscing those times. This was 20+ years ago at least, but its neat knowing that I gave him a tiny bit of ionizing damage, then shook his hand and said thanks for how much easier he’d made my (and everyone else’s) job, LOL. He merely grinned sheepishly and wished me a good day.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2015, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/44 "2015-02-03T17:17:17Z")
It seems to me that in a case in which someone takes many previously developed ideas, technologies, discoveries and inventions and puts them all together in a way that has never been done before, for a new purpose, as a new device, that person can be said to have invented said device. Otherwise, it’s hard to think of _anything_ that doesn’t rest on some previous knowledge to some degree. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2015, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/45 "2015-02-03T23:57:05Z")
Wasn’t there some Arabic DaVinci-type inventor a full 500 years _before_ Leonardo was around? ---
**Author:** ![Bones\_Daley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@Bones\_Daley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bones_Daley)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/46 "2015-02-04T00:12:18Z")
So is the credit for inventing the internet solely due to Al Gore, or were there other co-inventors who should be recognized? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/47 "2015-02-04T00:14:48Z")
> [@Bones\_Daley](#): > > So is the credit for inventing the internet solely due to Al Gore, or were there other co-inventors who should be recognized? Al Gore never made that claim. > **[FACT CHECK: Did Al Gore Say 'I Invented the Internet'?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/internet-of-lies/)** > > Despite decades of media mirth-making about the supposed statement, former vice president Al Gore never claimed he "invented the Internet." _Despite the derisive references that continue even today, former Vice-President Al Gore never claimed that he “invented” the Internet, nor did he say anything that could reasonably be interpreted that way._ All he said was “During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country’s economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.” ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/48 "2015-02-04T01:20:14Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Did Wilbur Wright discover the laws of aerodynamics? Nah- they’d been well known for centuries For centuries? Known by whom? > [@](#): > > … which is why MANY people had built working gliders before him. Many? There’s George Cayley (some uncontrolled flights), Percy Pilcher (hang glider, including one that caused him fatal injuries) and Otto Lilenthal (many flights in hang gliders, ultimately leading to a fatal crash). These were interesting, but didn’t produce much toward the practical development of manned flight. Lilienthal did by far the most, but probably his biggest contribution was to demonstrate that weight-shift was marginal for a one-person glider and thus hopeless for anything larger. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/49 "2015-02-04T01:31:58Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Alberto Santos-Dumont flew publicly in Paris in 1906 … that puts a boundary on long it would have taken. He had a long way to go after the _14-bis_ - which still didn’t have 3-axis control. His best flight was around 700 ft in 22 seconds, in a straight line. The Wrights best flight of 1905 (a bit more than a year earlier) was 24.5 miles in 38 minutes, including many perfectly controlled turns. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/50 "2015-02-04T01:36:50Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > While poorly documented, it appears [Richard Pearse](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pearse) of New Zealand may have accomplished powered flight for some distance about 9 months before the Wrights. He’s never received much credit due to doubts about the record and the fact that he did little followup development. (Also, he crashed.) He also stated that what he did prior in 1903 wasn’t significant. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/51 "2015-02-04T02:35:14Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > Invention of the first TV is generally credited to John Logie Baird. The British know his name well. In Australia the annual TV awards are called the Logies. I’m not familiar with that particular gentleman, but I can tell you who invented the [Thomson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._J._Thomson) tube which was such an important part of CRTs. We studied the tube in Chemistry, as part of the lesson on “atomic theory history”. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/52 "2015-02-04T03:14:28Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > He also stated that what he did prior in 1903 wasn’t significant. That doesn’t mean he didn’t achieve powered flight, which was the point I was responding to. Pearse’s work, due to his isolation, didn’t contribute to the further development of the airplane, and he can’t be considered among its inventors. But he does seem to have gotten off the ground at least. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/53 "2015-02-04T03:54:36Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > … he does seem to have gotten off the ground at least. Hiram Maxim’s airplane (3.5 tons, 110’ wingspan, steam engines of 720 hp) did something similar in 1889. He too had no real system of control, and his machine flew only a short distance. He had the good sense to constrain it, or it too would certainly have crashed. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/54 "2015-02-04T14:48:39Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > Hiram Maxim’s airplane (3.5 tons, 110’ wingspan, steam engines of 720 hp) did something similar in 1889. He too had no real system of control, and his machine flew only a short distance. > > He had the good sense to constrain it, or it too would certainly have crashed. To nitpick, it was [1894](http://www.flyingcarsandfoodpills.com/#!flying-cars-first/chto). The Times ran an account from a London paper and referred to it as Maxim’s Flying Car, which is the first use of the term in anything close to the modern sense that I’ve found. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/55 "2015-02-04T17:06:42Z")
The automobile differential I have always wondered who invented it. I have always been impressed with the ingenius concepts involved. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/56 "2015-02-04T17:20:06Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > To nitpick, it was [1894](http://www.flyingcarsandfoodpills.com/#!flying-cars-first/chto). You are right. Work started in 1889, but the “flight” took place in 1894. It would be interesting to hear what he spent in 5 years of work on this huge and ultimately useless machine. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2015, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/57 "2015-03-13T00:04:56Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > The automobile differential I have always wondered who invented it. I have always been impressed with the ingenius concepts involved. Patented for use in steam carts by French watchmaker [Onésiphore Pecqueur](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_(mechanical_device)) in 1827. But like most of the inventions in this thread, it depends on how you define the invention – differential gears had been used in clocks, and possibly in ancient Chinese vehicles. I think a name like Onésiphore Pecqueur ought to be better known, if only because it’s an awesome name. ---
**Author:** ![Bert\_Nobbins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@Bert\_Nobbins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bert_Nobbins)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/58 "2015-03-14T17:51:46Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > I think a name like Onésiphore Pecqueur ought to be better known, if only because it’s an awesome name. Ha! There was more to Onésiphore than mere differentials: see here [http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/POWER/rotaryengines/rotaryeng2.htm#pecq](http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/POWER/rotaryengines/rotaryeng2.htm#pecq) for a wholly impractical rotary steam engine. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/59 "2015-03-14T23:42:26Z")
You get remembered if you give your name to the product. Next time you use a cheap ball point pen, remember László József Bíró. > **[László Bíró](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3_B%C3%ADr%C3%B3)** > > László József Bíró (Hungarian pronunciation: \[ˈlaːsloː ˈjoːʒɛf ˈbiːroː\]; born László József Schweiger; 29 September 1899 – 24 October 1985), Hispanicized as Ladislao José Biro, was a Hungarian-Argentine inventor who patented the first commercially successful modern ballpoint pen. The first ballpoint pen had been invented roughly 50 years earlier by John J. Loud, but it was not a commercial success. > Bíró was born to a Hungarian Jewish family in Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary, within the Austro-Hung... ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/60 "2015-03-15T01:51:40Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > You get remembered if you give your name to the product. Next time you use a cheap ball point pen, remember László József Bíró. > > [László Bíró - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3_B%C3%ADr%C3%B3) That doesn’t work in America, where the pen is called Bic and Biro is entirely unknown. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529.md?page=4)