# Why we know certain inventors, and not others?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529>\
**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:** 4\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/61 "2015-03-15T09:03:03Z")

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> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> That doesn’t work in America, where the pen is called Bic and Biro is entirely unknown.

It doesn’t work even in Britain. I’d wager that less than 1% of people who use biros know that they’re named after Bíró.

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**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/62 "2015-03-15T10:42:19Z")

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In AUS, the company Amalgamated Wireless Australasia has a long an glorious history as a Radio company and as a Government contractor.

Because the Government more or less refused to recognise radio patent claims, or buy radios from the patent holders, unless the companies could make a working state of the art radio. Which required patents (“inventions”) from both of the competing interests.

So Marconi and Telefunken amalgamated their patents into one company, AWA which could get government business. Telefunken was itself formed, _for the same reason_ because of pressure from the German government, using Siemens and AEG patents.

So in AUS we can say with some clarity that radio was “invented” by a combination of the Marconi, Siemens, and AEG company patents.

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**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 15, 2015, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/63 "2015-03-15T15:33:39Z")

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> [@psychonaut](#):
>
> It doesn’t work even in Britain. I’d wager that less than 1% of people who use biros know that they’re named after Bíró.

You would probably win. But the fact remains that anyone you ask for a biro, knows exactly what you want, even if they have another make of ballpoint. If you asked most people why it’s called a biro - I bet that most people would guess that some bloke called Biro invented them.

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**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-know-certain-inventors-and-not-others/711529/64 "2015-03-15T17:40:28Z")

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> [@Enola\_Straight](#):
>
> Wasn’t there some Arabic DaVinci-type inventor a full 500 years _before_ Leonardo was around?

He wasn’t, strictly speaking, an inventor, but [Ibn al-Haytham](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhazen) is considered by some to be the first truly modern _scientist_ (as opposed to Galileo - is that who you were thinking of, vice Leonardo?)

The distinction being that modern science involves conducting experiments based on a theory, gathering evidence, and refining the theory.

As opposed to the ancient Greeks, who, when an experiment didn’t support their theory, basically said, “Fuck it - let’s go bowling”.

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