From The Mind of Merc - Inventions (by women)

Sometimes I find my mind wandering over various eclectic topics and occasionally I am inspired to write some of them down. Today, following on from last month's post about misattributed inventions, I was thinking about the inventions made by women who lost the credit to a man.

Here are a few examples of women inventors whose credit was given to men:

Mary Anning - invention: Dinosaur Fossils - credit taken by: The Geological Society
Anning discovered several dinosaur skeletons on a beach but they and she were ignored, decried as fake and blocked from being accepted with credit going to scientists who bought fossils from her.  

Rosalind Franklin - invention: The Double Helix - credit taken by: Crick & Watson
It was Franklin who produced the groundbreaking image in 1951 which was passed on to Crick & Watson who published their 'findings' 2 years later. 

Chien Shiung Wu - invention: Nuclear Physics - credit taken by: Tsung-Dao Lee & Chen-Ning Yang
Wu worked on electromagnetic interactions with the Wu experiment. The findings from which prompted a Nobel Prize... for two physicists working on a similar project. 

Lise Meitner - invention: Nuclear Fission - credit taken by: Otto Hahn
Frisch won the Nobel Prize for their work but Meitner wasn't even mentioned. She went on to receive 49 Nobel nominations but never succeeded in winning any of them.

Hedy Lamarr - invention: Wireless communication - credit taken by: US Navy
Lamarr created the basis for today's wifi as part of WWII work to prevent the bugging of military radios. Although she had a patent for her work, this was ignored by the US Navy

Alice Ball - invention: Leprosy Cure - credit taken by: Arthur Dean
Ball died in a tragic accident just months after her discovery and the head of her department published her work as his own - he and it were later corrected.

Marion Donovan - invention: disposable nappies - credit taken by: Victor Mills
Before Donovan's invention, nappies were made of cloth. Her disposable nappies were initially ignored by manufacturers until Victor Mills started Pampers using Donovan's idea.

Margaret Keene - invention: Big Eyes paintings - credit taken by: Walter Keane
Keane's husband persuaded her the pictures would sell better under his name. She eventually took him to court and was able to prove her ownership by producing a picture on the spot.

Margaret Knight - invention: Paper Bag - credit taken by: Charles Annan
Annan stole Knight's invention while it was being made and patented it under his name. When she took him to court, his defence was that a woman couldn't have invented it.

Elizabeth Magie - invention: Monopoly - credit taken by: Charles Darrow
Darrow sold Magie's 'Landlord's Game' to Parker Brothers who claimed their version was sufficiently different to the one Magie created to protest against monopolists.

Vera Rubin - invention: Dark Matter - credit taken by: Kent Ford
Rubin confirmed the existence of dark matter in the atmosphere yet her work was ignored until later scientists proved that she was right. However, she never received acknowledgement for her work.

Grace Hopper - invention: Computer Programming Language - credit taken by: John von Neumann
von Neumann may have been the one to initiate the program for the Harvard Mark I computer but it was Hopper's codes that were used to program it.

Caresse Crosby - invention: the bra - credit taken by: Warner Brothers
Crosby sold her patent for the 'backless brassiere', which was to become the modern bra, to Warner Brothers and subsequently fell from public knowledge or recognition

Ada Harris - invention: Hair Straighteners - credit taken by: Marcel Grateau
Grateau actually invented the curling iron in 1852 - a big difference to the hair straightener Harris was the first ever to patent in 1893.

Esther Lederberg - invention: Microbial Genetics - credit taken by: Joshua Lederberg
Although she worked jointly with her husband on her work and was actually the one to discover the lambda phage virus, it was her husband that took the credit and Nobel Prize

Jocelyn Bell Burnell - invention: Pulsars - credit taken by: Antony Hewish & Martin Ryle
Burnell discovered and pointed out the irregular radio pulses she had detected while a research assistant at Cambridge to her advisor - it was said advisor who claimed the credit.

Ada Lovelace - invention: Computer Programming - credit taken by: Charles Babbage
The father of modern computing actually had a lot of help from the daughter of Lord Byron as it was Ada who actually wrote the programme that made Babbage's machine work.

ENIAC programmers - invention: Electronic Computer - credit taken by: John Mauchly
Mauchly might have invented the computer itself but it was the team of 6 women - the ENIAC programmers - who developed the functionality of the machine.

Katherine Johnson - invention: Moon Landing - credit taken by: NASA
Johnson was a crucial 'computer' who calculated the path used for the successful landing of Apollo 11 on the moon. Yet she continued to be ignored and overlooked by her racist colleagues.

Mary Anderson - invention: Windscreen Wiper - credit taken by: Robert Kearns
Anderson created and patented the now commonplace invention back in 1903. However, it was ignored by the car manufacturers. By the time they should an interest her patent had expired.

Nettie Stevens - invention: Sex Chromosomes - credit taken by: E B Wilson
Despite Stevens producing the breakthrough work that showed the connection between chromosomes and sex determination, it was her colleague who published the findings first. 

Candace Pert - invention: opiate receptors - credit taken by: Solomon Snyder
Pert was just a graduate student when she made this crucial discovery but her professor was rewarded for it. When she objected, he said, "That's how the game is played."

Anna Atkins - invention: photography book - credit taken by: Henry Talbot
Atkins published her photographically illustrated book 8 months earlier than Henry Talbot but even the work itself was miscredited or else claimed as Anonymous.

From The Mind of Merc - Inventions (Misattributed)

Sometimes I find my mind wandering over various eclectic topics and occasionally I am inspired to write some of them down. Today, following on from last month's post about mistake inventions, I was thinking about inventions that have been attributed to the wrong creator by mistake.

Here are a few examples of inventions that weren't invented by the person you thought:

Theory of Evolution – Credited: Charles Darwin – Actually: Anaximander of Miletus
- Anaximander speculated humans descended from another species and that all life started in the sea
Iguanodon – Credited: Richard Owen – Actually: Gideon Mantell
- Owen sought to erase Mantell's contribution from the record which led to Mantell committing suicide
Airplane – Credited: Wright Brothers – Actually: Richard Pearse
- Pearse beat the Wright Brothers celebrated flight by 9 months
Computer desktop – Credited: Microsoft – Actually: Xerox PARC
- Xerox showed their system to Apple who in turn inspired Microsoft
Conveyor Belt – Credited: Henry Ford – Actually: The Ancient Chinese
- It was used in the construction of the terracotta army
Car – Credited: Henry Ford – Actually: Karl Benz/Oliver Evans
- Benz's automobile was first produced in 1885 - 11 years before Ford's creation in 1896
Telescope – Credited: Galileo – Actually: Hans Lippershey
- Lippershey's telescope was created in 1608. Galileo's was a year later.
Radio – Credited: Guglielmo Marconi – Actually: Nikola Tesla
- The majority of Marconi's work relied on research and patents by Tesla
Toilet – Credited: Thomas Crapper – Actually: The Ancient Chinese
- Crapper created several components of the toilet but the first ones were used 2000 years ago
Internet – Credited: Al Gore – Actually: Vinton Cerf
- Gore never actually said he invented the internet - Cerf is often called 'the Father of the Internet' 
Monopoly – Credited: Parker Brothers/Charles Darrow – Actually: Elizabeth Magie
- Charles Darrow copied Magie's design... which the Brothers rejected at least twice
Telephone – Credited: Alexander Graham Bell – Actually: Antonio Meucci
- Meucci couldn't afford to patent his creation - he took Bell to court but died before the suit finished
Steamboat – Credited: Robert Fulton – Actually: Claude de Jouffroy
- de Jouffroy pioneered his creation in 1776 - years ahead of Fulton's inaugural trip in 1803
Steam engine – Credited: James Watt – Actually: Hero (Ancient Greek)
- Hero's design was copied by Thomas Savery and then Watt before Thomas Newcomen improved it
Geodesic dome – Credited: Buckminster Fuller – Actually: Walther Bauersfeld
- Bauersfeld built his dome in 1923 years before Fuller's 1948 creation
Chocolate bar – Credited: Milton Hershey – Actually: Joseph Fry
- Brit Joseph Fry created the first chocolate bar in 1847 whereas American Hershey's came out in 1900
Guillotine – Credited: Joseph Guillotin – Actually: Tobias Schmidt
- Guillotin actually only proposed the use of Schmidt's invention
Peanut butter – Credited: George Washington Carver – Actually: Incas
- The Incas are documented to have made peanut butter centuries before Carver
Seed drill – Credited: George Washington – Actually: Jethro Tull
- Washington's "own invention" was actually a copy of Tull's established machine
Tesla car – Credited: Elon Musk – Actually: Martin Eberhard & Marc Tarpenning
- Musk was an early investor and then Chairman who took the founders to court to claim co-creation
Uber – Credited: Travis Kalanick – Actually: Garrett Camp
- Kalanick himself has affirmed it was Camp's idea
Apple – Credited: Steve Jobs – Actually: Steve Wozniak
- It was actually Wozniak who made the computer
iPod – Credited: Steve Jobs – Actually: Kane Kramer
- Apple admitted to this fact during a court case when another company claimed credit
Electric chair – Credited: Thomas Edison – Actually: Harold P Brown
- Brown was an employee of Edison's but lost out to him in the credit stakes
X-Ray – Credited: Thomas Edison – Actually: Wilhelm Rontgen
- Rontgen's invention is also being referred to as Rontgen rays
Moving pictures – Credited: Thomas Edison – Actually: Louis Le Prince
- Le Prince vanished mysteriously and his son was shot dead during a court case against Edison
Recording audio – Credited: Thomas Edison – Actually: Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville
- Edison's announcement of his invention came 17 years after de Martinville's first audio recordings
Lightbulb – Credited: Thomas Edison – Actually: Humphrey Davy
Edison basically copied an already existing structure initially created by Davy in 1802.
Projector – Credited: Thomas Edison – Actually: Charles Francis Jenkins
- Jenkins partner, Thomas Arnat, sold the rights to Edison who rebranded the creation as his own

From The Mind of Merc - Inventions (Accidental)

Sometimes I find my mind wandering over various eclectic topics and occasionally I am inspired to write some of them down. Today, following on from last month's post about killer inventions, I was thinking about inventions that came about by accident.
It's amazing how many familiar products came about by sheer fluke.

Here are a few examples of those lucky enough to create something successful by accident:

Slinky – Inventor: Richard Jones
– He was actually trying to make a meter to monitor power on battleships using tension springs
Penicillin – Inventor: Alexander Fleming
– He was actually trying to make a wonder drug - penicillin was discovered on a dish he threw away
Choc chip cookies – Inventor: Ruth Wakefield
– She was actually trying to make normal chocolate cookies but the bits didn't melt
Crisps – Inventor: George Crum
– He was actually trying to make a plate of fried potato that a customer insisted needed to be thinner
Pacemaker – Inventor: John Hopps
– He was actually trying to make a way to use radio frequency to restore body temperature
Silly Putty – Inventor: James Wright
– He was actually trying to make a rubber substitute out of silicon during WWII
Microwave – Inventor: Percy Spencer
– He was actually trying to make a radar related project
Saccharin – Inventor: Constantine Fahlberg
– She was actually trying to make a oxidisation experiment - a chemical spill lead to a sweet discovery
Fireworks – Inventor: chef in China
– He was actually trying to make a new cooking experiment using charcoal, sulphur and saltpetre
Scotchgard – Inventor: Patsy Sherman
– She was actually trying to make a rubber material that would be resistant to exposure from jet fuels
Cornflakes – Inventor: John and Will Kellogg
– They were actually trying to make boiled grain but they left it on the stove too long
LSD – Inventor: Albert Hofmann
– He was actually trying to make lysergic acid derivatives and accidentally swallowed some
Post-its – Inventor: Spencer Silver
– He was actually trying to make a strong adhesive and ended up with the opposite result
X Rays – Inventor: Wilhelm Rontgen
– He was actually trying to make advances in cathodic ray tube experiments
Inkjet printer – Inventor: Canon engineer
– He was actually wasn't trying to make anything - he was on a break but rested his hot iron on his pen

Who knows what other coincidental creations will be made in the future 

From The Mind of Merc - Inventions (Lethal)

Sometimes I find my mind wandering over various eclectic topics and occasionally I am inspired to write some of them down. Today, following the Titan disaster, I was thinking about inventing and how it can be a dangerous thing.
Everyone wants to come up with the next big thing but what if you don’t survive it.

Here are a few examples of those unlucky enough to be killed by their own inventions:

Stockton Rush

Oversaw the design and construction of the Titan.

Craft imploded during a trip to the Titanic wreck site killing everyone on board.

Francis Edgar Stanley

Joint creator of the Stanley Steamer automobile.

Whilst driving he swerved to avoid an obstacle which caused a car accident which led to his death.

Sylvester Roper

Creator of one of the first ever motorcycle – the Roper Steam Velocipede

He fell off the bike a 40 miles an hour and by the time anyone could get to him he was dead.

Horace Hunley

Creator of the first submarine to successfully sink a warship.

Unfortunately, during a dive, the vessel became trapped on the bottom of a harbour and all aboard perished

Henry Winstanley

Built the Eddystone Lighthouse to combat the loss of ships.

In 1703 the Great Storm of Southern England destroyed the lighthouse… with Winstanley inside it.

Max Valier

Creator of a rocket powered car.

The car used an alcohol-based fuel which exploded in his workshop killing him.

Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier

Made the first manned balloon flight.

Crashed his balloon whilst trying to cross the Channel.

William Bullock

Bullock came up with improvements to the pre-existing rotary press.

While installing one of these machines, his leg became trapped and he died after developing gangrene.

Thomas Midgley Jr

Created a pulley system to help get him out of bed.

One day he got caught up in the device and was strangled to death.

Franz Reichelt

Developed a full body parachute suit.

Tested the suit himself, it failed and he was killed instantly.

Ismail ibn Hammad al-Jawhari

Made a set of wooden wings covered in feathers.

Jumped off the roof of a mosque to test them – they didn’t work.

Henri Thuille

Inventor of a high-speed steam locomotive.

Died during a test run.

Percy Pilcher

Developed a hang glider called the Hawk

The craft suffered a structural failure during a flight and he was killed as a result of the crash.

Charles Lugeti

Creator of the Lugeti Stratos aircraft.

Lost control during a test flight and was killed in the crash.

William Nelson

Invented a way to motorise bikes.

Fell off his prototype during a test drive and died.

Alexander Bogdanov

One of the first to experiment with blood transfusion.

Died when he used the blood of a TB and malaria victim on himself.

Michael Dacre

Created a flying taxi.

Died during a test flight.

Mike Hughes

Made a steam powered rocket.

Killed when the parachute failed to deploy during a crash landing.

Karel Soucek

Developed a shock absorbent barrel for surviving Niagara Falls.

As a result of an accident he hit the rim after falling 180 feet.

Henry Fleuss

Created a rebreathing diving suit.

He was killed while testing his creation as the pure oxygen he used was fatal.

Henry Smolinski

Created a prototype flying car.

On the first and only flight the wings fell off and he was killed in the crash.

Valerian Abakovsky

Developed a high speed railcar.

On a return trip the train jumped the track at 70 miles an hour.

Otto Lilienthal

Created a glider with a 23 foot wingspan.

The glider stalled during a test flight and crashed to the ground.

Robert Cocking

Designed a parachute.

The parachute failed to open during a test flight and Cocking plummeted to his death.

Luis Jimenez

Created the 32 foot tall sculpture called ‘Blucifer’.

During installation, pieces of the sculpture fell on him severing an artery in his leg and he died the next day.

Fred Deusenberg

Created the Deusenberg automobile.

Killed during a high speed accident.

Aurel Vlaicu

Inventor of a self-built airplane.

Failed in his attempt to cross the Carpathian Mountains.

Sabin Arnold von Sochocky

Inventor of luminescent paint which contained radium.

Died as a result of a disease caused by radiation poisoning.

John Day

Developed a diving chamber.

Died during a test run

Julius H. Kroehl

Co-designer of a hand powered submersible

Died from decompression sickness after repeated dives

Cowper Phipps Coles

Designed a masted turret ship

Drowned when it sank.

Thomas Andrews

Architect of the RMS Titanic.

Insisted on going down with the ship when it sank in April 1912

Marie Curie

Marie and her husband Pierre discovered radium and spent many years experimenting with.

She died from a disease caused by radiation poisoning as a result from constant exposure to the material.

Maybe the moral of the story is that testing is good but maybe we should be thinking mannequin not myself

Toaster sketch - Mercorabilia

So my laptop broke a few weeks ago. Luckily its replacement has now arrived. So... have a sketch!

General: My lords and… other lords. I, the General of Electric, present to you my latest and, dare I say, greatest invention. Behold <flourish as a cloth covering is removed> a toaster!

<sounds of oohs and aahs>

Scientist A: It’s beautiful!

Scientist B: It’s wonderful!

Scientist A: How does it work?

General: It’s quite simple. The plain untoasted bread is inserted into either of the TWO purpose-built slots on the top here.  I push this lever which lowers the bread into the bowels of the machine. After an indeterminate length of time, there is a ping! sound and the prepared toast emerges back up through the slot. And it is thus that I intend the process of making toast will become fully automated!

Scientist C: Are you sure?

General: What?
Scientist C: Are you sure it’ll be automated? You don’t think the person operating the toaster will be compelled to hover around the toaster to keep an eye on it while it works - just to be on the safe side?

General: No! They won’t! It’ll be absolutely fine!

Scientist C: So how long does it take?

General: Ah. Now - the machine is fitted with 6 time settings numbered 1 to 6 on the dial on the side here.

Scientist C: And these represent the minutes for toasting?

General: <laughs> Of course not! They denote how well you want your toast done.

Scientist C: I see.

General: 1 is for those who enjoy warm bread. 2 is for charcoal. 3 is for ash. 4 is for lightly darker ash…

Scientist C: Excuse me – ash? Who would want ash?

General: Loads of people. Now, as I was saying…

Scientist C: But isn’t there a setting for just nicely done toast? Something between 1 and 2?

General: But that would be 1.5! You can’t have a half measure – that’s ridiculous!

Scientist C: Is it?

General: Of course!

Scientist C: Oh. Well, I’m sorry, General, but I’m afraid I’ll be sticking with more traditional methods.

General: Such as?

Scientist C: Release the flaming arrow!

<sound of an arrow being loosed and striking its target followed by the sound of singeing>

Scientist C: Ah – lovely.