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
