A Huge Part of History is Missing!!

I totally agree. Great post.

reply to post by dreamwalker74


One will not find a great list of inventors in public school history textbooks. I have learned far more about technological innovation reading independent history texts. If you are personally interested in discovering who invented what...research that on your own.

It is beneficial to know who or what group invented/discovered a certain technology. However, it is much more important to society in general to know why such inventions work rather than who created them.

Modern society is obsessed with who invented a certain technology rather than how that technology works. Giving credit to an individual/group for their invention as opposed to learning how an invention works distracts society in general from understanding the basic principles behind an invention.

For example - Many people know who invented the Cotton Engine or "Cotton 'Gin". How many people can describe in detail how that machine operates?

I can understand why credit must be given to the creators of technology. Unfortunately, credit for an invention is given a much higher priority in society in contrast to how an invention operates.

Personally, I could not care less who invented the technology that I use today. Far more important is understanding the principles behind that technology. Giving credit to the inventors of technology is nothing more than a massive penis stroking ego trip. Society should be far more knowledgeable if we focused on learning the principles of technology rather than stroking the ego of a long dead or living inventor.

Err, I thought it was common knowledge that John Logie Baird (UK) invented the first TV, but it was a mechanical version.

Philo Farnsworth (USA) invented the first modern, cathode ray tube TV, but was quickly followed up by Baird, who's later CRT system was superior to Farsworth's.

Also, the Baird system was helped along by the BBC, who set up the first TV broadcasting system through their already implemented and vast radio broadcasting network.

That's what I was taught in school anyway.

Also, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone at the same time as a French man (can't recall his name), but Bell simply patented his first.

reply to post by butcherguy


The assembly line, and concept of interchangeable parts, were originally used by John Moses Browning, for his FIREARMS PRODUCTION LINES.
Henry Ford, usually steals credit for it, as most of Tesla's ideas, are credited to others. ALL of our modern life, is based on Tesla's genius! Remember that!

reply to post by nik1halo


I thought it was common knowledge too - maybe I'm more aware of it because JLB was a Jock en.wikipedia.org...

as was

Big Al Bell (fae Edinurgh )

en.wikipedia.org...

In fact us Scots have been pretty nifty at the old inventing lark over the years..here's a list

en.wikipedia.org...

You can thank us later



[edit on 9-7-2010 by badBERTHA]

Originally posted by Patriotgal
reply to post by butcherguy

 

The assembly line, and concept of interchangeable parts, were originally used by John Moses Browning, for his FIREARMS PRODUCTION LINES.
Henry Ford, usually steals credit for it, as most of Tesla's ideas, are credited to others. ALL of our modern life, is based on Tesla's genius! Remember that!

I am a big John Browning fan, but interchangeability of parts came along well before him. Eli Whitney was the first to do it successfully.

Link:



See page 2 for this:

Eli Whitney was one of the first manufacturers in the world to carry out standardization successfully in practice. Eli Whitney wrote that his objective was "to substitute correct and effective operations of machinery for that skill of the artist which is acquired only by long practice and experience," in order to make the same parts of different guns. Eli Whitney went to Washington, taking with him ten pieces of each part of a musket. He exhibited these to the Secretary of War, as a succession of piles of different parts. Selecting indiscriminately from each of the piles, he put together ten muskets, an achievement which was looked on with amazement.

I certainly will not argue the assembly line.

[edit on 9-7-2010 by butcherguy]

reply to post by badBERTHA


Ah yes, but JLB was living in England when he invented it

If memory serves, he had TB or something like that and the cold Scottish air was no good for him, so he moved to the south of England. Now that, I didn't learn at school, I got it from a documentary series about inventions that changed the world on BBC2 (or was it a Dave rehash?). Either way, it's driving me nuts trying to remember what that show was called now!

I had always thought It was Philo Farnsworth who invented the TV, but after looking at his wiki It looks like he was instrumental in making it more electronic with his image dissector, and not just a hyped up Scanning disk, which Paul Gottlieb Nipkow made.

To say the TV was invented by one person is like saying the Parthenon was built by one person.

But the overall tone of your thread is what really matters, and yes, we do learn some outdated semi-useless facts, and I have always wondered who is in charge of deciding what useless facts we all learn, haha.

reply to post by dreamwalker74

How can they still be teaching about the man who invented the Cotton Gin, and not be teaching about the people who invented these products that now play such an enormous roll in our every day lives?

I went to US public schools in the 80s and half of the 90s. I was the taught the same crap. The cotton gin. It is noteworthy, but nowhere near as important as more recent things like the microchip.

It is a true testament to how selfish people are. They don't care about teaching their kids anything important. They just buy their kids super soakers and hope that things work out when they transition into adult hood. People are more concerned with making money than obtaining interesting knowledge. It is nothing more than a reflection of that!

Obama and the so called "liberals" haven't done anything to change it.


Flag to the OP. Not sure it's a conspiracy so much as a tragedy with the main characters being future generations..



[edit on 9-7-2010 by Scramjet76]

reply to post by My_Reality

Modern society is obsessed with who invented a certain technology rather than how that technology works. Giving credit to an individual/group for their invention as opposed to learning how an invention works distracts society in general from understanding the basic principles behind an invention.

I gave you a star because I agree with you. However, giving some credit to specific individuals is part of learning the history of said invention. I would teach 4 things to folks:

*Who were the big names involved? (getting the process, invention, idea off the starting blocks)
*Why was it invented? (what prompted the idea, invention)
*How does the invention work? (cotton gin, transistor, etc)
*What possible implications could it have on our future?

The US dept of education = fail.

DIVERSION, THE PRIMARY STRATEGY

Our public education system is designed to keep us preoccupied with useless information preventing us from looking at the truth as to what is really going on as well as who is orchestrating it !

Experience has proven that the SIMPLEST METHOD of securing a silent weapon and gaining control of the public is to KEEP THE PUBLIC UNDISCIPLINED AND IGNORANT of basic systems principles on the one hand, WHILE KEEPING THEM CONFUSED, DISORGANIZED, AND DISTRACTED with matters of no real importance on the other hand.

This is achieved by:

(1) disengaging their minds; sabotaging their mental activities; providing a low-quality program of public education in mathematics, logic, systems design and economics; and discouraging technical creativity.

(2) engaging their emotions, increasing their self-indulgence and their indulgence in emotional and physical activities, by: (a) unrelenting emotional affrontations and attacks (mental and emotional rape) by way of a constant barrage of sex, violence, and wars in the media — especially the T.V. and the newspapers. (b) giving them what they desire — in excess — "junk food for thought" — and depriving them of what they really need.

(3) REWRITING HISTORY and LAW and SUBJECTING THE PUBLIC TO THE DEVIANT CREATION, thus being able to SHIFT THEIR THINKING from personal needs to highly fabricated outside priorities.
These preclude their interest in and discovery of the silent weapons ofsocial automation technology.

The general rule is that there is profit in confusion; the more confusion,the more profit. Therefore, the best approach is to create problems and then offer the solutions.

DIVERSION SUMMARY

Media: Keep the adult public attention diverted away from the real
social issues, and captivated by matters of no real importance.

Schools: Keep the young public ignorant of real mathematics, real
economics, real law, and REAL HISTORY [WC emphasis].

Entertainment: Keep the public entertainment below a sixth-grade
level.

Work: Keep the public busy, busy, busy, with no time to think; back on the farm with the other animals.

Excerpted from Behold a Pale Horse by William Cooper.

reply to post by dreamwalker74


1. Who invented the Television?

2. Who invented the Microchip?

3. Who invented the Microwave Oven?


1. Some Danish Guy would be my guess.. in Denmark its called Fjernsyn (*Vision from far away*) would probably be the best translation..

2. Someone at Intel i think, there was some US. Military microchip used in airplanes that was classified that might been earlier.

3. Eh no idea, Nicola Tesla did invent the microwaves i think.

But when my grandparents where little there was no refrigerators IIRC.. so who invented those, ive got no idea

Just because we dont know things or learn them in school doesnt mean that its covered up now does it ?

Who invented the internet ? Ive read that one but sadly I dont recall

reply to post by SilverSurfer
Well now, didn't you know?

Al Gore invented the internet.

At least he says he did.

I graduated 3 years ago from Public school in SW Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh area. I am now a History Major at PITT this fall. I didn't know any of those people that you happen to mention, its quiet sad. I remember in High school I had American History I (Pre Colonial-Civil War) in 10th grade, AH II (Civil War-Cold War) You would be lucky to get past President Bush Sr. in 11th grade, and my senior year I was lucky enough to have a POD class (Problems of Democracy) which was mostly about how goverment works, where taxes go, and study'd/watched court cases.
I don't remember specifically the focus of my high school history classes; however my college classes are more about religion and how it effects man, social structures of society through time, tactics of War, and technological achievements are only mentioned if it is very significant (Johanes Gutenburg Invented the moveable type which pretty much rocketed the amount of books being able to publish and thus pushed forth the renaissance and spread the ability to learn to the public)

There's too many inventions in the world that have been invented by someone and even more inventions that are based on inventions of others. Knowing who invented what is pretty useless information.

Anyone know who invented the wheel?

[edit on 9/7/2010 by DGFenrir]

post by endisnighe

Hey OP, and also protoplasmic, what do you think?

Excellent thread OP! It never dawned on me before that history classes, even through college, were only about politics and religion (and to a lesser extent the arts too).

reply to post by DGFenrir


Would definitely be nice to know who created the wheel. They would be the most famous person in history, but we didn't have history at that point.
Now we do. Shouldn't it be complete? At leats somewhere?

reply to post by endisnighe


I'm sorry, Think about what?

I believe that this is a great thread, actually.
I remember hating history class (not that I like it, still), just because it was pretty much everything from WAY back. I kept telling my friends that it was boring because it wouldn't teach about more modern stuff, that we still use.

Therefore, in my mind, I was beginning to think that history class was, honestly, completely pointless to me, because I do not care about those inventions. I only cared about the effects of them, but then I would find myself thinking about much more modern inventions.