NationStates Jolt Archive

Who do you think was the greatest inventor of all time? Thomas Edison? Alexander Graham Bell? The guy who invented the fridge?


I'm going to have to say Nikola Tesla. He paved the way for today's wireless technology and is the man who invented all the components that made the radio possible.

Tesla for the insanity and dating my great aunt.

Brog. For discovering how to use fire.

Tesla was the better scientist.

Edison was the better marketer.

Both were geniuses in their own way.

But I go with Benjamin Franklin for sheer production given limited resources.

Gutenberg. None of the others' work would have happened without the introduction of movable type.

Everyone listed has their own contribution. No one individual carried the world ahead on their own.

I like George Washington Carver. Turned peanuts from a meh plant into an industry all in itself.

Brog. For discovering how to use fire.

I thought it was Og?

Oh wait he invented the wheel.

To the OP

That is a tough question, and I might go for John Stobie :p

No that is a tough question to answer, I would like to say the Greeks and Romans who developed ways of building things such as Arches and Dome's considering their limited technology.

Archimedes. It's been estimated that if we had his writings (if those damned monks hadn't used it for their bloody texts), we would be at least 50 yrs, and possibly a century, ahead of where we are now.

Gutenberg. None of the others' work would have happened without the introduction of movable type.

Which the Chinese had first, but yeah, you're definitely correct there.

I say Grog. Brog invented fire. Grog invented sleep.

Chinese people are the greatest inventors. Without the compass, paper, gunpowder (!), and printing, where would we be?

The guy who invented the fridge? .

The same guy put lead in petrol and put cfcs in fridges. That's one hell of an environmental impact.

Gutenberg. None of the others' work would have happened without the introduction of movable type.
Technically them Far Eastern types did it first. But it doesn't lessen his impact.

I can't be bothered to think of more. One of those clever Arab blokes who seemed to invent everything.

The Wright Brothers! They certainly had the wright stuff. :D

The Wright Brothers! They certainly had the wright stuff. :D

Groans...

Otto Frederick Rohwedder - the standard by which all greats things are measured.

Groans...

*laughs*

Totally worth it!

John Moses Browning *nods*

Me, for the giant killer robot (http://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/w/xxxg-00w0.jpg) in my basement

Who do you think was the greatest inventor of all time? Thomas Edison? Alexander Graham Bell? The guy who invented the fridge?


I'm going to have to say Nikola Tesla. He paved the way for today's wireless technology and is the man who invented all the components that made the radio possible.

Tesla. I can't even believe you mentioned Edison in the same post. Hell, a lot of the things he patented were invented by people who worked for him.

Stephenson, whose invention of the railways made industry as we know it possible.

I'll go with Edison.

Not for any of his inventions in particular, but for the "marketing" aspect. He romanticized the role of the individual inventor and used the patent system (and other people's thinking work,) forming a big part of our perception of Brands as the drivers of innovation.

Sherman Poppen for inventing the Snurfer in 1965. End of thread.

Tesla. I can't even believe you mentioned Edison in the same post. Hell, a lot of the things he patented were invented by people who worked for him.

Well, i couldn't think of a better name.

Tesla for the insanity and dating my great aunt.

That must have been an electrifying experience for her.

That must have been an electrifying experience for her.

The pun level in here is shockingly high. It's enough to coil my hair and send a current of groans through the room. We must meet this unseemly tide with great resistance (we can passively resist while chanting "ohm").

The pun level in here is shockingly high. It's enough to coil my hair and send a current of groans through the room. We must meet this unseemly tide with great resistance (we can passively resist while chanting "ohm").

Can I file charges for assault and battery on the ground that I was beaten severely with puns? Is there any legal outlet for me to gain recompense?

Can I file charges for assault and battery on the ground that I was beaten severely with puns? Is there any legal outlet for me to gain recompense?

No, you have to take the pun-ishment

Can I file charges for assault and battery on the ground that I was beaten severely with puns? Is there any legal outlet for me to gain recompense?
A don't know that anyone would remain neutral to your cause if you blew a fuse in court. Then again, it might prove a valuable induction into the legal system. There's certainly a lot of potential energy to generate a lot of press activity.

Who invented the condom? Quite useful I must say.

The guy who invented the wheel and then figured out how to hitch animals to it.

For me, it's a coin-flip...

...either John Vincent Atanasoff (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Vincent_Atanasoff), inventor of the first automatic electronic digital computer.

Or, Willis Haviland Carrier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_Haviland_Carrier), inventor of modern air conditioning.

It is a tough call, but I'll go with Atanasoff.

Who invented the condom? Quite useful I must say.

The source of all knowledge everywhere (aka "Wikipedia") doesn't know. It does mention that the earliest documented condoms were used in Asia. It also mentions that a man named Gabriele Falloppio wrote a treatise on syphilis discussing the use of a linen sheath (soaked in a chemical solution and allowed to dry before use) held on by a ribbon to prevent the disease.

Charles Babbage for designing a mechanical general purpose computer as early as the first half of the 19th century.
Damn shame he couldn't get it built, though.

Tesla - Edison was a charlatan.

Tesla - Edison was a master PR guy.

Fixed.

It ain't charlatanism if it sells and becomes the standard. Unless you're calling Bill Gates a charlatan, too....

Sir John Harington for inventing the modern toilet

p. josiphus agricola, although it the universe only knew, focault ogg would be either first or second, if willie mcgillie hadn't stollen neraly all his ideas while publicly oppressing them.

the REAL inventors of many things, perhapse most, will never be known to the general public. this is not to deny that those often credited were great beings, and even of these, not all were entirely human.

no one credits audifax o'hanlon for his quantum improvements to the cameroi education system. nature herself has invented many of the most important innovations of all time, like 100% recycling, something nothing human has as yet come close to replicating, or co-transpiration, the proccess by which plants create breathing mixture for animals and animals feed and nurture plants.

everyone talks about fire and the wheel. well the wheel, that was an unnamed ancestor of our p. josiphus. myth has it lightning gave us fire, but it was more likely something stupid coyote did with his clowning around.

just like humans are believed to have evolved out of something he forgot to bury.

I'm going to have to say Nikola Tesla. He paved the way for today's wireless technology and is the man who invented all the components that made the radio possible.

Ehm... radio is actually credited to Marconi (first working experiment 1893, predating both Tesla's and Bose's claims). The US supreme court ruling (1943) was made in a time when US were at war with fascist Italy, and Marconi had been a supporter of fascism; plus Tesla was born Yugoslav and a US citizen, so it is very likely that wartime politics played a role.

Tesla is surely one of the greatest inventors ever, mostly for technology about alternate current. Anyway, I'd like to nominate:

Leonardo da Vinci: the ultimate Renaissance man
George Cayley and Otto Lilienthal: flight pioneers, gave the right shape to artificial wings
Alessandro Volta: maybe not many inventions, but the electric battery is the key to the 2nd industrial revolution and most of 20th century technology
Konstantin Ciolkovskij (Tsiolkovsky): theoriser of modern orbital rocket, space airlocks, and air cushion vehicles
Thomas Edison: for sheer number of inventions, and for lightbulb (which led to lightbulb-related humour!)
Ooga-Ooga-Kuk-Bakuk: for fire
Bonk-Goo-Toktok: for wheel

Al Gore, for inventing the internet.

I'm partial to Robert Zubrin, for some of the concepts he's helped come up with for making interplanetary travel a reality. Both the "Mars Direct" Plan, and the magnetic sail concept. The man should have a Nobel Prize, or two.

I'm not sure if he counts for this thread though, because his inventions have not been field tested due to lack of funding.

The guy who put the bomp in the bomp-a-bomp-a-bomp, the ram in the ram-a-lam-a-ding-dong, the bop in the bop-she-bop-she-bop and the dip in the dip-de-dip-de-dip!

Leonardo da Vinci: the ultimate Renaissance man
Hands down. Sad that it took until page 3 to mention him.

Who do you think was the greatest inventor of all time? Thomas Edison? Alexander Graham Bell? The guy who invented the fridge?


I'm going to have to say Nikola Tesla. He paved the way for today's wireless technology and is the man who invented all the components that made the radio possible.

The person who invented the alphabet. Although I guess they were more than one over the years.
Followed very, very closely by Guthenberg.

Edit : Oh, and whoever it was who thought of the concept of "0".
Those people made the world we live in possible.

The source of all knowledge everywhere (aka "Wikipedia") doesn't know. It does mention that the earliest documented condoms were used in Asia. It also mentions that a man named Gabriele Falloppio wrote a treatise on syphilis discussing the use of a linen sheath (soaked in a chemical solution and allowed to dry before use) held on by a ribbon to prevent the disease.

And has caused the Catholic Cathedral of Condom to have a wonderfully ironic name. Alas they got rid of the post of 'Bishop of Condom'

John Moses Browning *nods*

Yup, the best weapons designer in history.

p. josiphus agricola, although it the universe only knew, focault ogg would be either first or second, if willie mcgillie hadn't stollen neraly all his ideas while publicly oppressing them.

the REAL inventors of many things, perhapse most, will never be known to the general public. this is not to deny that those often credited were great beings, and even of these, not all were entirely human.

no one credits audifax o'hanlon for his quantum improvements to the cameroi education system. nature herself has invented many of the most important innovations of all time, like 100% recycling, something nothing human has as yet come close to replicating, or co-transpiration, the proccess by which plants create breathing mixture for animals and animals feed and nurture plants.

everyone talks about fire and the wheel. well the wheel, that was an unnamed ancestor of our p. josiphus. myth has it lightning gave us fire, but it was more likely something stupid coyote did with his clowning around.

just like humans are believed to have evolved out of something he forgot to bury.

Agricola? He created Finnish. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikael_Agricola

Ehm... radio is actually credited to Marconi (first working experiment 1893, predating both Tesla's and Bose's claims). The US supreme court ruling (1943) was made in a time when US were at war with fascist Italy, and Marconi had been a supporter of fascism; plus Tesla was born Yugoslav and a US citizen, so it is very likely that wartime politics played a role.


Marconi built the first radio yes, but Tesla owned the patent on all 7 components Marconi used to build it with.

Who do you think was the greatest inventor of all time? Thomas Edison? Alexander Graham Bell? The guy who invented the fridge?


I'm going to have to say Nikola Tesla. He paved the way for today's wireless technology and is the man who invented all the components that made the radio possible.
tesla wasnt the greatest inventor he was just the coolest.

People like Tesla are very much "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants" kind of guys. By the time they were around, science was cool. It wouldn't get you in a lot of trouble like Gallileo or Newton (I know they are theorists, not inventors), but it still makes the points.

That's why I'd say Da Vinci. While the renaisance was in full swing, there was still risks involved with being a scientist then .

I think it's also interesting in comparing theorists and inventors. The periodic table is incredibly important. Does that qualify as an invention?

Archimedes, da Vinci, and Tesla are all good choices. I have always disliked Edison - there is something wrong with a man who can electrocute an elephant. I am quite grateful to Les Paul and Tim Berners-Lee.

Ehm... radio is actually credited to Marconi (first working experiment 1893, predating both Tesla's and Bose's claims). The US supreme court ruling (1943) was made in a time when US were at war with fascist Italy, and Marconi had been a supporter of fascism; plus Tesla was born Yugoslav and a US citizen, so it is very likely that wartime politics played a role.

Tesla is surely one of the greatest inventors ever, mostly for technology about alternate current. Anyway, I'd like to nominate:

Leonardo da Vinci: the ultimate Renaissance man
George Cayley and Otto Lilienthal: flight pioneers, gave the right shape to artificial wings
Alessandro Volta: maybe not many inventions, but the electric battery is the key to the 2nd industrial revolution and most of 20th century technology
Konstantin Ciolkovskij (Tsiolkovsky): theoriser of modern orbital rocket, space airlocks, and air cushion vehicles
Thomas Edison: for sheer number of inventions, and for lightbulb (which led to lightbulb-related humour!)
Ooga-Ooga-Kuk-Bakuk: for fire
Bonk-Goo-Toktok: for wheel

You forgot Antonio Meucci (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Meucci). Not only he invented the telephone, but, among others:
U.S. Patent 122,478 1872 - improved method of manufacturing effervescent drinks from fruits
U.S. Patent 142,071 1873 - improvement in sauces for food

According to The Evolution Man, Once Upon A Time Age and What We Did To Father the inventor of fire is named Edward...

As impressive as guys like Edison, Tesla, Whittle, Ohain/Hahn, Diebner, Heisenberg, Oppenheimer and all the others were, no one can come close to having the impact on the world that Norman Borlaug did. He pretty much saved the first and second world from starvation in the 20th century and went a hell of a lot further in saving the third than anyone else with all the new strains of food crops he and his team came up with over the years. He reinvented genetic engineering to save the world and may be the greatest seldom sung hero in human history and certainly of our time.

As impressive as guys like Edison, Tesla, Whittle, Ohain/Hahn, Diebner, Heisenberg, Oppenheimer and all the others were, no one can come close to having the impact on the world that Norman Borlaug did. He pretty much saved the first and second world from starvation in the 20th century and went a hell of a lot further in saving the third than anyone else with all the new strains of food crops he and his team came up with over the years. He reinvented genetic engineering to save the world and may be the greatest seldom sung hero in human history and certwainly of our time.

The first time I heard from that guy, was on Penn & Teller(Gotta watch it today). I guess he's not so famous here.

That's why I'd say Da Vinci. While the renaisance was in full swing, there was still risks involved with being a scientist then .


The view of a long standing conflict between religion and science is outdated and largely obsolete in historical terms.

Whoever invented the plow....http://books.google.com/books?id=0k_3KC9aBy4C&pg=PA25&lpg=PA25&dq=William+Hardy+McNeill,+%22the+plow%22&source=web&ots=5dZfrqTRcI&sig=JnlZ3e0fW14-E9RG-cHIP_kpQkc

I say Grog. Brog invented fire. Grog invented sleep.

Chinese people are the greatest inventors. Without the compass, paper, gunpowder (!), and printing, where would we be?
Without the gunpowder there would be a lot more inventors in the world? :D

And without gun manufacturers there would be a lot more people making tools beneficial for mankind?

The first time I heard from that guy, was on Penn & Teller(Gotta watch it today). I guess he's not so famous here.
Exactly, hardly anyone even knows this Nobel Laureate even exists. His contributions still changed the world and he deserves much more praise and credit than he's gotten.

Fixed.

It ain't charlatanism if it sells and becomes the standard. Unless you're calling Bill Gates a charlatan, too....
Bill gates IS a charlatan!

And without gun manufacturers there would be a lot more people making tools beneficial for mankind?

Yep, imagine how many sword manufacturers would have been there :D

As for my guesses, I'd nominate Tesla and Archimedes, weren't they already mentioned.

Gutenberg. None of the others' work would have happened without the introduction of movable type.

Gutenberg was just coping Bì Shēng's movable type printing press that predated his by 400 years.
source:
Tsien, Tsuen-Hsuin (1985). "part one, vol.5", in Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China,: Paper and Printing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Page 201-202.

and Bì Shēng for best inventor of all time.

Mr Cadburys. I know he didn't invent chocolate but he invented Dairy Milk and more importantly the Golden Crisp which make life worth living.

The "World's Greatest Inventor" has to be without doubt......God!!

The protohuman that developed the knife.

As impressive as guys like Edison, Tesla, Whittle, Ohain/Hahn, Diebner, Heisenberg, Oppenheimer and all the others were, no one can come close to having the impact on the world that Norman Borlaug did. He pretty much saved the first and second world from starvation in the 20th century and went a hell of a lot further in saving the third than anyone else with all the new strains of food crops he and his team came up with over the years. He reinvented genetic engineering to save the world and may be the greatest seldom sung hero in human history and certainly of our time.

Prone to agree. though Green peace compared him to Hitler.

Chuck Norris

Zefram Cochrane, inventor of Warp Drive.

John Moses Browning

I like JMB's works but for invention Hiram Maxim or possibly the origonal boffin Barnes Wallis

For some reason this thread reminds me of the Tesla song "Edison's Medicine"

Nikola Tesla.

http://www.teslasociety.com/teslapic00.jpg

The "World's Greatest Inventor" has to be without doubt......God!!
Fictional characters are not permitted.

Epic burn.

Without gunpowder, nobody would have any food since there would be too many people :p .

beings outside the known space-time continuum are not permitted.

fixed

Otto Frederick Rohwedder.

fixed
No, there is nothing to fix. God is a character in a largely fictional book intended to teach social standards.

If you want to believe in God then go ahead but unless you can prove that God exists we're going to assume that I'm it.

Fictional characters are not permitted.
sure they are. the problem with posing big, friendly and invisible is that nothing that is claimed to be known (by anyone other then those IT chooses to be channeled by, which only happens once every thousand years, give or take a few hundred) is other then speculation. felt yes, and the universe is not limited to knowledge by any means.

so big friendly and invisible MIGHT be the ulitimate "inventor", but is somewhat beyond the scope of THIS earth, besides being beyond the scope of any reasonably narrow deffinician of actual knowledge.

whatever god is or isn't, anything anyone thinks they know about it, is only within the limitations of what they are capable of imagining knowing, where as, a diety, by definician, supposedly isn't.

No, there is nothing to fix. God is a character in a largely fictional book intended to teach social standards.

If you want to believe in God then go ahead but unless you can prove that God exists we're going to assume that I'm it.



sure they are. the problem with posing big, friendly and invisible is that nothing that is claimed to be known (by anyone other then those IT chooses to be channeled by, which only happens once every thousand years, give or take a few hundred) is other then speculation. felt yes, and the universe is not limited to knowledge by any means.

so big friendly and invisible MIGHT be the ulitimate "inventor", but is somewhat beyond the scope of THIS earth, besides being beyond the scope of any reasonably narrow deffinician of actual knowledge.

whatever god is or isn't, anything anyone thinks they know about it, is only within the limitations of what they are capable of imagining knowing, where as, a diety, by definician, supposedly isn't.

Please do not turn this thread into another debate on theology.

No, there is nothing to fix. God is a character in a largely fictional book intended to teach social standards.

Well the Bible is a collection of books, many of the Old Testament is about the history of the Jews and the laws that the Jewish faith abides by. But as SaintB requested he doesn't want this to turn into yet another theology and I won't continue.

But I have already said my answer to the OP.

But a lot of people have said Tesla. I want to know why so many people have said Tesla?

A lot of people said Tesla because he was a famous inventor and many consider him to have been ahead of his time as many of his inventions and ideas required other technology not present when he was alive. But toward the end of his life he started to lose it, entertaining increasingly fanciful ideas like a death ray.

While I recognize his contributions I don't consider him to be the best inventor ever because some of the things he came up with were just stupid and even his greatest achievements didn't end world hunger or cure polio or anything like that.

A lot of people said Tesla because he was a famous inventor and many consider him to have been ahead of his time as many of his inventions and ideas required other technology not present when he was alive. But toward the end of his life he started to lose it, entertaining increasingly fanciful ideas like a death ray.

While I recognize his contributions I don't consider him to be the best inventor ever because some of the things he came up with were just stupid and even his greatest achievements didn't end world hunger or cure polio or anything like that.

He actually worked on the peace ray from 1900 to 1937. It was a workable concept just he was a few orders of magnitude off on the energy requirements.

How about if Tesla hadn't invented the transistor and all the other things that were part of the first radios (dare I call them protoradios?) I wouldn't have a job?

How about if Tesla hadn't invented the transistor and all the other things that were part of the first radios (dare I call them protoradios?) I wouldn't have a job?

I'm not saying that people shouldn't like him, it just seems like a large amount of people on this thread stated him as the best inventor and I was wondering if there some pop culture thing behind it or something else.

And SaintB I dare say you would have a job it just would be in something else or maybe even in radio as someone else would have invented it.