In article <MPG.107905ecb9b1e91d9896e5 at nntp.mindspring.com>,
Paul Hsieh <qed at pobox.com> wrote:
>>I mean who are you going to compare against? Edison? According to some
>history books, he spent a few years searching for what ended up being
>Tungsten. But the truth is, he commissioned lots of people to do that
>actual hunting, and he did not envision that amount of time it would take
>to find it from the outset. Furthermore, I don't think he expended a lot
>of mental energy looking for it.
And besides, Joseph Swan (later of the Edison-Swan electric light
company, strangely enough) independently developed the electric light
bulb before Edison anyway. The incandescent light was, quite
literally, the state of the art at the time. If Swan and Edison hadn't
both come up with the idea, someone else would have done within a few
years.
If you're considering technologists who have had a profound impact on
our lives, here're a few that may be worth considering:
Abraham Darby (blast furnace)
Humphrey Davey (electric light (arc lamp), amongst other things)
George Stevenson (railway locomotive)
Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace (digital computer (never built), and
programming languages, respectivley)
Of the more pure scientists, Newton has already been mentioned, but
has anyone put Bacon forward?
--
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/* | */8,!l&&puts(&l)**&l:j--;printf(" \0_/"+l));while((l^=3)||l[++i]);}
/* \_,hris Brown -- All opinions expressed are probably wrong. */
