Quiz time was one of the best times in school! You would learn so much and when someone tells it out loud, you normally do not forget!
If you attend a lot of quiz shows then by matter of experience itself your knowledge will improve! At least that is the idea!
Then again when you are not participating in the quiz you answer the questions very well from the audience while you get into the stage, the answer completely disappears from the memory!
Some classic questions were that everyone knew the answer and the competition was to actually get the answer first!
Like who invented the electric bulb everyone would scream Edison though if you practically see, he simply modified it! This is the issue with many such FACTS which we would have learnt when we were young!
Like who invented the steam engine? Avid quiz enthusiasts would scream James Watt right about now! But!…
The steam engine was not invented by a single person, but rather evolved over centuries.
James Watt is most famous for perfecting it, though Thomas Newcomen built the first practical engine, and Thomas Savery created the earliest commercial device fifty years before Newcomen!
So way back in 1698 Thomas Savery invented the “Miner’s Friend,” a steam-powered water pump. It was the first commercially used steam device, though it had limitations and was prone to explosions!
Then in 1712 Thomas Newcomen, built the first true atmospheric steam engine. Newcomen’s design was successfully used to pump water out of deep coal mines in England but consumed massive amounts of coal! That was not the goal!
Finally in the period of 1765–1769; James Watt while repairing a Newcomen model, noticed it wasted a massive amount of steam. He revolutionized the technology by adding a separate condenser, which vastly improved efficiency and paved the way for industrial machinery!
So basically he made the engine more practical and more importantly more PROFITABLE!
Later Innovations were equally innovative and profitable like in 1804 (Richard Trevithick): Built the world’s first high-pressure, full-scale steam railway locomotive.
1814 (George Stephenson): Built the first successful steam locomotive to pull a load on a public railway!
So even if you invent something useful, make sure it is profitable! Only then people will scream your name on the stage!
From believing everything to not believing anything we have come a full circle! If someone asks who is the inventor of a particular thing we would first Google and then only answer!
Of course that reminds me of Sundar Pichai…
Shubh ratri…
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