Greatest Inventor Poll.

[Stephen]

The Scotsman has an on-line poll for readers to indicate their choice for Scotland's greatest inventor. The web link is at http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/invento ... ction=vote . Of course, I voted for John Logie Baird.

[Viewmaster]

Fleming and Watt are far more important than Baird.

Curing disease and steam locomotion have been more relevant to mankind's progress than entertainment on the box.

Albert.

[M3DVQ]

yeah, but everybody's got a tv in their front room, but not many have steam engines and petri dishes full of penicillin.

[Viewmaster]

Just imagine if it were not possible to watch moving pictures because the eye had no persistance of vision and any attempt to do this just resulted us seeing a series of static images only, not moving.

We would still have the internet for email and static images etc etc. At home we would have more audio equipment, pianos and other musical instruments for home entertainment.
News would be brought to us in a series of photographs as it once was.
More newspapers would be sold and the radio would have developed in other directions maybe.
Would all this have lead to greater happiness for mankind or not without any TV or cinema?
Albert.

[Stephen]

I agree with Albert that medical advancement is more important than entertainment. Certainly Mr Flemming's discovery of penicillin was a great achievement that has greatly benefitted humanity.

However, a discovery is not an invention. Mr Flemming discovered penicillin in 1929 when he realised that green mould growing in one of his petri dishes killed all the bacteria around it. Certainly he was a great scientist, but not an inventor.

Mr Watt was not the first to demonstrate a working steam engine. That honour goes to Thomas Savery. However, Mr Watt developed significant improvements to the steam engine that significantly improved its usefulness. Still, the most important technological advance of steam power was probably Charles Parson's steam turbine. That is the generator of steam power that we use in modern times.

Television is not just for entertainment. It plays an important part in medical imaging, security surveillance, weather forecasting and general data display. It would not really be practical to have internet communications without the sort of instantaneous displays made possible by television. Practical radar would not have been possible without such instantaneous displays either.

Mr Baird was the first to demonstate true television, so there is no question in my mind that he invented it. The principles that he invented with respect to television imaging, from embedded synchronisation signal generation and detection, colour television of the field, line and dot sequential types and 3-D television are all used or have been used in television for medical imaging purposes to the present time.

[Viewmaster]

However, a discovery is not an invention. Mr Flemming discovered penicillin in 1929 when he realised that green mould growing in one of his petri dishes killed all the bacteria around it. Certainly he was a great scientist, but not an inventor.

The Scotsman made no distinction in their listing which contained both inventors and discoverers so it is legit to pick discoverers.

Albert.

[Stephen]

The Scotsman made no distinction in their listing which contained both inventors and discoverers so it is legit to pick discoverers.

I think that the Scotsman staff do not recognise the difference, which is unfortunate. Perhaps they should have had a poll of the greatest Scottish scientific minds, with which I would have no issue. As it stands, Messrs Flemming, Watt, Maxwell and Lord Kelvin, although unquestionably great scientific minds, should not have been on the list. My choice was based on the true inventors listed.

[M3DVQ]

I agree with Albert that medical advancement is more important than entertainment. Certainly Mr Flemming's discovery of penicillin was a great achievement that has greatly benefitted humanity.

However, a discovery is not an invention. Mr Flemming discovered penicillin in 1929 when he realised that green mould growing in one of his petri dishes killed all the bacteria around it. Certainly he was a great scientist, but not an inventor.

Mr Watt was not the first to demonstrate a working steam engine. That honour goes to Thomas Savery. However, Mr Watt developed significant improvements to the steam engine that significantly improved its usefulness. Still, the most important technological advance of steam power was probably Charles Parson's steam turbine. That is the generator of steam power that we use in modern times.

Television is not just for entertainment. It plays an important part in medical imaging, security surveillance, weather forecasting and general data display. It would not really be practical to have internet communications without the sort of instantaneous displays made possible by television. Practical radar would not have been possible without such instantaneous displays either.

Mr Baird was the first to demonstate true television, so there is no question in my mind that he invented it. The principles that he invented with respect to television imaging, from embedded synchronisation signal generation and detection, colour television of the field, line and dot sequential types and 3-D television are all used or have been used in television for medical imaging purposes to the present time.

Baird only brought great developments to the system though, like Watt with the steam engine.
The original idea really was Nipkow's though Baird was the first to make a working system.
then again I suppose you could argue that the steam turbine was invented by the greeks, so it all gets a bit silly at that point

[Viewmaster]

Further to the Scotsman poll...they had the Baird write up here 8th Sept...
http://living.scotsman.com/people.cfm?id=1434762007

Baird described his invention as "a most dangerous device... liable to burst at any moment and hop around the room with showers of broken glass".

Albert.