HOME | FUNNY ARTICLES | TOP NEWS REPORTS | SUBMIT
|
Dec. 4, 2009 It’s become very fashionable these days to assert dogmatically that great minds come from all ethnic groups, apparently with more or less equal frequency. This claim is entirely false. Almost all of the great inventions and discoveries that have advanced civilization significantly were made by Europeans or Americans of European extraction. In an earlier article, I mentioned Karl Benz, Thomas Edison, Alan Turing, William Shockley and the Wright brothers, for their invention of the automobile, the light bulb and other electrical devices, computers, the transistor and airplanes. While of course the earliest versions of these inventions cannot compare with the latest versions, it’s highly probable that most of the significant improvements, like the original inventions themselves, were developed by Europeans and Euro-Americans There were many, many other inventors, engineers and manufacturers of the same extraction, far too numerous to name in a short article. But I thought it might be illuminating to list a few, providing links to Wikipedia’s articles about them, most of which contain revealing pictures. A very fine example is Ferdinand de Lesseps, a Frenchman who directed the construction of the Suez Canal , one of the wonders of the modern world. He also started work on the Panama Canal , but was unable to complete the task: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesseps,_Ferdinand_Marie,_Vicomte_de Another truly great Euro-American mind was that of William Boeing, who founded the world’s most prestigious commercial aircraft manufacturing company: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Boeing And of course we should not forget Cyrus McCormick, a white American who invented the reaper and founded International Harvester Company, whose machines tilled the great plains: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_McCormick A Russian by the name of Sergei Korolyov (or Korolev) designed the first artifical satellite, Sputnik, which was launched in the 50’s and began the march into space that we all benefit from today: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Korolyov Then there was Charles Goodyear, who developed the process for vulcanizing rubber that makes tires possible and has enabled the automotive industry to produce the millions of vehicles on the road: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Goodyear Everyone knows that big trucks have Diesel engines and probably understands how vital trucks are to the economy as we know it. The inventor was Rudolf Diesel, a German: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Diesel Alexander Bell, a Scot, is widely known for his invention of the telephone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Graham_Bell Less famous perhaps is Joseph Jacquard, a Frenchman who invented the Jacquard loom, which enabled patterned fabrics like brocade to be woven by machines. Many of his ideas were introduced into computer technology, then in its infancy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Jacquard Richard Trevithick, a man from Cornwall , England , is credited with the invention of the first locomotive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Trevithick Most Americans have heard of Eli Whitney, who invented the cotton gin. Still today cotton is one of the leading four or five agricultural crops in the world, so Whitney’s invention should not be underestimated: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Whitney,_Jr. Elias Howe was the American who invented the sewing machine, a device of tremendous importance in a world where people need clothes and other sewn goods: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elias_Howe One of the greatest of all American industrialists and manufacturers was Henry Ford. He’s the man that put cars on the road in the US . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford There were many, many others, and I haven’t even begun to name the names of European and Euro-American men who propounded theories that did not lead directly to contrivances, men like Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Copernicus and Michael Faraday. At this point I would like to be able to start listing illustrious inventors, engineers and industrialists of Asian, Black, Hispanic, Amerindian or Pacific antecedents, but they are just not there. You’d have to search all five of those ethnic groups put together to come up with a name or two. In my opinion, this is not likely to change. It’ll be the day when an American Indian or Polynesian invents anything! You have to dig awfully deep to turn up a Black, Hispanic or Asian inventor or any note. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Visit my website here. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! 
------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
