(no subject)

[fabrisse]

The country that invented the automobile was Germany -- some guy by the name of Benz.

We were the country that invented the assembly line and made it affordable, thanks to Henry Ford. (Lucy used to work in the original Ford factory in Cambridge, MA.)

I know it's trivial, but what would fact-checking have hurt?

Comments

[thorbol.livejournal.com]

Yeah, wonder who came up with that little misfire.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

I'm unemployed. I'd love to be his fact-checker. *G*

Well, we have to be fair

[alyburns.livejournal.com]

since who actually invented it is up for grabs (since even DaVinci is given *some* credit) - and the French love to take claim (steam) in the late 1700's. Scotland loves to take credit for, oddly enough, an electric version (early 1800's?)!!! THEN comes Germany (in the late 1800's), with not one, but THREE (one was a partnership)men vying for the honor (gasoline), Benz, and then Daimler and his partner...shit, the name escapes me. BUT America comes in before France with of course, Selden in 1870-something. He designed the first auto with a combustible engine but the reason everyone else takes credit is that he never actually manufactured it. :( BUT his patents worked well for him. :) I don't think we 'technically' built one until the very end of the 1800's. :(

So I'll cut Obama a break. :)

Re: Well, we have to be fair

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Selden never built a working prototype.

The first US cars, the Duryea automobiles, were seen nearly ten years after the Benz three wheeler and Daimler/Maybach four wheelers were seen in Germany. I lived in Mannheim and used to pass the plaque announcing the place where Benz first drove his internal combustion powered automobile on my Sunday walks.

The US did so much for the auto industry. Ford really did revolutionize manufacturing. He took cars out of the realm of a bespoke product for the rich to something anyone could own. We have a lot to be proud of around cars which is why it bothered me that Obama couldn't acknowledge we weren't first.

I'm sure it was an oversight. It rankled because I remember the Soviets claiming they were the first to invent anything important. Nothing could have originated elsewhere.

It's important to me that we take pride in our real accomplishments rather than feel the need to be "the best" or "the first." If we're not the best, we can improve until we are. If we weren't the first, maybe we were the ones who made the feat practical. American ingenuity is boundless.

Re: Well, we have to be fair

[alyburns.livejournal.com]

Selden never built a working prototype.

Uh...yes, I think I said that *g* ::points down::

He designed the first auto with a combustible engine but the reason everyone else takes credit is that he never actually manufactured it.

I think the issue comes from how people interpret the word "invent" - if you have the idea, put it on paper, but aren't the one to build it (but the royalties from your design make you rich for life) - can you be said to be the one who 'invented' the auto? Does invent = build?

Selden designed an automobile in 1876 - ten years before Benz built his. (Duryea - 1893)

So does designing count as inventing or do you actually have to be the one to build it too? ::shrug:: Don't ask me - but clearly Obama's speech writer believes that designing is inventing! LOL!

Re: Well, we have to be fair

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

By not building it -- this isn't manufacturing, this is a working prototype -- he never got a patent. He did get a later patent which was more similar to the existing Benz engine. I think not having the original patent puts him out of the race.

I'm not denigrating American ingenuity, but I think it's important to remember we're the great levelers. People invent things all over the world, but we're often the ones who make it affordable or practical.

Benz and Daimler were each turning out about 600 automobiles a year. Ford's first production line turned out a car every fifteen minutes. By my rough calculations, two weeks of running exceeded the other two companies yearly outputs.

One of my favorite patent stories is the one about the guy who wanted to patent the waterbed. A rival, who would have owed royalties to the guy with the patent, pointed out that the full description already existed in A Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein. No patent was awarded. The guy who built it didn't design it, and Heinlein never built it.

Re: Well, we have to be fair

[alyburns.livejournal.com]

but we're not talking about you and me - we're talking about a speech writer *g* and the fact that *several* countries make the claim of invention - not who first manufactured it.

Me, I give it to Da Vinci. :)

Re: Well, we have to be fair

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

I'll go with that. *G*