BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Ed T
Date: 09 May 14 - 07:20 PM

""The haggis is frequently assumed to be Scottish in origin though there is little evidence for this, and food writer Alan Davidson states that the Ancient Romans were the first people known to have made products of the haggis type. A kind of primitive haggis is referred to in Homer's Odyssey, in book 20, when Odysseus is compared to "a man before a great blazing fire turning swiftly this way and that a stomach full of fat and blood, very eager to have it roasted quickly." Haggis was "born of necessity, as a way to utilize the least expensive cuts of meat and the innards as well" (Andrew Zimmern). In times of famine people would eat whatever it was that they could get their hands on, which is how all those fascinating ingredients became a part of Scottish tradition.

Clarissa Dickson Wright repudiates the assumption of a Scottish origin for haggis, claiming that it "came to Scotland in a longship [ie. from Scandinavia] even before Scotland was a single nation.". Dickson-Wright further cites etymologist Walter William Skeat as further suggestion of possible Scandinavian origins: Skeat claimed that the hag– part of the word is derived from the Old Norse hoggva or the Icelandic haggw, meaning 'to hew' or strike with a sharp weapon, relating to the chopped-up contents of the dish. One theory claims that the name "haggis" is derived from Norman French. Norman French was more guttural than normal French so that the "ch" of "hachis", i.e. "chopped", was pronounced as the "ch" in "loch", giving "haggis".""

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Bert
Date: 09 May 14 - 01:38 AM

JLB's Television was a mechanical monstrosity, but it was still the first.

Instant mashed potato in 1962? What was POM in 1949?

Hero of Alexandria did work on steam engines but they did not influence modern steam engines. Likewise, Archimedes' work on infinitesimals did not influence calculus.

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: gnu
Date: 08 May 14 - 06:57 PM

Yes.. the English... well... Germans, seem to great at using the whole carcass. Waste not, want not

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: GUEST,Dazbo at Work
Date: 08 May 14 - 07:25 AM

The oldest known recipe for haggis is from England apparently.

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 May 14 - 05:34 PM

For Uncle Sam? More like Auntie.

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Musket
Date: 07 May 14 - 12:37 PM

There's an uplifting supportive fact for Uncle Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Ed T
Date: 07 May 14 - 12:33 PM

The modern bra was patented in 1914 in the United States by Mary Phelps Jacob.

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Musket
Date: 07 May 14 - 12:23 PM

I notice the Italian bloke who invented the telephone has been internationally acknowledged recently...

So, as I am in Och Aye the Noo Land right now and Salmond's secret agents may be monitoring my internet......

Scotland has given us,

Haggis
Deep fried haggis
Deep fried Mars Bar
Deep fried pizza
Stovies
Decent fire water
Coronary heart disease statistics to make the rest of us look good
Bay City Rollers
Dry shortbread
Tartan Tam 'o Shanters with ginger hair sticking out of them
Men in skirts (it'll never catch on)
Loch Ness Monster
Buoyant methadone market
Semi buoyant heroin market
A74, A1 and A68
The Coldstream road, I forget the number
Billy Connolly
Rab C Nesbit

Actually, quite a lot when you think about it.

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: eddie1
Date: 07 May 14 - 12:07 PM

Don't know about Rollers Dazbo but it's well known that we Scots invented the guider - I had one of them but never a Rolls Royce!
Other famous Scots you might have heard of are:
Picasso (Rothesay)
Einstein (Bathgate)
Kasparov (Glasgow)
and of course, Hitler, Goebbels, Rommel & Himmler - all from Kirriemuir, famous for its balls!

Eddie

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: GUEST,Dazbo at work
Date: 07 May 14 - 07:17 AM

Thanks eddie 1 I fell much better now :- )

I didn't know Rolls Royces existed in 1869 before Daimler (that well know Scot from Ecclefechan) invented the car!

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: kendall
Date: 06 May 14 - 07:40 PM

George Westinghouse invented the air brake system for RR cars in 1869.

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: eddie1
Date: 06 May 14 - 12:51 PM

Dazbo - I believe what I choose to believe. I also have a great deal of sympathy for those from less fortunate nations. There, there! (Bends down and pats Dazbo on head)

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 06 May 14 - 12:29 PM

Bell though he had lived in Canada for a while was still officially British when he invented his telephone. He only became a naturalised American later! As with many of these things various countries can lay claim.

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: GUEST,Dazbo at work
Date: 06 May 14 - 08:46 AM

Off the top of my head the television invented by JLB bears little or no relation to the TV used up until plasma or LCD - invented by USA and Russia?

Marmalade was invented in Portugal or Spain.

There were steam engines in ancient times and were even in use before Watt.

Breech loading and rifling existed before Ferguson

Dunlop and Graham Bell were both American by Naturalisation althugh born in Scotland.

Talking a load of Bollocks! invented in Scotland :- )

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 05 May 14 - 05:16 PM

eddie1:

I'd like to see documentation that Mrs. Keiller (or someone else in that business) actually INVENTED marmalade. If she did, I'm not really surprised. I used to eat Keiller's marmalade with great relish (if that's the right word under the circumstances), but I found some years since that that brand, at least as I bought it here in the US, had lost its distinctive bitter tone, in favor of being too sweet. Still made from Seville oranges, according to the label, but it had changed.

I can readily believe that possibly what we get here is now purposely denatured in order to meet what the salespeople thought was American taste. Durn shame, if so! Durn shame, either way. Now it just tastes like everyone else's marmalade.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: pdq
Date: 05 May 14 - 04:52 PM

eddie1...


Perhaps you can work James Clerk Maxwell into that tale. Some scientists consider him the greatest of alltime.

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Ed T
Date: 05 May 14 - 03:38 PM

You are right Ebbie, I did not notice the heading.

Sorry about that. (I will have to pay more attention before I link stuff) , as I dont have any anti African views). The post can be taken down mods.

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: eddie1
Date: 05 May 14 - 02:34 PM

As a Scot, I am naturally modest about myself and all things Scottish but this may be of interest!
"The typical Englishman finishes his breakfast of toast and MARMALADE invented by Mrs. Keiller of Dundee, Scotland- and slips into his RAINCOAT patented by Charles MacIntosh of Glasgow, Scotland, he walks to his office along an English lane which is surfaced by TARMAC, invented by John MacAdam of Ayr, Scotland - or he drives his English car which is fitted with PNEUMATIC TYRES patented by John Boyd Dunlop of Dreghorn, Scotland
Before he acquired a car he used to travel to the office by train which was powered by a STEAM ENGINE that was invented by James Watt of Greenock, Scotland.
In his office he deals with the mail bearing ADHESIVE STAMPS invented by James Chalmers of Dundee, Scotland. He lights up a CIGARETTE first manufactured by Robert Gloag of Perth, Scotland. And makes freqent use of the TELEPHONE invented by Alexander Graham Bell, born in Edinburgh, Scotland.
...He rings his wife, She tells him that dinner will be his favorite, ROAST BEEF - Aberdeen Angus, raised in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
He arrives home to find the TELEVISION on, invented by John Logie Baird of Helensburgh, Scotland, with an article regarding a programme on the US NAVY founded by John Paul Jones of Kirkbean, Scotland while his son prefers to read TREASURE ISLAND written by Robert Louis Stevenson of Edinburgh, Scotland. Meanwhile outside his daughter plays in the garden on her toy BICYCLE, an invention of Kirkpatrick MacMillan, of Thornhill, Scotland.
It is impossible for an Englishman to escape the ingenuity of the Scot's!
In desperation he could turn to the BIBLE only to find that the first named mentioned in the good book is a Scot - King James VI who authorized its translation.
He could of course take to drink, but only Scotland make the finest WHISKY in the world. Nearing the end of his tether he thinks about ending it all, he could put his head in the oven - however COAL GAS was discovered by William Murdoch of Ayr, Scotland. He could use a rifle to shoot himself but his BREECH LOADING RIFLE was invented by Captain Pat Ferguson of Pitfours, Scotland. If unsuccessful he could be injected with PENICILLIN discovered by Alexander Fleming of Darvel, Scotland or given an ANAESTHETIC invented by Sir James Young Simpson of Bathgate, Scotland.
Out of the anaesthetic his mood would not be improved by his surgeon telling him, he was as safe as the BANK OF England which was founded by William Paterson, of Dumfries Scotland.
Perhaps, in order to get some peace, he should request a transfusion of guid Scottish blood so that he too would be entitled to ask:-
WHA'S LIKE US? DAMN FEW AND THEY'RE A' DEID!"

Of course the most important fact there is the absence of the letter "e" in whisky!

Eddie

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 May 14 - 02:33 PM

OK. Now I want to see lists of inventions and innovations erroneously claimed by some other nations and peoples.

(I'm not sure why - maybe an inherent bias?- but the link posted by you, Ed T, about false claims by African Americans is disturbing to me.)

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: GUEST,McMusket
Date: 05 May 14 - 12:31 PM

Careful Troubadour.... You'll wake up the chippy armchair socialists. It's hard to balance a flute of Bollinger on your lap whilst fending off their posts....

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: GUEST,Troubadour
Date: 05 May 14 - 08:13 AM

"People that are jealous of a neighbor that has more than they do."

Plenty of those in the UK too Andrew! Mostly Labour voters..

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Ed T
Date: 05 May 14 - 07:25 AM

invention myths 

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: GUEST
Date: 05 May 14 - 06:29 AM

Browsing recently I came across an Anthology of American Poets and was a bit surprised to see William Shakespeare in there ...

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 May 14 - 10:02 PM

Thing is, Gore never said anything close to that. To the degree that he did, his assessment was accurate. (How come the Howler's aura seems so familiar?)

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: GUEST,The Howler
Date: 04 May 14 - 04:33 PM

Ebbie, what is your malfunction?

Al Gore is a huckster of the highest order. Clear enough?

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 May 14 - 04:25 PM

Good gracious, the Howler. Stupidity comes in many forms.

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: GUEST,The Howler
Date: 04 May 14 - 04:23 PM

Al Gore invented the internet, or so he said. Stupid bastard.

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Ed T
Date: 04 May 14 - 07:25 AM

Go to the end of the firs video of the leveraxe. There are additional videos showing various chopping swings.

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 04 May 14 - 03:17 AM

We visited Bletchley Park a few weeks ago.

Wonderful how for many many years our cousins claimed to have invented the computer, and sincerely believed it. The Official Secrets Act kept our code breaking ex telephone exchange quiet till a few years ago.

I was fascinated to see a reconstruction in use and working.

We could discuss whether the Babbage differential engine was a computer too, but the honours stay here I suppose.

Fairs fair. The USA is the only place I have seen cheese sold in a spray can. Although I suspect they are available in parts of Canada too....

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 May 14 - 03:07 AM

Wish they had shown the person wielding the Leveraxe. I wonder if it takes an overhead swing or a hatchet type?

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Ed T
Date: 03 May 14 - 09:29 PM

Sometimes a better product never takes off, other times they do. This axe may, or may not , replace the very old version.

new axe

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Ed T
Date: 03 May 14 - 09:24 PM

In addition to determining where inventers were from, there is the issue of the first of a kind, versus the first practicle version,and of what is use today. The chain saw is an example.

chain saw 

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Ebbie
Date: 03 May 14 - 09:11 PM

You know, I think the title would be more accurate if it said "Inventions *believed* to be American- by Americans."

When you look up just about any of those listed inventions, it gives a correct attribution.

Somehow we - or at least, I know that I frequently do- at some stage become so familiar with a historical person or fact I just assume it came from our part of our world. In other words we don't claim it on purpose or out of malice or avidity.

(Other times, claims become more problematic. For instance, Alexander G Bell was born in Scotland, grew up in Canada, lived and worked and became famous in the USA, had a home in both Canada and the US, died in Canada. So just what was he?)

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: GUEST,Skivee-guesting in
Date: 03 May 14 - 04:42 PM

So, Q, the instruction were a Rosetta stone for future pharma-archeologists

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 May 14 - 07:32 PM

My grandparents would only use "genuine Bayer Aspirin." Now some 70 years later, I only buy Bayer Aspirin by habit.
I think the trademark value held up in the minds of many people.

I remember when Bayer Aspirin came with a folder of instructions in many languages, including Yiddish. As a child, I would compare these little instructions and try to pronounce the words.

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 02 May 14 - 05:32 PM

per Freda Underhill:

1917 Aspro - A pain reliever based on aspirin was developed in Melbourne by George Nicholas. By 1940 it had become the world's most widely used headache and pain treatment.

The word "aspirin" should be rendered as "Aspirin", inasmuch as it was a trademark for acetylsalicilic (sp ??) acid, and thus the actual substance called "Aspirin" necessarily existed before that trademark was coined and owned by Bayer. If George Nicholas developed a pain reliever based on Aspirin, he didn't invent Aspirin (or aspirin), though he may have created a derivative compound of medical and thus commercial value.

Aspirin was what might be called the original wonder drug, with benefits in pain relief, fever treatment, blood thinning, and some other advantages. It was so valuable and so widely popular that the name was popularly thought to represent a generic substance, and so the trademark value of "Aspirin" was lost, long after 1917 and George Nicholas. Much to Bayer's chagrin.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 02 May 14 - 03:28 PM

Ed T - I thought he invented Bell helicopters. And his Ragtime Band was a joy to listen to.

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 02 May 14 - 02:27 AM

Not claimed as an invention as such, but asserted as a uniquely distinguishing feature of American identity. Apple pie. As in "American as apple pie" which I always find somewhat bizarre considering the ubiquity of apple pie throughout Europe and probably the world in general. America can lay claim to some great pies too, why pick on apple pie?

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Ed T
Date: 01 May 14 - 08:52 PM

And, Alexander Graham Bell invented Graham crackers.

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: GUEST,Don Firth
Date: 01 May 14 - 08:19 PM

Guglielmo Marconi invented Marconi and cheese. Kraft foods dishonestly lays claim to the invention.

Don Firth (You heard it here first).

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Jeri
Date: 01 May 14 - 08:17 PM

You seriously trying to pick a fight with somebody who posted nine years ago?

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 01 May 14 - 08:02 PM

Subject: BS:
From: GUEST,Clogger - PM
Date: 30 Dec 05 - 07:06 PM

There is a popular misconception that certain things were invented by our American cousins when in fact they WERE NOT!

I don't care what nation things were invented in, per se.

However, I am an American and I am NOT your cousin. Do you think the people living in every nation with which Britain has had a colonial relationship are Englishmen's "cousins"?

Or did you really mean to specify inventions by people of American nationality that are your and an unspecified 1st person plural's cousins?

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: GUEST,Mrr the trekkie
Date: 01 May 14 - 07:32 PM

Quatrotriticale. It's a russian inwention.

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: Ed T
Date: 01 May 14 - 03:16 PM

shipping ice 

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: GUEST,Andrew
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 01:13 PM

Indian abuse

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: GUEST,Andrew
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 11:38 PM

People that are jealous of a neighbor that has more than they do.

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 11:22 PM

Well the French do have strong Roman historical ties... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: number 6
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 11:14 PM

"Arrogant assholes." ... I thought that was specifically reserved for the French.

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: GUEST,Andrew
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 11:12 PM

Every problem in the world.

Subject: RE: BS: Inventions 'claimed' to be American
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 11:09 PM

"Arrogant assholes."

Nope - the Romans invented them... they too had the most powerful army...