Some may recognize the name Bette Nesmith Graham, if only because she was the mother of musician and composer Robert Michael Nesmith, a member of the 1960s band The Monkees, who later had a successful solo career in both music (winning a Grammy in 1981) and television (appearing in several series and even working as […]
Inventors
Posted inModern Era
The Curious Connection Between Edison and a Japanese Shrine Through Bamboo
In 1964, Madeleine Edison Sloane traveled to Japan and visited Iwashimizu Hachimangu, a Shinto shrine located in Kyoto Prefecture near the city of Yawata. The purpose of her visit was not tourism but rather to personally see a memorial within its walls and take part in one of the two festivals held there in memory […]
Posted inModern Era, Science
The Man Who Accidentally Invented the Modern Lightning Rod, Ignored by Science Until the 19th Century
The American Benjamin Franklin is often credited with inventing the lightning rod, among other things brought to light by his prodigious ingenuity. However, there were other scientists working on it simultaneously, and perhaps the most important of them was the Czech Prokop Diviš, a pioneer in Europe. What is really curious about his work is […]
Posted inModern Era
The Mysterious Disappearance of Louis Le Prince, the True Inventor of Cinematograph
In the first half of the 1990s, an old photograph appeared in the archives of the Préfecture de Police in Paris. It showed the body of an unidentified drowned person that quickly sparked speculation: could this unfortunate person be Louis Le Prince? Due to a lack of confirmation, we can only recall the story of […]
Posted inMiddle Ages
Abbas Ibn Firnas, the Andalusi Sage who Invented a Parachute and Wings for Flying
When did Man achieve flight for the first time? The question can be nuanced because one would need to specify if it refers to free flight or powered flight; it’s curious that in both cases, the answer is a pair of brothers, the Montgolfier or the Wright brothers, respectively. But to get to them, a […]
