Misconceptions About Inventions

Tina: What are you reading, Rob?

Rob: I’m reading an interesting magazine about the most important inventions in history.

Tina: Oh yeah? We learnt about all of them in high school. Isn’t it boring to read them again?

Rob: No, the articles in this magazine are very interesting. I think we learnt wrong or incomplete information when we were kids, for example, about the invention of the light bulb.

Tina: Really? Everybody knows Edison invented it.

Rob: Wrong! Edison just improved it. Actually, an English chemist called Humphry Davy made it for the first time.

Tina: I can’t believe it. His name was never in our books.

Rob: Right. There was also another scientist called Joseph Swan. He improved the light bulb too, but Edison’s light bulb worked better.

Tina: Interesting. Does the article say anything about the invention of the automobile?

Rob: Yes. It says here that people usually think that Henry Ford designed the first car. But that’s not true.

Tina: I think I know the correct answer there. A German inventor made it. I think his name was Karl Benz.

Rob: True! I think there are lots of wrong articles about inventions, so people have a lot of wrong thoughts about who invented what.