We have been fascinated for years by the geniuses who come up with revolutionary innovations out of thin air. It’s always been smoke

We live in times in which innovation, creative genius and the search for the next technological revolution are everything. We all want to know who it is the next Mark Zuckerberg, the next Steve Jobs either the next Albert Einstein.

So much so that we project our way of looking at the world onto the past and, from time to time, texts appear that talk about the past. great forgotten geniuses to whom history did not do justice. But the truth is that most of the time, those great geniuses are rightly forgotten. Contrary to what we usually think, inventors usually do not exist. At least, if they are not lucky people.

Smoke (or vapor) sellers

Perhaps the best example is the steam engine. Which, in fact, must be one of the machines that has been invented the most times in History. The usual version is that the steam engine was developed and perfected in England between the end of the 17th century and the end of the 18th century. And that, on the other hand and always according to this version, was the engine of the industrial revolution.

It’s not exact. Although archaeologists could surely give us previous examples, the aeolipilethe first “steam engine”, was invented by Heron of Alexandria in the first century after Christ. At first, and for many years, it had a recreational purpose (it is a sphere filled with water that, when heated, rotates).

The first steam engine.

But Heron too created automatic doors and hydraulic fountains which allow us to affirm, without risking too much, that Roman scientists had more than enough capacity to design Thomas Savery’s steam engine without messing up.

Later, a century before, according to modern historiography, Mr. Savery invented the first steam engine, Jerónimo de Ayanz, a native of Navarra, also designed an incipient steam engine. Even before that we can find works by Florence Rivault, Taqui ad-Din or Giovanni Branca in which the steam engine was there, within reach.

Windmills, mops and table football

The same thing happens with water mills. Traditionally, it was considered that this type of mills had been discovered in the Middle Ages because it is the historical period from which we have material remains. But it’s not true. In ancient times, hydraulic mills were known, and very well. In fact, It is known that they also began to expand throughout the 1st century AD. And so on ad nauseum.

The question is clear: no, the mop It was not invented in Spain, nor the lollipopsneither the table football. As evidently, and strictly speaking, neither the Spanish nor the Vikings ‘discovered‘America. A few days ago we discussed here in Xataka who was the “creator” of injectable insulin (Nicholas Paulescu either McLeod, Banting and Best?) in a reissue of the famous paradox of “if a tree falls in the middle of the forest and no one hears it, Has it made noise? Has it even fallen?”

A key lesson we can draw from this is that, well, inventing something, discovering something, or developing genius is of no use. For hundreds of years we knew how to use water to produce physical work, but it wasn’t until the implosion of the slave system that mills really became popular.

For fifteen hundred years we knew everything there was to know to create a steam engine. In fact, wealthy children had small miniature engines. It was not until the specific needs of British mining introduced Savery’s gadget that the steam engine set out to change the world.

You don’t get here from nowhere. (Unsplash)

Mops and tiled floors, lollipops and the decrease in infant mortality, table football and the incipient improvement in the quality of life of the working classes. Victor Hugo said that “there is nothing more powerful in the world than an idea whose time has come.” And he had to be right because “without their moment”, ideas are nothing.

Technology, society and vice versa

The cult of innovation, creative genius and disruptive inventions is one of those characteristics of our time that permeates everything. But, in general, innovations are only of degree. Also in the world of technology where we can almost always find a proof of concept that, twenty years before, already advanced the next revolution in the sector.

Basically, as we examine technological history, we realize that seeing the world as a succession of great geniuses is very attractive, but not very realistic. Undoubtedly, there are people who advance the knowledge or technology of their time by decades, but if we want to get a real picture of how innovation has worked over the centuries, the strategy is different: think of history as a very long conversation full of opportunities, misunderstandings and moments of genius. There is no need to make it more attractive.

Image | Md Mahdi

In Xataka | One company has made the biggest breakthrough in toilet paper in 100 years. And its sales are skyrocketing

In Xataka | We have a long-term problem with concrete. That’s why someone has come up with staple bricks that don’t need it.