Over half of Britons are unaware that the world wide web was invented by a Briton, Sir Tim Berners-Lee. And almost no one knows that the humble light switch was the brainchild of John Henry Holmes of Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1884. I certainly didn’t.
The revelations come at the opening of the Make it in Great Britain exhibition which has just opened at the Science Museum, London. According to today’s story in The Telegraph, the British public is woefully ignorant of past national successes.
Television was invented by Scotsman James Logie Baird above what is now the Bar Italia at 22 Frith Street, Soho, while the sewing machine was stitched together by a Brit. Fired with enthusiasm, the Make it in GB campaign believes scientists of the scepter’d isle are close to launching an invisible cloak. Must join the Kickstarter project on that one.
by Mike Evans, 29 August 2012