The NYT has a story on the invention of the first sound recorder that brings out some important ideas about how difficult it is to credit an invention to a particular individual even today.
“It’s rare that you’ve got a major breakthrough that wasn’t developed by multiple people at about the same time,” said Mark Lemley, professor of intellectual property at Stanford Law School.
……
Whom we credit with an invention often has less to do with who came up with an idea, and more to do with who translated it into something usable, accessible, commercial. Garages and laboratories, workbenches and scribbled napkins are filled with brilliant ideas unmatched with determination, resources and market sensibilities, said Jack Russo, a Silicon Valley intellectual-property lawyer.
The New York Times March 30, 2008
Edison …Wasn’t He the Guy Who Invented Everything?
See also this NYT story on Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville’s recording which is now audible again
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