Talk:List of inventors

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Barry Ethridge[edit]

Removed text:

*Barry Ethridge - High-Speed Data communications via Optical Fiber, amongst others

This was an autobiographical entry, by someone who seems unencyclopedic. The article is listed on VfD, with no votes to keep so far except my formal one requesting we talk to him first. Andrewa (talk) 01:21, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Pare list down to actual inventors (the occupation?)[edit]

Lead def: "This is a list of notable inventors" seems to point to this as being a list of people who worked as inventors as an occupation (OD, second meaning), as opposed to a redundant list of inventions or a list someone who happened to invented something. Planning on cleaning list up to lead def. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 16:11, 2 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure what that would mean. I work in research and have 70 issued US patents – do I qualify as being an inventor by occupation? Or are the inventions just a by-product of what I do? Dicklyon (talk) 06:42, 3 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

An inventor would be any bio where they are designated as an "inventor" as their occupation or part of their occupation in the lead. The way the list is now its basically a list of inventions (we already have that list) and includes allot of people who were not inventors as an occupation, they just invented something as a means to a further end they were trying to achieve. We can always start another list "List of people credited with inventions", (it would be a long list) and copy this list there, and then pare this list down to the Teslas, the Edisons, etc. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 01:44, 5 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I prefer one List of Inventors. I believe we will make things more confusing and stir up a lot of arguments if we try to define "occupation" and wrangle over whom to include on or exclude from a separate list. Let's keep it simple: if a person invented something, and that person has an article on WP, they earn the right to be on this list. Yes, it may be a big list, but alphabetization provides an easy finding aid. DonFB (talk) 03:38, 5 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Occupation seems like a luxury. Plenty of noteworthy/important inventions came from someone in a context of need/perspective, not because they were in a position to dedicate themselves full-time to sit and wonder what they might invent. Justapersona (talk) 22:29, 3 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

a.o.[edit]

A number of entries include an unexplained "a.o", e.g.:

Hal Anger (1920–2005), U.S. – a.o. Well counter (radioactivity measurements), gamma camera

What does this mean? we shouldn't have unexplained abbreviations here. TJRC (talk) 20:12, 1 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Truly cryptic; possibly "alphabetically organized", though I don't know why it would be selectively used. If there's no good explanation, I intend to search-and-replace/blank them all soon. DonFB (talk) 22:21, 1 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

[1] suggests it may have been intended to mean "among others", which would make sense in this context. However, being unable to confirm that, I'm loathe to assume that's what the adding editor intended and expand the abbreviation. Time to strike them. TJRC (talk) 20:48, 1 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Relegating Women to a Second List?[edit]

Does it bug anyone else that there are almost no females on this list, and yet there are many female inventors in Wikipedia.

In fact, there is a DIFFERENT list, List of women inventors. User:Justapersona 22:36, 3 November 2020‎ (UTC)[reply]