(6) The Wright Brothers
It’s tough to envision the modern world without airplanes, but without a pair of printers-turned-bicycle-makers-turned-glider-builders, ocean liner travel might still be the only way to get to Europe. Although they never attended college, the Ohio brothers were such determined and keen students of mechanics and aerodynamics that they eventually got us off the ground after hundreds of failed attempts at flight. Plus, with apologies to Orville Redenbacher, both Wright brothers are still the greatest people ever to bear their respective first names.
(11) Henry Ford
Likewise, it’s nearly impossible to conceive of a world without cars. Although Ford can’t claim credit for inventing the automobile, his assembly line methods and Model T surely perfected the car and helped fuel the machine’s rapid world domination. Not just an industrialist, Ford was also an ardent supporter of rehabilitating convicts and returning them to productive jobs in mainstream society, often as line workers at Ford plants. One thing Ford didn’t like, though, was accounting. He steadfastly refused to hire accountants to the point that when he left the company, nobody really had any idea how much it cost to make a Model T.
The Breakdown
Take your pick: plane or car? To be sure, each nominee has some weaknesses. Ford has to shoulder the blame for traffic jams, while the Wright Brothers inadvertently gave birth to checked baggage fees and the middle seat on planes. Without either of them, though travel wouldn’t be the same. Who’s the bigger genius?
[poll=32]
[See the whole bracket here.]
Comments (12)
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Found it interesting that the vote was exactly 50/50 until I realized that the total number of votes was two.
posted by Betsy on 3-20-2009 at 3:03 pm
This one was a hard one.
posted by Dana on 3-20-2009 at 3:24 pm
I think that may have been the toughest one yet! Both have shaped our world today. I was leaning towards the Wright Brothers because of the impact airplanes have had on warfare and the delivery of the atomic bomb, but similar arguments can be made for the effects of the assembly line on modern warfare. Very tough.
posted by Chris on 3-20-2009 at 3:25 pm
I think this is an easy choice once you remember that Henry Ford was a “devout” Anti-Semite. The mechanized assembly line aside, that’s a game-changer for me.
posted by Jonathan on 3-20-2009 at 4:31 pm
It’s gotta go to Ford. There was already tons of inventors working on perfecting flight, if the Wright Brothers hadn’t accomplished it someone else would have. With the assembly line, Ford created a breakthrough idea that no one had thought of.
My vote is for outside the box thinking.
posted by NateJ on 3-20-2009 at 4:51 pm
Like jonathan said, Ford was a Anti-Semite. In fact, was was a big doner to the early Nazi party.
posted by KillerRabbit on 3-20-2009 at 7:27 pm
Wow, this is not even close. The wrights, through careful observation, deduction, study and experimentation solved the fundamental problem of control in flight, efficient lift, and propulsion that many, many brilliant people had been working to achieve for years.
Ford didn’t invent the assembly line and he sure didn’t “perfect the car”, he just improved on the concept as a sound business practice. Good, but not in the same league of genius as the Wrights.
posted by Brother Bill on 3-20-2009 at 8:56 pm
I’m voting for the ones that weren’t giant anti-Semites.
posted by Pablo on 3-21-2009 at 2:04 am
I think the choice is even easier if you consider the general opinion at the time that the Model T, in fact, was not a very good vehicle. Its popularity was due to the fact that it was about a third the price of other cars and the fact that Ford paid its own employees enough to buy their own cars. If not for those two good ideas (and the whole assembly line thing), Ford would be considered a terrible businessman by today’s standards.
posted by Wilson on 3-21-2009 at 1:55 pm
While they are both involved in transportation, there is a major difference.
The Wright brothers actually invented a mode of transportation, Henry Ford merely brought mass production to auto manufacturing.
Point to the Wright brothers.
posted by Mike on 3-21-2009 at 10:31 pm
Henry Ford did not invent the assembly line. He just was one of the first to recognize its usefulness in industry. The Wrights, on the other hand, did invent the airplane. Therefore, they win.
posted by Dan on 3-22-2009 at 12:39 am
Although they are both geniuses, I find it hard to make a vote for Henry Ford, because of his Anti-Semite proclivities. One also cannot deny the brilliance of the assembly line. It was such a good idea that Himmler used it as his model for Auschwitz. Although that’s not directly Ford’s fault, he certainly didn’t raise any voice against it.
posted by Kelly on 3-22-2009 at 12:44 pm