Do geniuses get the credit for their work?

Often, no.

Why do I say this? Well, history is littered with examples of brilliant people whose creative work is either misappropriated or just wrongly credited to someone else. This does no-one any good (apart from the person receiving credit for work they didn't do).

I will give you an example. Have you heard of Peter Desaga? Think hard. Nope? Well, I am not surprised, but I am fairly sure that almost all readers will know of his invention. If you have ever been in a chemistry lab it is something you will have used. Any wiser? No? Well, think of the name Robert Wilhelm Bunsen. Is that familiar in some way? Yes? I bet you remembered then, the "Bunsen" Burner. I say "Bunsen" deliberately, because Bunsen didn't invent the Bunsen Burner, at all. His assistant, Peter Desaga did, by modifying an earlier design of Michael Faraday's.

Now, I think it is rather wrong that Robert Bunsen got the credit for this invention when it was actually his assistant who did the work and created the product. But, the tale gets worse. You see Bunsen did something rather magnanimous with his assistant's idea: he gave it away for free! That's right, Peter Desaga wasn't even rewarded for his invention - and Bunsen looked very generous in giving away, for nothing, something that was not his to give.

Only a few specialists in Chemistry would have heard of Bunsen were it not for the odd fact that the Bunsen Burner - which he didn't invent - is named after him. Bunsen is now an immortal - in name, at least - but Peter Desaga, the man who actually invented it, is an unknown. That is terribly wrong. In writing this article I have just increased Desaga's fame many times - and this is just a blog. How sad that is.

So, no, geniuses don't always get the credit - and often the ones who do are simply socially more important and therefore in a position to leverage credit towards themselves - it is not right and is not good for the health of science, culture or the arts - or wherever this phenomenon occurs. So, Mr. Bunsen, I am going to start calling it a Desaga Burner, from now on. (Or maybe the Desaga-Faraday Burner.) Perhaps you should too. It would only be right.

Oh, by the way, it was Ainan, my seven year old son, who tipped me off about Bunsen's undeserved credit: he didn't like it either.

(If you would like to read about Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and four months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, three, and Tiarnan, fourteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, IQ, intelligence, gifted education, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted children and gifted adults in general. Thanks.)