History can be selective when it wants to be. It's strange that in today's world so few people really know anybody behind some of the greatest technological achievements, choosing instead to create gods out of talentless "celebrities" who for some quite bizarre reason are held aloft as aspirational and inspirational. The only thing that these people inspire in me is an extreme urge to find the nearest toilet (thank you Sir John Herrington in 1596 & JF Brondel in 1738 for your works on flushing and valve systems). Of course, people know about the big guns - and possibly even the unlucky runners-up.