RE: Pride and Arrogance Re: American Attitudes (was Re: Hardworking?)

[Charlie Bell]

Gautam wrote:
> 2. Much of the basic work on rocketry was done by Robert Goddard, an
> American, who invented the liquid-fueled rocket.  This to the extent
> that when Werner von Braun was asked where he got the ideas behind the
> V2, he replied, very much in shock "But we got them all from you -
> from your Robert Goddard."  Braun thought of Goddard, not himself, as
> the inventor of the rocket.  So, according to the best German rocket
> scientist, the German rocket work was derivative of the work of an
> American rocket scientist.

I was half-way through penning a witty post on Goddard and so on, when I
realised that the Chinese invented the rocket several hundred years ago, and
any of my humour would fall flat... ;o)

Interesting and sad, though, that with America's great history (the one
thing I really do admire the US for) of taking up technology and developing
inventions into recognised products, it took German V2s landing on London
for the US to see the merits of Goddard's work. :o(

Charlie