Everything we take for granted today must have been by definition been invented previously, so any list of who-invented-what contains Great People Of The Past b

Everything we take for granted today must have been by definition been invented previously, so any list of who-invented-what contains Great People Of The Past but doesn't contain the rank and file of those who worked in obscurity and achieved little, leaving the impression that in the past folks were smarter. It is a form of survivorship bias.