INVENTIONS

Here are the answers, to the best of my knowledge:


PHOTOGRAPHY
TRUE: Most of the pioneering work in photography happened in France, and
almost no matter which process you consider to be the first true
photograph, it is likely to be French.

MOTION PICTURES
TRUE: The anteriority (and veracity) of the claim by the French Louis
Lumière is contested today - but the other contenders are all French
anyway. Many spectacular developments throughout motion picture history
were actually American applications of French inventions.
Not quite so many as the French claim, but many. . .

AVIATION
The French claim to the invention of aviation goes back to the frères
Mongolfier, who pioneered balloon flight. Depending on how you choose to
define aviation, the claim may have some legitimacy. The French have
always been important aviation pioneers, yet few specific breakthrough
inventions can be attributed directly to them. Powered flight is
generally attributed to the Wright Bros, though New Zealanders claim it
for their own Richard Pearse. The French claim the invention of the
airplane as well, however the assertion that any of Clement Ader's
pre-Wright devices actually flew has been largely discredited.

THE AUTOMOBILE
MAYBE: There were so many inventions, of so many different types over so
many years it is difficult to determine which is rightfully the precursor
of today's BMW 850. Benz is often cited, but the French Cugnot a century
earlier had a steam-driven machine that looks a lot like a car to me.

THE BICYCLE
FALSE: The French claim that their "Celerifere" from 1791 was the first
bicycle - an assertion particularly difficult to entertain, when one sees
Leonardo's 15th century drawings clearly depicting modem-looking
bicycles. Some Egyptologists even claim there may have been bicycles in
ancient Egypt - depictions are thought to be seen in some carvings.

SOUND RECORDING

TRUE : Charles Cros deposited a sealed letter to the French Académie des
Sciences in advance of Edison's own patent, and the letter was presented
in public session. Though he never built a machine, the anteriority of
the invention appears without serious contention today. Despite the
remarkable similarity of principles, it also appears highly unlikely that
Edison had any knowledge of Charles Cros or of his invention prior to
patenting and successfully building his own Phonograph. If Cros is the
inventor, the "Henry Ford" of the early audio industry is unquestionably
Emile Berliner, who created the first disc, the "Grammophone" (Cros and
Edison were using cylinders). Berliner created the Grammophon Company in
Germany (today Deutsche Grammophon). Not content with this trifling
experience, he moved to the US where he founded the immensely successful
Victor Talking Machine company, much later to merge with RCA to form the
illustrious moniker: RCA Victor.

RADIOACTIVITY (discovery of)
FALSE: The word "radioactivité" comes from Marie Curie, whose pioneering
work is of paramount importance, but of course it is subsequent to the
breakthrough discovery of X- Rays, by the German Roentgen in 1895.

IMMUNOLOGY
FALSE: Jenner (English) developed the smallpox vaccine a full century
before Pasteur's breakthrough work. And the ensuing century was also rife
with invention and discovery in the field, much of it occurring in
Germany. Since Pasteur, the French have been leaders though in immunology
research, and they first isolated the AIDS virus and its antibodies in
the 1980's. The Americans attempted disingenuously to usurp this
research, but the French anteriority was established. This did not
prevent the French nationalized blood bank from knowingly distributing
AIDS tainted blood, administered to hundreds of hemophiliacs and accident
victims over a two-year period, in order to avoid yielding market share
to safe products and methods available from the US.



BONUS QUESTION:
What nationality can legitimately claim Radio broadcasting, the Internal
Combustion Engine, and the Telephone? (ITALY)