Another ‘jewish invention’ that I found quite by accident when looking into another one – the claim that jews invented the widely-used maritime navigation and surveying instrument known as ‘Jacob’s Staff’ – (1) and which is a perhaps surprisingly regular occurrence – probably in large part because the literature on ‘jewish inventions’ is almost entirely filled with what we may term ‘jewish maximalists’ trying to make jews responsible for the entirety of Western civilization – and was made by the prominent (and profoundly dishonest) (2) jewish historian Cecil Roth.
Namely that jews invented the first rangefinder.
To be specific Roth claims as follows in his ‘The Jewish Contribution to Civilization’:
‘Jacob’s Staff was the earliest form of rangefinder.’ (3)
Now Roth’s claim that ‘Jacob’s Staff’ was first invented by Gersonides (Rabbi Levi ben Gershom) in southern France circa 1329 (4) is simply wrong as I have demonstrated elsewhere, (5) but his claim that ‘Jacob’s Staff’ was ‘the first rangefinder’ is also completely wrong as well.
In fact, the first rangefinder was the Roman Dodecahedron that is mentioned by Julius Caesar in his ‘Gallic Wars’ (circa 49-58 B.C.) not ‘Jacob’s Staff’ in the medieval era.
So no jews didn’t invent the first rangefinder!
References
(1) On this please see my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-jacobs-staff
(2) On this see Elliot Horowitz, 2006, ‘Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence’, 1st Edition, Princeton University Press: Princeton, pp. 150-151
(3) Cecil Roth, 1940, ‘The Jewish Contribution to Civilization’, 1st Edition, Harper & Brothers: New York, p. 80, n. 1
(4) Ibid., p. 79
(5) On this please see my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-jacobs-staff
(6) Amelia Carolina Sparavigna, n.d. (2012?), ‘Ancient and Modern Rangefinders’, pp. 1-3 (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1205.2078)
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