WARD'S BOOK OF EPONYMS Who gave their names to what
If you have ever wondered who gave their names to things and places, you will find the answer here. You can read about John Sandwich, George Dallas, Gustave Eiffel, James of York (New York), Clarence Birds-Eye, Charles Baltimore and many many others.
This is Ward's Book of Eponyms where you will find a large list of people who had things named after them. This page is devoted to things named after people whose name begins with the letter:
G
Gallup poll The creator of poll-taking organization was George Horace Gallup (1901–1984). He came from Jefferson, Iowa, and graduated from Iowa State University, later becoming a professor of journalism. He began surveys for market research and found that if he could a scientific method, then businesses would be interested in his findings. He trained interviewers in scientific techniques and used cross sections of the population rather than random interviews. He took to political polling in order to prove his scientific method. In 1936, he correctly forecast the outcome of the presidential election, astounding the political world. His predictions remained reasonably accurate until the 1948 presidential election, when his forecast was hopelessly wrong. Nevertheless, his methodology survived and is still used today.
galvanize When someone is shocked into action, they are said to be galvanised. In a scientific sense, when a metal is given a protective coating, it is galvanized. The expression comes from an Italian scientist, Luigi Galvani (1737–1798), who was watching his wife preparing frogs’ legs for dinner. He noticed that the muscles twitched as they were contacted to a copper wire, which held them in the cooking pot. He formulated the idea of animal electricity and published a paper on the subject. His ideas were dismissed by fellow Italian Alessandro Volta who pronounced that an electrical charge started when two different metals came in contact. The two scientists became rivals, each shouting down the other’s theory. Eventually Volta proved to be correct and Galvani’s theory was dismissed as nonsense. In 1837, a French scientist, Stanislas Sorel, patented a protective coating for metals. He claimed to have been inspired by Galvani’s papers and named the process galvanisation.
Gibbs Toothpaste The Scottish family, De Guibbe, started making candles and soap in 1712. In 1768, Alexander De Guibbe went to London to carry on the soap trade. He changed his name to Gibb which was more pronounceable, and his sons and their sons carried on the business after he was dead. In 1906, the proprietors of the firm, David and William Gibb, produced a tooth-soap in a solid block, which they called ‘dentifrice’. It proved very popular with the troops in World War I. In 1936, they made a softer, more easily usable paste, which they sold in a tube. It contained a cleaning agent called Sodium Ricinoleate so the product was named ‘Gibbs S R’.
Goodyear Tyres The company was not founded by Mr Goodyear as the name would suggest but by Frank and Charles Sieberling, in Akron, Ohio in 1898. They named the company for Charles Goodyear (1800 – 1860) the inventor of vulcanised rubber. It is said that he was experimenting with rubber mixed with sulphur and accidently dropped some on a hot stove whereupon the mixture solidified making a durable substance suitable for hard wear.
Gordon Bennett: an exclamation of surprise In 1869, the explorer, Dr David Livingstone, on an expedition in Africa, lost contact with the outside world, causing great consternation throughout the English-speaking world. The editor of The New York Herald sent a reporter, H M Stanley, to attempt to find Livingstone. Stanley found him in the jungle and greeted him with famous words “Doctor Livingstone, I presume.” When Stanley returned to civilisation, he immediately telegraphed his editor whose name was Gordon Bennett. He wrote ‘Gordon Bennett, I have found Livingstone’.
Great Scott! Winfield Scott (1786–1866) was an American army general famous for his military victories. He served as commanding general for twenty years, a record tem in office. His final campaign was the Civil war, where he laid out the plan that would eventually defeat the Confederacy. He was known as ‘Old Fuss and Feathers’ because of his liking for display and ceremony. His enemies mocked his swaggering and mannerisms, and mockingly referred to him as ‘Great Scott’.Other letters