The pattern in which multiple people independently invent the same thing at roughly the same time — documented in 148 cases by Ogburn & Thomas (1922). Edison/Swan/de la Rue/Maxim for the light bulb. Khayyam/al-Karaji/Jia Xian/Yang Hui/Pascal for the binomial triangle. When one name gets the door, the field asks about individual genius instead of about why convergence happens
