The "Petri" Dish: A Case of Simultaneous Invention in Bacteriology

Abstract

Richard Julius Petri's status as inventor of the culture dish that bears his name has been subject to a number of challenges over the years. Both those bacteriologists who claimed self-recognition for the invention, and those to whom it was attributed by their various advocates were all contemporaries of Petri. The evidence assembled here indicates that no single individual-including Petri-ought to be accorded credit for the inception of that shallow, circular, covered culture dish which, it transpires, is a simultaneous invention made by half a dozen bacteriologists active in the mid-1880s and ultimately owes its emergence to the prevailing bacteriological zeitgeist.

Keywords: Microbial culture techniques; Richard Petri; Robert Koch; Simultaneous invention.