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Who really invents anything completely new? Everything has prior art. Watt didn't invent the steam engine, he just built the first PRACTICAL one. (btw, Dean bought the Watt model from the Henry Ford museum, and put it in his living room) Similarly for Edison, the Wrights, Brunel, Marconi, Zworykin, Wanlass ....
(The last bunch I'll let you look up..)
But the practical thing, the one that works, is generally where we assign the "inventor" status. So Edison for the light bulb, and Telsa for the whole elctric distribution system. The Wrights for the airplane, and Oberth/Goddard for the liquid fueled rocket.
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