a world without belgium

A WORLD

WITHOUT

BELGIUM

P

R

E

S

E

N

T

S

A WORLD

WITHOUT

BELGIUM

P

R

E

S

E

N

T

S

ANYTHING MISSING?

NO BELGIUM?

SO WHAT?

You might think that very few people would notice any

difference in a Belgiumless world.

We beg to disagree.

CAN YOU NAME ANY

BELGIAN INVENTION?

Need help? Let’s give you a hand...

Perhaps not everyone knows that...

HEALTH CARE

Contraceptive pill

(Ferdinand Peeters, 1961)

Non-direct blood transfusions

(Albert Hustin, 1914)

Body Mass Index

(Adolphe Quetelet, 1830s-1850s)

CARTOGRAPHY

Mercator projection

(Gerardus Mercator, 1569)

IT

Daubechies wavelets JPEG 2000

compression (Ingrid Daubechies, 1988)

The World Wide Web

(Tim Berners-Lee & Robert Cailliau, 1990)

Rijndael cipher Advanced

Encryption Standard

(Vincent Rijmen & Joan Daemen, 1998)

AUTOMOTIVE

INDUSTRY

Parking sensors

(Rudy Beckers, 1987)

Internal combustion engine

(Étienne Lenoir, 1858)

INDUSTRIAL

CHEMISTRY

Asphalt

(Edward de Smedt, 1870)

Soda ash

(Ernest Solvay, 1861)

INDUSTRIAL

CHEMISTRY

Mosquito repellent

(Alfons Van Doninck, 1987)CFCs, aka Freon

(Frédéric Swarts, 1890s)

Bakelite

(Leo Baekeland, 1912)

EDUCATION

Cuisenaire rods

(Georges Cuisenaire, 1931)

Belgian fries

(unknown, 18th century)

FOOD

French fries

(unknown, 18th century)

Praline

(Jean Neuhaus, 1912)

Russian salad

(Lucien Olivier, 1860s)

ARTS

Saxophone

(Adolphe Sax, 1840)

The Adventures of Tintin

(Hergé, 1929)

The Smurfs

(Peyo, 1958)

LET’S TRY AGAIN!

IS ANYTHING MISSING?

YES!

AND THE WORLD

WOULD NOT BE THE

SAME WITHOUT IT!

THANK YOU FOR

YOUR ATTENTION!

Now you can have some Belgian beer!