Scientist and inventors of the ancient times did not have computers yet. They did not even have typewriters. But at least they have laboratory notebooks.
When Archimedes found the equation for the water displacement formula, he exclaimed "Eureka!". It means "I have found it", referring to his discovery that the water in the bathtub rose when he jump into it, thus, proving that the volume of water displaced is equivalent to the volume of the object that is put or submerged in the water. After learning this, and out of excitement, he did not wrote down it down at first and just went out of his house naked. What happens is that, Archimedes himself did not even have a manual writing of his discovery. He did not jot it down.
It was two centuries after the discovery when another writer who learned about Archimedes' discovery by the word of mouth before Archimedes was given the merit for his discovery.
Nowadays, it is not an excuse for us not to jot down whatever we have discovered. We all have the means - we have computers, we have organizers, we have mobile phones, and of course we have notebooks, laboratory notebooks for that matter.
So next time you have your Eureka! moment, be sure to bring a notebook or at least something where you can write down your discovery. That will save you from going out naked. Who knows, you might become the next Archimedes or the next Einstein. Be sure to make a copy of your works, nowadays plagiarism is just like eating candies.
