10 Fascinating Facts About Edison

I listened to a book on Edison over the weekend. I was interested to learn that his great contribution to the light bulb was the development of a high impedance filament. Previous lamps were low impedance which meant they needed lots of current - hence expensive copper wires that made them impractical. Edison's 100Ω filament could be lit with just 1 amp, at 100 volts, and that made the whole electric light industry possible.

Compared to Nikola Tesla Edison was a plodding hack whose onloy real talent was to usurp the work of truly talented individuals.

tesla-was-right@hotmail.com

He also spent enormous amounts of time and energy discrediting any inventor more talented than himself. He was a powerful propagandist, and was unsurpassed in his ability to subvert technology better than his own. He was a sinister, close-minded jerk.

I have come back to this point in an attempt to discern your motives. Not being familiar with you from prior I will move forward from this point.

Yes, Tesla was quite talented. He was/is not some kind of God. Though a might bit closer than many.

Your statements about Edison are un-cited and argumentative. To say that the man who lit up NYC is nothing more than a 'plodding hack' is more than I will allow to go unchallenged. Edison never shied away from the fact that he needed his staff (he credits them with the hours of labor needed to develop the filament as well as other breakthroughs). His staff always remained eager to work with and for him.

I am surprised you have not mentioned what a plodding hack Michaelangelo was for employing artists. Or DaVinci for his reflective paintings.

You apparently have some idea that Edison should be compared to Tesla. Two different men.

I have read more than one biography on Tesla and more than one on Edison. I do not see where your intimate knowledge has come from. Perhaps you could enlighten me by citing your sources.

cr3

Tesla had his problems too. He blew up the Colorado Springs, CO electricity generating plant conducting an experiment, he believed (at least to some extent) in mental telepathy (ESP), and he thought he received radio signals from Martians. He died nearly penniless in New York City many years too soon. So I think even though I respect his intellect, he had flaws aplenty for any mere mortal.

TexasCharley.

You are on to me. Good job. I am trying to stir the pot. My comments are uncited--not un-supported by research.

My point was to be argumentative. Edison gets a pass all of the time and , by doing what I did, I made you and many others look at real history--not the crap they teach in public school.

Edison did light NY---with a series of flashlights. Tesla's advocacy of AC power made electrical distribution possible.

His advocacy of free power is why he was maginalized by the political powers.

ENVIROMAN-- "He blew up Colo. Springs"

Makes him sound like a terroist.

Sure some experiments go slightly wrong. He did re-build the overloaded transformer for free. Who here can say every experiment they ever tried worked out entirely as imagined.

And yes, he had several ediocentric traits and he possibly had some dementia in his old age.

My mother does as well. Should all she accomplished in her good years be thrown out the window because of it??

Thanks all for the mildly amusing banter. Your welcome for making you think.

JH

And thanks for reminding me to use spell check.

Thanks for reminding me to think about spelling.

Mark Twain said,"It is a damned stupid man who cannot figure out more than one way to spell a word."

I should also do something about the fact that my autistic child stole most of the keys on my laptop.

At least I went to a one room school and learned some before being subjected to a more conventional government indoctrination center.

I knew Dr. Noel Kenner who sat at the feet of Tesla when Tesla was an old man. As this was the early '40s and before calculators, he would use the old Mr. Tesla as a human calculator.

This is not to say Edison was not amazing in some way--even though he never took a bath in his life and stunk to high heaven.

By the way,Enviroman, Tesla lived to 86 and Edison lived to 84

Yes I need you to make me think. Otherwise I would assume all that I heard and saw was true. Thank you for making sure I 'think' - Harumph.

You might find this interesting.....here

It is a list of some of those who worked with Edison. An impressive list even in abbreviation.

You have not made me do anything. Well I have scratched my head since reading you.

While Edison was undoubtedly a great inventor (and tireless self promoter) many of "his" inventions were invented and developed by the team of engineers he employed. ffeJ

This is very true. Menlo park housed many young scientists.

As a matter of fact Bill W of Alcoholics Anonymous fame turned down an invitation to work at Edison's lab in his [Edison's] later years.

cr3

Edison was talented, but not a genius. Edison was, however, smart enough to hire some of the best talent he could find to staff his Menlo Park lab facility. He had some good qualities, some peculiar notions, and some predjudices. In other words, he was a totally human human being.

I disagree that he wasn't a genius. He had a first class engineering mind and an endless interest and curiosity. What he didn't have was an education, which he compensated for by hiring men who did.

He was a famous inventor before he put together his Menlo Park staff, but his real genius was his ability to make things work, rather than merely invent. He wasn't just an inventor, like Tesla, he was also an innovator who, like Ford, knew how to apply his inventions (and those of others) to change the way everyone in the world lived.

Not to speak to your comment, but the ones before - I don't understand the need to denigrate his accomplishments. He took simple ideas and created three great American industries - electrical power and light, sound recording, and motion pictures. I'd be glad to be remembered for any one of his innovations.

Point well taken - his genius was indeed more in the foresight to get to the application of the invention. OK, I'll modify my veiwpoint - he was a genius.

His genious was in how to bribe the patent office with a case of scotch to steal other's ideas and then develop them as his ownn. He was also adept at poisoning his wife and getting away with it (does this make O.J. SImpson a genious too?)

What do I know, I am just an inventor. LOL

Ever here of Radio. Polyphase motors, Ac power generation, boundary layer effect, etc. etc. etc

Don't hate, innovate.

Are you confusing Edison with Bell?

From the research I did years ago it seemed Edison had few scruples. Or the authors didn't writing about him. Did he contribute to the world? Most definitely. Did he step on others to do so? I don't know for sure but he did make a lot of enemies. Tesla considered him a crook and coming from a man who gave up billions to Westinghouse because their contract would have hurt his friend don't bode well.

Innovation and Marketing he was way ahead of his time. From what survives from interviews etc. of his person not others opinions that I found, I don't think we would have got along. But not data enough to be certain.

Brad

Like others both in earlier years, and also these days, Edison was "creative" with "borrowing the ideas of others.

Sure he did invent some things, and I well remember writing a treatise on Edison some fifty years ago.

Since then much personal information has become available, and as I and others found, Edison's hands were often not clean.

Kind Regards....

It's hard to wash away the lamp black.