Tesla vs Edison

[fran604g]

My $.02...Edison was an inventor, first and foremost. In that regard, he really stood alone in the world for much of his career. He was stubborn and obsessive, cunning and strong willed. He was largely self taught through trial and error. These qualities (or lack thereof) can explain a lot of his failures, perhaps most notably in the field of electricity. That being said, he led the way...Marconi, Fleming, DeForest, all built from his discoveries.

In a business environment where only the strong survived, he held his own despite his lack of organisation and formal education, in these regards, he was also unique.

He was a penny pincher and a hustler, but he was known to take care of his extended family and the relatives of close colleagues.

He was an industrialist and a monopoliser. Yet he believed in women's rights, at least in the philosophical sense.

He was a "curmudgeon".

I have nothing but respect for the man, but I doubt he could succeed in today's business world.

Fran

[edisonplayer]

I heard that Edison wanted to produce a celluloid cylinder early.He applied to the Patent Office for the the process.Thomas Lambert also put out for a patent,but they awarded it to Lambert instead of Edison.Eventually,after several years of making wax cylinders(including the Amberols)he had to buy the rights to the use of celluloid from an Englishman named Phillpot.It seems like the Patent Office had it in for Edison.edisonplayer

[alang]

It looks like Edison is credited for 1093 patents in the US and 2332 patents worldwide. Patents outside the US were most likely duplicates of his US Patents, so I'll use 1093 unique patents. Tesla is credited for at least 273 unique patents, many of which became foundation for research that is still going on today. So instead of going into the argument that Edison had three times as many patents than Tesla, or that Tesla's inventions were more important, I would rather take the position that I admire both of them for what they accomplished within the situation they were in. In the end we need both visionaries and pragmatics for progress. History is always written by the survivor, and it seems that both men are still so polarizing that it is hard to find objective views written about them. The black and white, hero vs. villain scenario usually does not work and does neither side justice.

Thanks
Andreas

[VintageTechnologies]

I heard that Edison wanted to produce a celluloid cylinder early.He applied to the Patent Office for the the process.Thomas Lambert also put out for a patent,but they awarded it to Lambert instead of Edison.Eventually,after several years of making wax cylinders(including the Amberols)he had to buy the rights to the use of celluloid from an Englishman named Phillpot.It seems like the Patent Office had it in for Edison.edisonplayer

If I recall correctly, Lambert worked for Edison during the development of molded cylinders and took that stolen knowledge to the patent office as his own shortly before Edison applied for the patent himself. There was a lot of industrial espionage in those days, just as today.

[fran604g]

Hi folks,

I might add, in regards to Tesla vs. Edison, that in fact Edison outright dismissed Tesla. George Westinghouse actually capitalized on his idea of alternating current, thereby setting the stage for the "power" struggles related to creating a viable public power grid.

We all know which system "won."

Fran

[Bob]

Did you guys ever see this video? Not that I'm into rap. Thought it was funny.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ1Mz7kGVf0

[Marco Gilardetti]

Edison was an inventor, first and foremost. In that regard, he really stood alone in the world for much of his career. [...] He was largely self taught through trial and error. [...] he led the way...Marconi, Fleming, DeForest, all built from his discoveries. [...] In a business environment where only the strong survived, he held his own despite his lack of organisation and formal education, in these regards, he was also unique.

I have nothing but respect for the man, but I doubt he could succeed in today's business world.

These are all qualities that I promptly acknowledge to Edison. What impresses me more about him is his ability to turn a concept into a commercially viable item that could actually stay in business and be profitable, and also to what extent he was able to refine his inventions. Things like the Diamond Disc, created in an era in which the theory of acoustic impedance adaptation through horns was not only basically unknown but preminently misunderstood (some aspects of it are still unclear today!), are impressive even to today's standards.

However, Tesla "led the way" to a much further extent, in my opinion. Also, while I agree that the era of "inventors" is alas gone forever, I can easily figure Tesla leading at least a respectable career as a reasearcher in any of today's university laboratories.

Did you guys ever see this video? Not that I'm into rap. Thought it was funny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ1Mz7kGVf0

I'm not into rap as well but I truly appreciated this video, thanks for posting! It is fun but - as it often happens with rap - has also many serious and sarcastic sides to think over. It also shows a good level of information about the two men and what they did, which is quite rare to find in a song today.

If you're more into heavy metal, perhaps you will appreciate Tesla's "Edison's Medicine", one of the highlights of this group (whose name says it all).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2zwBRa0YhA

[celticguitar666]

They were both men of their time and arena. They had their contributions to today's society to our sadness some say as we probably wouldn't have alot of the problems we have but that could be laid at the door of many men from that period. When at the Museum of Science in Boston in the lightning room it is Van de Graph and Tesla that gets the most press. and He even has a car brand named after him. I have watched many documentary's some flawed some very truthful only the men them selves now the truth. My high school electronics teacher was a big Tesla fan. Well I guess I Like all the creative men and their toys at least phonographs don't kill people
Dwight

[ambrola]

I'm still an Edison fan, but he holds less charm for me as details of his life have come out over the years. He wasn't a particularly good father to his first family. To me he seems more and more like his contemporary industrialists- a man with a keen eye for money and self promotion. It was his wife Mina who had the good sense to see that this was spun to the public as eccentricity.

I couldn't agree more. This is a touchy subject with me. Edison was a tyrant, selfish evil man. Tesla was much smarter than Edison in my opinion, but was lacking in the ruthless business sense. Edison would go to the end of the world to prove someone wrong when he knew they were right. Power plants every mile, give me a break. He and Tesla had a life long hatred of each other because Edison didn't keep his promise of 50,000.00 bonus to Tesla for building the first generator. He surrounded himself with brilliant minds, he may have not even had the idea of the first phonograph. I'll shut up now and go play one of my Triumphs.

[VintageTechnologies]

He surrounded himself with brilliant minds, he may have not even had the idea of the first phonograph.

Are you referring to Leon Scott or Charles Cros?

While Lecon Scott did build a machine to graphically record sound waves, he apparently never considered the idea of reproducing sound.

Charles Cros did theorize the concept of sound reproduction a couple months before Edison built the first phonograph, but he never attempted to test his idea.

Edison was the first to conceive AND build a phonograph. There were several unlikely stories told over the years how Edison arrived at the concept. I think the most credible was the story that Edison wanted a telephone repeater that would accomplish the same function of a telegraph repeater, to extend the range. It was a simple and logical progression of ideas [repeaters] with an unexpected result. After the initial idea of an electro-mechanical machine to store and repeat telephone signals, Edison suddenly realized that he had conceptualized a talking machine. It was not too great a mental leap; after all, the telephone had shown that the electro-mechanical synthesis of speech was possible; really, the new idea here was simply storing it. After that, Edison may indeed have run a piece of waxed paper under a needle mounted to a telephone receiver as a quick test of his wild idea.