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Edison and Tesla break down like this:
Edison:
Edison indeed had technical knowledge,...and he conceived of a great many things (that were built by his staff)...He conceived of the Lighting & Power company, he conceived of sound recording, motion pictures, and all that it is true, he was brilliant. But...he had blind spots...and he wasn't a very good guy to work for.
As an example of blind spots...he had trouble getting his head around machines with no visible moving parts (Radio, vacuum tubes ((valves to you Europeans))) He had a Phonograph company that his son ran and was wildly successful…but slowly it went downhill because he would not let his son manufacture record players with radios in them. This was important because with the introduction of radio/phono combinations you had a volume control that you could turn up…and of course records mastered and played back with electronics sound much better. But Edison had trouble with the concept of electronics.
Ask me and some day I will relate how sex affected the development of the phonograph industry…
He also made verbal promises to employees and wouldn’t keep them…He did it to the guy who helped develop motion pictures technically, not just Tesla.
Tesla:
Indeed Tesla developed Alternating Current distribution…transformers,…high-tension transmission of current,…concept of radio waves,…and most importantly for electricity, Electric motors that could run on alternating current.
By using alternating current you could use transformers to step current up to high-tension levels for transmission for longer distances more efficiently than Direct Current. The first industrial application of his ideas came with his association with George Westinghouse in the construction of the Adams Niagara Power Station.
His blind spots;
His Alternating Current system,…the concept of radio waves,…were all brilliant and could be realized in the real world of applied physics (engineering)……..However…..He liked to talk batshit crazy…….
His talk of sending electric power at useful levels throughout the world wirelessly is…..
batshit crazy …..I can’t condense in just a few sentences a cogent and logical presentation why this is so…but it is.
His talk of electronically projecting destructive forces at a distance (death ray) through the atmosphere with the same destructive force as a 15-inch naval shell…I am skeptical.
I know that you will talk of the government impounding his papers at his demise…this was so that they could be evaluated to see just what he was thinking of.
Good post and you sir, know your Tesla!
Tesla is my favorite person in the wacky world of physics, by far!
Did all that wonderful, practical stuff for mankind with AC systems.
But that guy was a real character that any getbigger would have loved.
He claimed that if he drank a glass of whiskey each day he would live to be 150 yrs of age.
The wife ( Catherine Johnson) of the editor of a top magazine of his day , actually slipped Tesla love letters offering him a good time, while the guy
interviewed Tesla in his lab
. After his success with AC generators on Niagra , he wuld dine and party , dressed to the 9's with all the society hobnobbers at Delmonico's in NYC. In his 70's he got hit by a trolley car and was tough enough to walk himself to the hospital and lived until he was in his 80's after that.
His dream of sending industrial levels of current thru the air was his major mistake and due to him not following any reasonable calculations.
Unlike Edison, Tesla never cheated anyone.
