Disentangling Facts From Fantasy In the World of Edison and Tesla 386
dsinc writes "Forbes' Alex Knapp writes about the Tesla idolatry and confusing his genius for godhood: 'Tesla wasn't an ignored god-hero. Thomas Edison wasn't the devil. They were both brilliant, strong-willed men who helped build our modern world. They both did great things and awful things. They were both brilliantly right about some things and just as brilliantly wrong about others. They had foibles, quirks, passions, misunderstandings and moments of wonder.'"
Irrelevant. (Score:3, Insightful)
false equivalency (Score:2, Insightful)
It's the same kind of media attempt to put forth a "balanced" view, even when there's a clear bias in reality. It happens all the time in politics. Just because they want to claim that Tesla not marrying is the same as Edison strangling puppies for sexual pleasure, doesn't mean those two options are the same. Some times, there isn't any reason to search for a middle ground, if one side is simply wrong.
Re:Irrefutable fact (Score:4, Insightful)
Dennis Ritchie > Steve Jobs too, but which one will be remembered?
Douche bag (Score:1, Insightful)
Actually, anyone who electrocutes animals *is* a douchebag.
Depends on how you measure (Score:4, Insightful)
Certainly not by the measure of business acumen, and, therefore, things he personally achieved. Tesla was undeniably greater in terms of "things he was wrong about", and "general insanity".
Re:Depends on how you measure (Score:5, Insightful)
What the article does not note is that Tesla didn't really claim to have invented alternating current, but he did claim (probably validly) to having invented the a working, practical AC induction motor (while a student in Europe), which made AC practical for industry. He also claimed to have invented a practical AC generator (at least he had a patent on it that he sold to Westinghouse). Additionally he did invent and patent a working system for radio and wireless signal transmission that was essentially copied by Marconi later. Add to that the Tesla coil and the working florescent light bulb, and you have a pretty impressive set of inventions. Compared to Edison (who I admire very much also) Tesla with just a couple of assistants revolutionized a great deal of the world. Edison's real claim to fame, on the other hand, was in inventing the modern invention research team system. His actual inventions were relatively few, but with teams of some dozens of inventors he spewed out patents that made him much richer and successful than Tesla (though not as rich as he wanted - he was essentially defeated in business by J.P. Morgan). Tesla unfortunately subsided into partial insanity after his attempt at power transmission in the teens, and almost every invention after that was essentially in his head.
Re:Tesla is revered as god here... (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, sometimes he was out of touch with reality and had no sense of business
If we had more of that sort, instead of the people who are firmly grounded and really good at business, the world would be a better place.
Re:Depends on how you measure (Score:5, Insightful)
Nope. (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Irrefutable fact (Score:1, Insightful)
Only in this context, though.
Grey fallacy (Score:5, Insightful)
Forbes (Score:4, Insightful)
The hipsters would like you to know (Score:5, Insightful)
Um... that's not different enough.
They teach us about Thomas Edison in schools. Everyone thinks he's great. Therefore, there must be another way.
To be hip, we talk about Tesla instead. You probably haven't heard of him.
Re:Confusing political systems with economic ones. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a lot easier to be socialist when your defense and medical R&D are covered by other countries.
I wish the US would see this and stop doing so for the rest of the world. It's really annoying as a US citizen to be spending 4 times (as a percentage of GDP) on our military as Germany (I think we can trust them now). Yet we pretty much mandate it to be so.
Additionally we pay more for the same medicine because our government refuses to take a stand on this issue, while other governments do. I'd like to see a law that no medicine or medical devices can be sold in the US for over the average price in the rest of the G8.
elephants (Score:3, Insightful)
After what I saw edison did to the elephants, and the IP agreements he made his
employees sign, I lost all respect for the man both his intellect and his person.
Edison was a dark and troubled person. Killing something just to prove a point -
someone else did that, too...
Re:You joke about DC (Score:5, Insightful)
And AC was originally practical exactly BECAUSE Tessla managed to invent three-phase... single-phase generators would probably need to be custom designed as I'm not aware of anybody building them en-masse for the non-existent market they may fill...
Three-phase generators/motors are fundamental to what made the modern electrical world possible in the first place. Technically a single-phase motor cannot even start without an outside push...
Edison and the most disgusting FUD campaign. (Score:4, Insightful)
Edison will always get my disdain for running the most disgusting smear/FUD campaign that I am aware of.
He repeatedly and publicly executed animals to "prove" the danger of AC current.
He fried Cats/Dogs/horses/cows and even an Elephant, just to discredit a fellow inventor.
Forbes vs. The Oatmeal? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why Forbes is attacking some webcomic's exaggerated and tongue in cheek interpretation of Tesla while trying to present it as some kind of established opinion?
Re:Irrefutable fact (Score:5, Insightful)
No, because Kirk and Picard are both military starship captains; they do the same job and their job performance can be compared. Comparing Ritchie and Tesla to Steven Jobs and Edison would be more like comparing Cochrane to Quark: one or both may or may not be brilliant, but one is a scientist and the other a businessman, so their abilities aren't really comparable.
Re:Hollywood still pissed of Edison? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Irrefutable fact (Score:5, Insightful)
Bell invented the telephone.
Bullshit. Philipp Reis also invented a telephone and gave the first public demonstraton in 1854 - more than two decades before Alexander Graham Bell. Maybe we all should read Mark Twain's words at the start of TFA again?
It takes a thousand men to invent a telegraph, or a steam engine, or a phonograph, or a photograph, or a telephone or any other important thing—and the last man gets the credit and we forget the others. He added his little mite — that is all he did. These object lessons should teach us that ninety-nine parts of all things that proceed from the intellect are plagiarisms, pure and simple; and the lesson ought to make us modest. But nothing can do that.
Mark Twain
And whoever uses "X invented Y" again, shall be forever banned from ever partaking in a discussion about inventions again.
Re:Forbes vs. The Oatmeal? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Edison to Deforest ... ALMOST! (Score:5, Insightful)