What is Digg?114 Comments
- jawadshuaib, on 10/25/2007, -4/+82In 1915, when he was 68, Edison actually turned down the nomination for the Nobel Prize in physics, because it was to be shared with Tesla. Edison apparently felt that it would be better to refuse the honor than to allow his rival the attention that would have come even from sharing the prize. Edison was a businessman turned inventor, not the other way around. He was bluntly against AC power because an adoption towards that would kill off his other products that relied on DC power.
Once upon a time he was my idol. - DRTED, on 10/12/2007, -10/+82Believe it or not the initial blueprints for the WIIMOTE were discovered in Edison's lab, only to be stolen by the nintendo corporation and their evil gang of super mario/luigi ninjas.
- Lumiras, on 10/12/2007, -2/+49Other things Edison didn't invent:
The Airplane
Toothpaste
Atomic Energy
Polyester
Birds - nfulton, on 10/12/2007, -4/+49Tesla is to die for. Anyone who knows Tesla's record of achievement knows that he was the real Wizard, and Edison merely a pale shadow. (And one more thing, TESLA invented the radio, not Marconi, the Supreme Court Said So in 1943 - http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_whoradio.html)
Tesla Inventions :)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=tesla+inventions&btnG=Search - cheez, on 10/12/2007, -1/+40but, didn't he invent the chair with six legs and the automatic hammer?
- ricree, on 10/12/2007, -1/+39If anything, I'd almost call him the Bill Gates of his day. A large part of his contribution to the world was the promotion and commercialization of technology, rather than the creation of it.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+31He didn't invent the light bulb, he vastly improved it.
- MackPrime, on 10/12/2007, -2/+32Tesla > Edison
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+30That means that my science teacher who gave me an A on my paper on Thomas Edison cheated
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+28
Nope... TESLA was the one who refused to share the Nobel Prize with Thomas A. Edison and NOT other way around. By the time when he was nominated for a Nobel Prize, he had hundreds of patents under his name (big and small) yet he was supposed to share the prize with Edison. It is shameful that we know so much more about Edison and Benjamin Franklin, yet so little about the greatest scientist and inventor of our modern time - Nikola Tesla.
In my personal opinion Thomas A. Edison was like Bill Gates is today - didn't invent much but took credit for a lot. - razordancer, on 10/12/2007, -4/+30DC power, Betamax, Minidisc, Memory Stick, UMD, Blu Ray
- evereddie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22Tesla was pure genius. Period. Edison wished he was one one-hundreth as smart as Telsa. What bothered people like Edison about Tesla was that Tesla wanted to give to humanity all of the things he invented. He wanted FREE electric power for all mankind. Nuff said.
- elnerdo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21I actually happen to be writing a very large research paper right now on Edison and Tesla. I can tell you a couple of things. While Tesla was truly a genius, don't completely discredit Edison. He invented quite a few VERY useful things. Many of Tesla's inventions were not useful ( and still aren't very useful ) at all. (Example: Tesla Coil).
Edison's greatest skill was inventing, and marketing USEFUL things.
Tesla's skill was inventing AWESOME things. - mankyd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19"Seriously, if you think Edison invented some of the things on this list in the first place, you're incredibly stupid."
It doesn't make you stupid. It makes you mis-informed. I wish people on the internet understood tact. - jawadshuaib, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18No doubt. It's too bad nobody knows him. I think, after Edison, he holds the record for the largest patents. Tesla was a genius, perhaps equivalent only to Leonardo Da Vinci. Tesla did not have the financial backup that Edison did, yet he managed to single handedly change the world.
If it were upto Edison, we would still be stuck with DC. - Chaotyk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+19Tesla was a much better inventor than Edison was... mostly because Edison didn't invent much. Sure, he had the most patents, but he ran a company where he took the ideas of his employees - whereas the true inventors and geniuses, such as Tesla, worked for the sake of science and human progression rather than money.
- jawadshuaib, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17haha, actually most of that "The Simpsons" episode was historically correct.
- Pix869, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16Wow. Everything I ever knew about Edison is a lie!
It's Santa Clause all over again.. - HP844182, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13No, Edison did not invent the mirror.
- mykbot2600, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13I second that. While the post is directly related to Tesla, he certainly deserves more credit and much more praise.
- D3koy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Look all that matters is Tesla won the Ac/Dc war, and thank god for that or we'd have to have little power plants everywhere...
- brstilson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I just read the Wiki on Tesla and am convinced he was an alien.
- Locke40, on 10/12/2007, -12/+20yea this site looks historically correct, and i will immediately believe everything it says
- nfulton, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I guarantee that if you bolt a "resonator" to a beam in a building, set the resonator to the resonant frequency of the beam, and leave it on long enough you'll get the building to "bounce". Its simple physics.
The key thing is hitting the right resonant frequency and keeping the resonance going for long enough to see the effect. If MythBuster did this on a modern building or bridge, I hope they ran their test for a few weeks :) Bridges and Buildings are now _designed_ not to resonate because they have this tendency to fall down when they do. (http://home.messiah.edu/~barrett/video.htm)
Actually, they just had this resonance problem AGAIN in London on a foot bridge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Millennium_Bridge - bobothn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8No he did not invent the light bulb yes it had been done before. but he made the light bulb practical he made it an object that every one could have and use and made it be able to last a long time. witch no that is not technically inventing it he dose deserve most of the credit he gets because with out him we wouldn't be using light bulbs. it is the differences between having a great idea and being able to actually make that idea a reality.
I had an idea to make a website were people could vote on news 5 years ago. but kevin rose gets all the glory because he was able to take the same type of idea and make it a reality. - toran, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12Tesla was the true brains behind most of "edison's" inventions
- dojonz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Nor did he invent the makeup gun.
- D3koy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Tesla was in "The Prestige" was he not?
- francisidada, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7What you people fail to realize is that the inventor of an idea is not important, it is who can make the invented product available to most people that is important. Most geeks ( who use digg :)) think that being awesome and changing the world is the most important thing (re: steve's wozniak's autobiography) but the truth is that it is not.
Most of the things that we use today that make us civilized are available not because some genius was the first in the world to think of it, but because some hard working and persistent person made it so. Though the 'bright brothers invented the airplane they failed to take it commercial, very few inventors turn out good businessmen because they think of making things more awesome than practicable (that is why European education in the early 19th century was a waste, emphasing classical subjects like latin rather than industrial like was the case in American) and since then, Europe has failed to catch up with America.
So I give it to Edison because with persistence and good business sense, he created a park at menlo and created what today has turned out to be General Electric one of the biggest companies in the world. Please correct me but what has telsa's companies become? - BirkBum, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Does no one cite where their information comes from?
- SirNuke, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7What Edison had, and many (if not most) inventors lack, was good business sense. Edison didn't invent the light bulb (strictly speaking, Edison's greatest invention was probably Industrial R&D), but he did invent a light bulb that was economical. Edison invented a practical efficent light bulb and formed Edison Electric Light Company to spread its adoption. Edison brought the light bulb out from a minor foot note in history to an important part of daily life. William Sawyer and Nikola Tesla did not.
- NSMike, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Tesla won out because of Niagara Falls, actually. The amount of power generated by the first hydroelectric plant was far too great to be practical for the town of Niagara. There would be tremendous energy wasted by the DC system because there was no way to transport the electricity. Ultimately the campaign against AC came up against it's greatest challenge when Tesla demonstrated the safety of AC (in a truly insane manner) by grounding himself and running AC through his own body. After that, his design was chosen, the extra power generated went to Buffalo, and people were amazed when the streetcars in Buffalo, twenty miles away (DC power allowed for less than a mile's worth of transmission), were running on Niagara power.
- Falldog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Indeed, yet it's the fact that he was played by Davie Bowie that makes it an ultimate win.
- Helicobacter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Wikipedia:
"In 1919 Tesla wrote that Edison offered him the then-staggering sum of $50,000 (almost $1 million today, adjusted for inflation) if he completed the motor and generator improvements. Tesla said he worked nearly a year to redesign them and gave the Edison company several enormously profitable new patents in the process. When Tesla inquired about the $50,000, Edison reportedly replied to him, "Tesla, you don't understand our American humor," and reneged on his promise." - nfulton, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Here's a list of Tesla Patents Provided by Google (with Pictures) :)
http://www.google.com/patents?q=tesla&btnG=Search+Patents - cosmicr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5you all only love tesla because of the tesla coil in C&C. I know I do.
- nfulton, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5He was an Einstein . . . and we're lucky that Tesla's ideas for weapons weren't adopted like Einsteins. Well, not until today. Check out "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed-energy_weapon"
Actually, Tesla almost brought down a building with a machine you can plug into a light socket :) Turns out that "resonance" is big magic. (http://www.intuitor.com/resonance/tesla.html) - nfulton, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Or hey . . . do you own research and find out how much you love, love, love Tesla too :)
- toddhenkel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Let's translate the patents to today's system and courts:
1. Light Bulb - Any means of generating light from any power source
2. Electric Chair - Any means of stimulation from any power source
3. Movies - Any form of entertainment with pictures with or without sound
4. Power Generator - Any means of generation of power for above and below said
5. X-Rays - Any means to see what the eye cannot
6. Battery - Any means to store generated power of any state
7. Record Player - Any means to play sound or music post-live production
8. Wax Paper - Wax paper? Who fricken cares about that now??? Wrapping food?!! Le Gray was obviously not a Digger
9. Telegraph - Any means of binary communication
Tesla was brilliant. But brilliance does not always mean success and effectiveness. - Spizzat2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Only 9?
- nfulton, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7Do your own research.
- superdigg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4wow, Edison was an ***** :/
- sinfree, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@Locke40
I agree, I thought about digging it, but didn't see any references for their claims. - NowakFilms, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Tesla quit working for Edison because Edison screwed him out of a small fortune, not because Edison stole Tesla's ideas. Judging from his patent list Tesla was more of a specialist and concentrated, albeit in no trivial way, on a limited field. Edison was a more holistic thinker and worked to transform science and theory into practical yet economical consumer products. One other thing, Tesla and Edison did not feud over the AC/DC issue. Tesla sold the patents for AC power generation to George Westinghouse who used them to build what is now General Electric. It was Westinghouse and Edison who threw all of the punches.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Ben Franklin invented Electricity, Kites, Keys, the Fire Station, and Poor Farmers. Plus he was a Wizard, a mighty one such as is only spoken about in whispers.
That's why he's the one who took George Washington to take the sword out of the stone of New York. - Trotterologist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@ D3koy: ...that didn't make any sense
- jshusta, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3so what you're saying is...
he couldn't blend? - rakaur, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Yeah, you're right. Tesla had no useful inventions. That whole AC thing was crazy.
- jonnyboy88, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1112) The Internet (Al Gore invented this)
- nfulton, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Wrong. What Edison did was steal.
He stole from Tesla which is why Tesla (who had come to the US as an immigrant) quit working for him abruptly and would never agree to work with him again. Check out Tesla's patents. He was the Wizard :)
http://www.google.com/patents?lr=&q=Nikola+tesla&sa=N&start=70 -
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