The Man You Don’t Know

Thomas Edison.  You all know him…the light bulb guy.  What you probably

don’t know is that he is evil and money hungry…OK maybe I am going a little too far, but I often see Edison’s name in textbooks when there is no mention of the great Tesla.  He even has a medal named after him (the Edison Medal issued by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) which in 1916 was given to Nikola Tesla…but was received as a great insult to him, because of all of the abuse he had received from Edison.  Tesla should have had the medal named after HIM, not Edison.  Tesla was an engineer and scientist.  Edison was not.  He was an inventor and a good business man…not a genius like Tesla.

When Tesla first came to America he worked for Edison.  He tried to explain his ideas for what we now know as RADAR…it was rejected by Edison. Also when Tesla tried explaining his ideas for his AC invention to Edison, he failed. To understand the principles behind AC you have to have an understanding of mathematics and mathematical physics, which Edison did not have.  Edison would not listen, but instead Tesla was promised $50,000 if he completed the redesigning of the DC machinery.  Tesla experimented day and night and finally completed his task.  He also designed twenty-four different types of machines that replaced those used by Edison, but when he asked for his $50,000 that he was originally promised, Edison laughed and said “When you become a full-fledged American, you will appreciate an American joke.”  Feeling cheated, Tesla left the Edison company.

War of the Currents

Tesla joined forces with George Westinghouse and developed alternating current.  Edison was pissed.  Thus, the “War of Currents” began.

(My little brother has the responsibility of finishing the war of the currents so I hope he gets it to me soon)

Tesla’s Lab Burns

On March 13 1895, Tesla’s lab burned down.  Telsa lost years worth of work and millions of dollars.  Did Edison, Pupin, or Marconi have anything to do with it?  The world may never know.  Yet, I believe one of them did have a part in it and were possibly even trying to kill the genius himself, not only his inventions.  Maybe they even stole some of his work and were trying to cover it up.  We know they have all taken credit for Tesla’s original works…

The End

Tesla had this to say after Edison’s death “If he had a needle to find in a haystack he would not stop to reason where it was most likely to be, but would proceed at once….to examine straw after straw….I was almost a sorry witness of his doings, knowing that just a little theory and calculation would save him 90 percent of the labor….Trusting himslef entirely to his inventor’s instinct and practical American sense….the truly prodigious amount of his actual accomplishments is little short of a miracle.”