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If you were to credit one inventor in history with the genius and ingenuity that allowed for the technological advancements that we now use every day who would it be? Thomas Edison, right? He invented the light bulb. What would the world be like without... What's that you say? He didn't invent the light bulb? Joseph Swan invented the light bulb and was installing them in England before Edison even got his working?
Well, if he didn't invent the light bulb, he invented the motion picture, and if there were no motion picture there would be no Television to... What, a Frenchman named Louis Lumiere had a motion picture machine before Edison?...
Ok, but we wouldn't have an electrical system today if Edison hadn't... Oh, that's right, that was Nikola Tesla...
Then what did he invent?
Although Edison is credited with inventing many things, a lot of the ideas he's credited with may not have been his own. After making his light bulb, he hired an army of inventors to work for him. As they were his employees, he patented their ideas under his own name. Though I'm sure that some inventions were his, all that can be proven is that Edison held the patents. Edison's company, General Electric, is still in business.
Edison's greatest strength was the manipulation of the media. Using the media, Edison was able to establish an empire by improving on other peoples inventions and patenting the improved design. Edison was not the great inventor that he is credited with, he is, however, a great businessman.
Many inventors during Edison's time met unusual deaths before obtaining patent rights to inventions; Edison would patent similar ideas a short time later. In some cases the inventor's patent lawyer was also Edison's; but that was just coincidence.
Nikola Tesla, on the other hand, was a regular 'Robin Hood' of the scientific community.
Edison and Tesla were brutal competitors and Tesla actually worked for Edison for a short time, hired to work out the kinks in Edison's direct current electrical system. He decided to quit Edison's project to continue work on his own. Although Tesla's alternating current electrical system won out over Edison's much less efficient direct current system, Edison's light bulb won out over Tesla's fluorescent bulb. Edison did invent the electric chair, though he did it to propagate that alternating current was more harmful than direct current. If Edison had won over the public, his direct current system would have needed a power plant every square mile. Tesla's design allowed currents to flow through thin conductors over extended distances.
If you were to credit one inventor in history with the genius and ingenuity that allowed for the technological advancements that we now use every day who would it be? Thomas Edison, right? He invented the light bulb. What would the world be like without... What's that you say? He didn't invent the light bulb? Joseph Swan invented the light bulb and was installing them in England before Edison even got his working?
Well, if he didn't invent the light bulb, he invented the motion picture, and if there were no motion picture there would be no Television to... What, a Frenchman named Louis Lumiere had a motion picture machine before Edison?...
Ok, but we wouldn't have an electrical system today if Edison hadn't... Oh, that's right, that was Nikola Tesla...
Then what did he invent?
Although Edison is credited with inventing many things, a lot of the ideas he's credited with may not have been his own. After making his light bulb, he hired an army of inventors to work for him. As they were his employees, he patented their ideas under his own name. Though I'm sure that some inventions were his, all that can be proven is that Edison held the patents. Edison's company, General Electric, is still in business.
Edison's greatest strength was the manipulation of the media. Using the media, Edison was able to establish an empire by improving on other peoples inventions and patenting the improved design. Edison was not the great inventor that he is credited with, he is, however, a great businessman.
Many inventors during Edison's time met unusual deaths before obtaining patent rights to inventions; Edison would patent similar ideas a short time later. In some cases the inventor's patent lawyer was also Edison's; but that was just coincidence.
Nikola Tesla, on the other hand, was a regular 'Robin Hood' of the scientific community.
Edison and Tesla were brutal competitors and Tesla actually worked for Edison for a short time, hired to work out the kinks in Edison's direct current electrical system. He decided to quit Edison's project to continue work on his own. Although Tesla's alternating current electrical system won out over Edison's much less efficient direct current system, Edison's light bulb won out over Tesla's fluorescent bulb. Edison did invent the electric chair, though he did it to propagate that alternating current was more harmful than direct current. If Edison had won over the public, his direct current system would have needed a power plant every square mile. Tesla's design allowed currents to flow through thin conductors over extended distances.
Nikola Tesla, one of the most incredible minds in history, received 112 patents while Edison had 1,093 in his lifetime. Tesla preferred to work alone.
Tesla designed an A/C motor, called the blade-less turbine motor, that is still considered the most efficient ever created. His motors were tested at anywhere from 100-5,000 horsepower. He created the first neon signs, the first radio, the first remote controls, the first wireless power transfer, the first X-rays and had ideas for robotics, computers and radar. He also contributed to ballistics, nuclear physics and theoretical physics.
Edison's political connections and media control led to Tesla's ostracism from the scientific community, labeled a mad scientist for his theoretical ideas.
Tesla demonstrated the ability to transfer energy wirelessly as early as 1893 and dedicated his life to creating a tower with the ability to transfer industrial power intercontinentally. After lying to his investors about what he was working on, he lost his funding and his project, known as the Wardenclyffe Tower, was never finished, though another tower he built, the Telefunken wireless tower, was successful in many aspects of what he had tried to accomplish at Wardenclyffe. Both towers were seized by the army and torn down at the outbreak of World War I. Tesla died alone in a hotel with no money left to his name.
Edison accrued wealth and fame for his products at other people's misfortune and died rich and celebrated. Tesla strived to provide free energy for the world and died penniless and alone.
My vote for the most influential inventor in history goes to Nikola Tesla. Without his ideas the planet would have faced energy and environmental disaster at a bolstering rate. The more the world uses Tesla's designs, the more energy we save and the better off the environment is for it.
