Ok, Edison was a great genius, yet, there was also Tesla, whom I´ve read had worked with Edison. Well, I know Tesla came to the US already bearing a Phd, but Edison had none. I heard Edison stole most of Teslas ideas and then marketed them earning all the credit for Teslas discoveries. Is that remotely true?
2006-12-22 02:25:30 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Engineering
it has been rumored that in regards to the lightbulb, Edison invented it after someone else but was the first to take credit for the idea. this is possible but i think the more likely situation is that people that for whatever reason did not like Edison and/or were desperate for money and/or fame, were trying to rip him off and disgrace his name.
2006-12-22 02:36:22 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
Well, no. Edison didn't "steal" any of Tesla's ideas and market them as his own. For a while, they fiercely competed over the advantages of each of their power transmission systems (Edison's Direct Current and Tesla's Alternating Current), and they were certainly not friendly toward each other. But at one time or another, each admitted the other's genius, and held some admiration toward the other.
The thing about marketing ideas is that Edison was an extremely creative inventor who saw only the practical side of invention. He was great at marketing his ideas, but had no real theoretical background, and didn't want one.
Tesla was both extremely intelligent naturally, and educated in his field. The combination led to some inventions that were WAY ahead of his time. He was terrible at convincing people of the use of these inventions, since his huge advances would have needed advances in other technologies to be feasible and practical. But Tesla holds a ridiculous number of patents for original, groundbreaking inventions, that other people based a LOT of research on and eventually came out with huge sums of money, while Tesla always fringed on poverty. In fact, there has been plenty of relatively recent research that has been done by modern scientists, who later find out that Tesla had a head start on them a hundred years ago.
I would say that a lot of people took credit for ideas that Tesla had, but Edison wasn't really one of them. Check out a biography of Tesla, because a lot of the feuds and inventions are really interesting, and Tesla was definitely a genius beyond any mind of his time.
2006-12-22 03:00:55 · answer #2 · answered by tamesbadger 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Edison purchased the patent for a carbon filament, nitrogen filled light bulb from two Canadians who were short on funding; Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans. They patented their bulb in 1874 and sold to Edison due to lack of capital. Edison made advancements on the carbon filament to extend the life of the bulb. He filed a US based patent in 1879 which was granted in 1880/ The patent listed many possible filaments to block competition. Edison did not invent a light bulb.
Edison was a shrewd businessman and employed many brilliant people. He often patented and marketed the inventions of his employees, a common business strategy employed by companies even today. Often Edison worked along side his employees, but to say that all his patents were of inventions or his own making is a large stretch of the truth.
2015-04-01 07:48:04 · answer #3 · answered by madmarksj 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think Edison came up with plenty of his own idea's its also said that he worked pretty much around the clock. But its also know that he also had a huge staff of researchers and he pretty much took credit for anything they came up with.
2006-12-22 15:07:43 · answer #4 · answered by Roadkill 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Having a Phd does not make a person smart or productive. What counts is how a person uses what they have.
Have a good day
2006-12-22 02:44:06 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋