How did Nikola Tesla become so "dissed" in documented history?

Question

The man was an absolute genius. I think Edison got where he did because of Tesla's ideas. How did Edison become the frontrunner?

Answer 1

Edison became the front-runner because he was a much better businessman than Tesla. Tesla's career suffered because he was always more interested in the next experiment than in capitalizing on his existing inventions. He also might have done better if he had managed to get his ideas into shape to publish.

Tesla's reputation was further tarnished by the number of crackpots who falsely claimed to have rediscovered his secrets, leading many people to associate him with the crackpots.

I recently saw a description of a device that could transmit power to all the handheld devices in your house. They said it worked by using high-frequency resonance coils - sounds a lot like Tesla's technology on a small scale.

Answer 2

"How did Nikola Tesla become so "dissed" in documented history?"

Thomas Edison.

"How did Edison become the frontrunner?"

Nikola Tesla and others.

A guy named Armstrong got screwed worse than Tesla. At least a Tesla Coil is called a Tesla coil. http://world.std.com/~jlr/doom/armstrng.htm

This link will tell you a little bit about him from the anti-Armstrong pro-DeForrest perspective. If it peaks your interest then you might want to check out the truth which is the pro-Armstrong perspective. Bottom Line is they both claim a lot of things are theirs but Armstrong is the only one who can explain how they work and DeForrest is the one who owns the patents.

Answer 3

Probably because of his overconcentration on schemes to broadcast electricity. In his heyday, Maxwell's equations were not as well understood as they are now, and the fact that almost all of the broadcast power would wind up going elsewhere than the intended receivers wasn't really appreciated. Broadcasting is okay if you are trying to send information; the waste is too high if you are trying to power light bulbs.