Sad. Growing up, Edison came across to me as a man worthy of idolizing. Edison was inferior to Tesla not only in terms of intellect, but also as a human being. Edison may have been a great businessman, but Tesla was the genius who was far ahead of his time. I'm glad to see his story told.
> Edison was inferior to Tesla not only in terms of intellect, but also as a human being.
eyerolling
Just to play devils advocate:
Edison:
Nonviolence was key to Edison's moral views, and when asked to serve as a naval consultant for World War I, he specified he would work only on defensive weapons
Tesla:
Tesla worked on plans for a directed-energy weapon [the Death Ray] from the early 1900s until his death. Tesla tried to interest the US War Department in the device. He also offered this invention to European countries.
Edison:
Six children.
Tesla:
Tesla was a life-long bachelor. Like many of his era, he became a proponent of an imposed selective breeding version of eugenics.
Edison:
When Edison was a very old man and close to death, he said, in looking back, that the biggest mistake he had made was in not respecting Tesla or his work.
Tesla:
The day after Edison died the New York Times contained extensive coverage of Edison's life, with the only negative opinion coming from Tesla.
I went to school in former Yugoslavia and Tesla was idolized and given duly deserved credit whereas Edison was the guy who invented the lighbulb. We even had nursery rhymes about his inventions.
We were also taught that Yugoslavia was a major factor in getting Germany to capitulate in WWII where if you think about it, it was rather insignificant on the grand scheme of things.
You can't really escape the spin. Some are for the better and some are for the worse, but hopefully, we can sort things out once we start learning and thinking for ourselves.
Yes I did, but I found this stuff out when I was 15(I'm 19 now). Before that, from what I had been taught, we used to count Edison among the greatest minds of all time. Sad. Nobody knew about/bothered to even mention the great mind that was Tesla.
I think the article is being romantic, when it sets Tesla up as a forgotten man. He might not be in the US popular imagination, but every electrical engineering student learns about Tesla when they learn about induction machines. Tesla also has an SI unit named after him.
