# Electric lights before edison



## chebis (Dec 9, 2013)

That was very useful man


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## chicken steve (Mar 22, 2011)

Edison bought and prostituted any brains we may think he possesed

His gift, if any at all, was he could work a crowd

~CS~


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## fdew (Mar 26, 2009)

I have been reading biography of Edison and studying him since I was 12. For some reason he has been changed from a great man to some sort of villain. This has happened at the same time that that success it self has been vilified.

Edison ran a successful company. He hired good men to work for his company, and as a result the company invented and marketed a number of useful things.

I have 6 patents, all but one belong to the companies that have hired me. I don't consider my self a prostitute. I was hired to do a job, I did it and the work I did resulted in a patent.

BTW Edison was home schooled.

Praise God for the rich man, for a poor man has never given me a job.


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## chicken steve (Mar 22, 2011)

Perhaps reading this may sway your view fdew ~CS~


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## fdew (Mar 26, 2009)

chicken steve said:


> Perhaps reading this may sway your view fdew ~CS~


I have read it. There is certainly room for more then one great man in any field. Edison got it wrong concerning AC power. He alos got it wrong by creating a home wiring system without any outlets, but he got a lot right and I admire his work as I do the work of Tesla

Frank


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## BBQ (Nov 16, 2010)

fdew said:


> I have read it. There is certainly room for more then one great man in any field. Edison got it wrong concerning AC power. He alos got it wrong by creating a home wiring system without any outlets, but he got a lot right and I admire his work as I do the work of Tesla
> 
> Frank


I may be wrong in this but didn't Tesla invent and develop his own ideas while Edison managed inventors and marketed others work?


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## chicken steve (Mar 22, 2011)

Close enough BBQ. 




~CS~


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## fdew (Mar 26, 2009)

BBQ said:


> I may be wrong in this but didn't Tesla invent and develop his own ideas while Edison managed inventors and marketed others work?


First, having managed a creative team for five years I can tell you that Edisons success at that is very impressive. He not only managed other inventors, he told them what to work on and he paid them and bought the lab and equipment they needed to invent. The importance of all that is recognized by the patent office in that the boss who does that is listed as a co-inventor with the man who dreamed up the idea. It gets even more interesting when you invent something, then turn over all your ideas to an employee and a few days later he comes back to you and says I changed this and this, what do you think. At that point he is the inventor and you are the co-inventor. I have been on both sides of that.

A couple of inventions that I know from memory are all his, are the stock ticker, and the phonograph.

We take credit away from him for not inventing the first electric light. Gates did not invent the computer, or the PC, or the graphic user interface, but he put them together in a way that made them popular and affordable. Apple didn't invent the telephone or the cellular phone. They invented and patented a particular kind of phone that a lot of people want. Making products practical, affordable, and useful is a wonderful talent and a service to mankind. BTW My grand children learn about Tesla in school, but it is not a government school.

Frank


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## chicken steve (Mar 22, 2011)

Edison lured Tesla in on a monetary promise , which Edison broke

Tesla, undaunted and unwilling to cow down left him flat & dug ditches for a year after that

Edison wasn't in league with the likes of Goddard, Fleming, Salk or Wright brother in terms of natural enlightenment OR integrity

Far more the likes of the robber barons of the era, or what would have sent peta into catatonic fits by todays standards





~CS~


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## fdew (Mar 26, 2009)

chicken steve said:


> Edison lured Tesla in on a monetary promise , which Edison broke
> 
> Tesla, undaunted and unwilling to cow down left him flat & dug ditches for a year after that
> 
> ...



Check out the Wright brothers. They never did get a plane to turn reliability The Smithsonian award for the first plane to fly a mile long figure eight pattern went to Glenn Curtiss

One mans robber baron is another mans successful businessman. 

I have read the history books used in school by my children. I witnessed some of what is in the books live as it happened. (I am 66) The books were wrong, and they were intentionally wrong. It is probable that neither of us have the full accurate story of what happened. 

Frank


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## The_Modifier (Oct 24, 2009)

fdew said:


> BTW Edison was home schooled.


He also slept with his teacher to get better marks and was his own date for the prom.

(James P. Conoly):laughing:


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## circuitman1 (Mar 14, 2013)

a great man indeed, that has been long forgotten.thanks for that video chicken steve.he' why we have what we have today, with out his inventions a lot of this would not be possible!:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:


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## chicken steve (Mar 22, 2011)

fdew said:


> One mans robber baron is another mans successful businessman.
> 
> 
> 
> Frank


On that we do agree Frank....:thumbsup:

~CS~


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## RIVETER (Sep 26, 2009)

Joe Tedesco said:


> ELECTRIC LIGHTS BEFORE EDISON
> 
> Good Morning! :thumbup:


I did not open the link but wanted to weigh in. I have done volunteer work here in Louisville at the Thomas Edison house. I did not actually take the tour because I was busy but apparently before he invented the light bulb everyone had to use flashlights.


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## dmxtothemax (Jun 15, 2010)

Both Tesla and edison played a major part in the electrical develepoment
of this world !
Why don't we just leave it at that !
Why do we have to bag or condem either one ?
It's quite unfair, and shows envy or contempt.
Both are bad traits.



I would love to have met either one of them !
Show some respect man !
We all have jobs because of them.


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## Norcal (Mar 22, 2007)

Some of Edison's stunts done in a attempt to prove how dangerous alternating current was were cruel, maybe he could have written a book "How to electrocute animals for fun & profit".  Edison was quite successful for that have to admire him.


For a book on this subject, "Empires of Light" by Jill Jonnes is a good read. 


http://www.amazon.com/Empires-Light-Edison-Westinghouse-Electrify/dp/0375758844


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## oldtimer (Jun 10, 2010)

dmxtothemax said:


> Both Nicoli and edison played a major part in the electrical develepoment
> of this world !
> Why don't we just leave it at that !
> Why do we have to bag or condem aither one ?
> ...



Who is Nicoli ?

Oh ! I guess you mean Tesla !

Sorry !


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## RICK BOYD (Mar 10, 2008)

*empires of light*

http://www.amazon.com/Empires-Light-Edison-Westinghouse-Electrify/dp/0375758844


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## RICK BOYD (Mar 10, 2008)

*another good read ," Empires of Light"*

http://books.google.com/books/about/Empires_of_Light.html?id=2_58p3Z69bIC


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## papaotis (Jun 8, 2013)

a little off topic, but i ordered a 2014 code book from amazon a month ago. finally got notified the couldnt get it. bought it on ebay today- cheaper!:thumbup:


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## fdew (Mar 26, 2009)

This thread got me looking around and I found another good book about Edison. 
Edison: A Biography by Matthew Josephson 

I am reading it now and it is quite good. I am getting more respect for Edison.

Frank


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## FrunkSlammer (Aug 31, 2013)

fdew said:


> I am getting more respect for Edison.


Read through this thread and I'm surprised that's even possible. :whistling2:


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## RIVETER (Sep 26, 2009)

fdew said:


> This thread got me looking around and I found another good book about Edison.
> Edison: A Biography by Matthew Josephson
> 
> I am reading it now and it is quite good. I am getting more respect for Edison.
> ...


Read it and let us know. Just be FRANK with us.:thumbsup:


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## Meadow (Jan 14, 2011)

Tesla and Edison are a drop in the bucket, around the same time all over Europe and America scientists and engineers were working on various ways of perfecting mass scale electrical generation/transmission. 3 phase power was discovered by at least 2 other people besides Tesla: https://www.google.com/#q=who+invented+3+phase+power

Same goes for most other aspects of the power systems.


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## RICK BOYD (Mar 10, 2008)

*http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0003896/mediaindex?ref_=chmd_md_sm*

His gift, if any at all, was he could work a crowd

Tesla was the showman extraordinaire !

http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0003896/mediaindex?ref_=chmd_md_sm


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## AllClear (Dec 31, 2013)

Edison tried Monopolizing the movie industry later in life, limiting films to 20 minutes and refusing to give actors credit. The result of that was movie producers leaving New York to a town in California called Hollywood.

_From Book: Miracles and Massacres_


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## fdew (Mar 26, 2009)

One of the things that I like about Edison is that he paid people to do research. (He created jobs) The light bulb is a good example of how he did things. He didn't set out to invent the light bulb because that had been done. He set out to invent a long lasting light bulb that customers would chose over gas as the way they wanted to light there homes. That meant looking at the total cost of gas lighting and the relative benefits of gas vs electric and coming up with something better. He started by specifying a system to compete, and then inventing it. He specified the brightness, That it should be high resistance and low current (100 ohms and 1 amp running at 100 volts) all light bulb before that were very low resistance and high current. He then decided on a system of distribution using underground wiring for safety At that time telegraph and arc light street lamp wires were run from roof top to roof top in cities. He came up with the 3 wire system (Hot neutral Hot) with a balanced load having no current flow in the neutral. BTW having smaller branch circuits running off a larger feed had never been done, parallel circuits for lighting had never been done. He also decided that he needed direct coupled generators for efficiency, a meter, fuse boxes, sockets, switches. and all the other bits. He then set to work with his staff to invent it all. In the process he got AC wrong, and he didn't see small appliances coming so he didn't invent the plug and outlet. Given all that he got right, I am OK with that.

He had a rule that he would not invent something unless there was a way to commercialize it, and he worked hard to make money from his invention. I am not only OK with that, I am all for it. I work for money.

BTW in the early years he worked alone and invented a number of things completely alone.


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## Electrical Student (Jun 6, 2011)

It certainly has become like the Ali-Forman fight in some respects. People (electricians mainly) are very passionate about who they credit with electrical inventions. I hate to play the fence but it obviously took both of these very intelligent men plus another 200,000 people we have never heard of, to get where we are with electric today. With that said I tend to study Tesla more. I just think he was more of an interesting mind. Westinghouse and Edison were more financially driven imo.


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## RICK BOYD (Mar 10, 2008)

*you should read "empires of light "*



Electrical Student said:


> It certainly has become like the Ali-Forman fight in some respects. People (electricians mainly) are very passionate about who they credit with electrical inventions. I hate to play the fence but it obviously took both of these very intelligent men plus another 200,000 people we have never heard of, to get where we are with electric today. With that said I tend to study Tesla more. I just think he was more of an interesting mind. Westinghouse and Edison were more financially driven imo.



you should read "empires of light "


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## fdew (Mar 26, 2009)

Westinghouse and Edison were more financially driven imo.[/QUOTE said:


> According to Edison, this is true. He was financially driven. He bought land, built a building, and hired workers to invent things so he could make money.
> Inventing was his business, it is what he did for a living.
> 
> I think that was and is a good thing.
> ...


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

What he did then is functionally no different than what Dow, 3M, BASF, Bell Labs, and hundreds of other companies do now. Hire thousands of really smart people and put them in an environment where they can create great things for the company.


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## fdew (Mar 26, 2009)

MDShunk said:


> What he did then is functionally no different than what Dow, 3M, BASF, Bell Labs, and hundreds of other companies do now. Hire thousands of really smart people and put them in an environment where they can create great things for the company.


Very similar. Two differences are 
1. He also invented a number of things completely on his own.
2. He was the first to invent and use the company research lab model.


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