Comment on Thomas Edison was the Elon musk of his era
samus12345@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Ironic, then, that he would name his car after Tesla, Edison’s biggest rival.
Comment on Thomas Edison was the Elon musk of his era
samus12345@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Ironic, then, that he would name his car after Tesla, Edison’s biggest rival.
turmacar@lemmy.world 5 months ago
He wasn’t.
The War of the Currents was Edison and Westinghouse. The elephant was executed by the ASPCA and filmed by the Edison Studios years after, that company had been sold by Edison years before. The payment argument was Tesla and a manager.
Tesla and Edison wrote each other personal letters and spoke well of each other in public years later.
Edison was an asshole. Tesla’s ‘legend’ is weird.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Agreed on Tesla’s legend. Telsa was terrified of fat women and talked to pigeons. He also didn’t even understand the concept of transistors, let alone microchips. And yet we’re supposed to believe he invented all these amazing things that approach magic in their abilities and utility?
Jarix@lemmy.world 5 months ago
What are you on about?!
Tesla died a poor man 4 years before bell labs created the first transistor.
The microchip was invented about 15 years after he died.
Perhaps he WOULD have understood or even created these concepts if he had the funding he probably should have given his remarkable successes and contributions to the entire field of electrical engineering when he was still able to contribute. But unlikely sure. Not why you sre saying these weird things
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Why would he have understood those concepts before they were invented just because people gave him money?
turmacar@lemmy.world 5 months ago
“Lets turn the Ionosphere and the Mantel into the halves of a capacitor! Free energy!” is Bond villain territory. :'D
hakase@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Here’s a great in-depth video on Edison and his relationship with Tesla. It seems that Edison was actually remarkably progressive for the time in a lot of ways, and, while not perfect, he seems to have been a much better employer than many of his rivals.
KittyCat@lemmy.world 5 months ago
He was terrible as an employer by modern standards but at the time he was among the best, the gilded age sucked.
samus12345@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Interesting, I even did quick search before posting that to see if I was right. Upon more searching, their rivalry does indeed seem to be more of an urban legend.
turmacar@lemmy.world 5 months ago
It’s definitely at least “Internet Lore” at this point? I mean the car company isn’t a namesake for no reason. I don’t want to give The Oatmeal too much credit but it seems to have been the meme generator for a lot of ‘the legend’ on the web, though it’s been kind of a counter-culture staple basically since he died.
IDK, just one of those things that I got interested enough to read actual books about awhile ago and it’s kind of scary how much “common knowledge” is more “common mythology”.