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Edison Not Very Moral

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tommyedison

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I was just searching google on Nikola Tesla when I found this out.

Nikola Tesla was working for Thomas Edison. He told Edison that his DC generator was not efficient. Edison promised him a 50000$ bonus if Tesla could make a better DC generator. Tesla worked for months but when he got with the plans to Edison, Edison said that he had been joking about the bonus. Tesla resigned. A few years later when AC and DC current were in controversy, Edison tried to demonstrate to the world that DC was better than AC even though Edison knew that he was wrong. Edison even misused some of Tesla's patents to develop the electric chair. Tesla was a better man and better inventor but unfortunately and strangely, he believed in self-denial.

All these things shocked me as Edison was always my greatest hero.

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I think that Edison was for the most part a very moral man, but showed some very bad characteristics when confronted by a genius that overshadowed even his. That man would be Tesla. I think when it came to Tesla, Edison let himself be reduced to the behavior of an envious mediocrity. That is too bad because who knows what those two minds could have accomplished together! Hell, look what they did create as enemies!

On the Tesla side. It is too bad that this man isn't more well appreciated by the general public. I took a year and a half of electronics engineering, and I'll say that most of us were not interested in Edison; Tesla was the man. He was truly a man way ahead of his time. Has anyone seen the picture of him sitting next to (under)his coil reading while lightning whips around him? Fantasic to see even to this day.

Tesla, as I have read, did have some bad philosophy, which is why I think the second part of his life was not as successful, nor as productive.

Both men were geniuses of the first order. Tesla though I think was of such an astounding breadth of intelligence that he could only give us snatches of a lot of what he could do. But, what he did do is enough.

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Quote myself

I think that Edison was for the most part a very moral man, but showed some very bad characteristics when confronted by a genius that overshadowed even his. That man would be Tesla.

Actually, that was sloppy of me. Everything I know about Edison points to a profoundly moral man with the single solitary exception of his behavior towards Tesla and his acheivements.

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I took a year and a half of electronics engineering, and I'll say that most of us were not interested in Edison; Tesla was the man.

Before I dropped out of engineering school (long boring story) I was introduced to Tesla while looking for material in the local library, and I have to agree with Loki here. Tesla was the man, he had some pretty interesting ideas. That electrical induction motor in AS for example. I wonder if Miss Rand had been inspired by his idea? Or am I just being stupid.

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Before I dropped out of engineering school (long boring story) I was introduced to Tesla while looking for material in the local library, and I have to agree with Loki here.  Tesla was the man, he had some pretty interesting ideas.  That electrical induction motor in AS for example.  I wonder if Miss Rand had been inspired by his idea?  Or am I just being stupid.

Edison was very jealous of Tesla, and that led to him doing his best to f*** over Tesla. They originally had a relationship much like the one between Roark and Keating in The Fountainhead.

By your objectivist standards one would conclude that Edison was not a very moral man.

Edited by Capitalism Forever
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That is almost correct, but Edison was no Keating, not even close. I still think I was spot on when I said that Edison only desplayed this unfortunate behavior towards Tesla. Outside of that he was a very moral man.

I think that such a person as Edison would be even more prone to such a reaction to a person like Telsa. I think that envy would be more of a breeding ground for people in closer relation.

Has anyone read Envy: A Theory of Social Behaviour by Helmut Schoeck?

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  • 6 months later...

I'd like to know what the truth is concerning the issue of Thomas Edison's alleged theft of French director Georges Melies' short film, Le Voyage Dans La Lune. I've heard it said that Edison bribed someone to obtain a copy of the film and then distributed it widely for profit. The first I'd heard of this story was from the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon. It can also be found on several internet sites.

Can anyone comment on the truth or context of this claim?

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