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Living on Internet Time... Like Thomas Edison Did

Posted by chrisd on from the love-the-automatic-hammer dept.

securitas writes: "If you think that dotcommers are the first people to live on Internet time, then take a trip to the 19th century (NYT Story, here's a Yahoo link). Thomas Edison had 10,000 researchers and scientists working at his Menlo Park labs, who slept on their desks, and had the same problems pleasing the investment community as today's tech companies. The result? Over 1000 patents and many inventions that we take for granted today."

6 of 290 comments (clear)

  1. list of patents by flynt · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here is the complete list of inventions and patents of thomas a. edison. truly a remarkable man.

  2. Edison = Microsoft of his time? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's a task for you to try:
    Go check your encyclopedia to find the answers to the following questions: (answers are given in parentheses)

    1) Who invented the radio? (Marconi)

    2) Who discovered X-rays? (Roentgen)

    3) Who invented the vacuum tube amplifier? (de Forest)

    In fact, while you're at it, check to see who discovered the fluorescent bulb, neon lights, speedometer, the automobile ignition system, and the basics behind radar, electron microscope, and the microwave oven.

    Chances are that you will see little mention of a guy named Nikola Tesla, the most famous scientist in the world at the turn of the century.

    In fact, few people today have ever heard of the guy. Good old Tommy Edison made sure of that.

    (copied from a website)..
    So why is Edison so great? Because he used foul tactics to crush better inventors?

    1. Re:Edison = Microsoft of his time? by sean23007 · · Score: 5, Informative

      When Tesla came to America, he came with an interesting and groundbreaking idea, the concept of using alternating current to distribute electricity over large distances. However, he also lacked money, so he sought a job working for none other than Thomas Edison. His job involved rebuilding the generators when they broke, and the only restriction on this rebuilding process was that he continue to use the direct current concepts that Edison had invented and was trying to push through to fruition. Edison honestly believed that DC was the future, and that it just needed a little more innovation. You see, DC cannot travel long distances at high voltages or with a lot of amps. AC, on the other hand, can, and Tesla recognized this. This recognition led to a rift between Edison and Tesla, with the latter being abrasive, arrogant, and obnoxious, and the former retaliating by stifling AC and Tesla even more. It was a reasonable reaction to Tesla's behavior.

      But don't say that Edison "won," or that Tesla "lost." You may have noticed that electricity travels long distances (across the country, from the plant to your home) by AC, and short distances (from component to component inside your computer) by DC. They are both used because they are both useful.

      --

      Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.
  3. oh you are not paranoid by Edmund+Blackadder · · Score: 4, Informative

    Do you remember the slashdot story about an year ago about how the Smithsonian put edison's bust over tesla's inventions.

    The edison companies were big sponsors.

    So yeah it still goes on.

    What is more paranoid to think about are some of the Tesla files that are still in fbi custody.

    Are they keeping them secret because of incompetence, or is there something truly interesting in there?

  4. Re:Here's an example... by nomadic · · Score: 4, Informative

    Tesla was a brilliant inventor, who did come up with several interesting innovations, and didn't really get the recognition he deserved.

    He was also, however, quite mad, and near the end of his life started working on some really far-out death-ray kinds of things. Unfortunately, too many people online have latched onto his latter "inventions" as being something other than dementia.

    A good source about the life of Tesla is Clifford Pickover's book, Strange Brains and Genius : The Secret Lives of Eccentric Scientists and Madmen.

    What I'm really curious about is why this fringe cult has grown up around Tesla. I mean, there have been plenty of unappreciated inventors before (look at Philo Farnsworth), and crackpot scientists, but for some reason the fringe people have a thing about Tesla in particular.

  5. 10,000 researchers and scientists - no way. by Animats · · Score: 5, Informative
    Edison never had "10,000 researchers and scientists working at his Menlo Park labs". He started with about 15 employees there in 1876, and ramped up to a peak of about 80 employees at Menlo Park by 1881. There was a lamp factory at Menlo Park, with another 40 or so employees in 1880-1881, as the electric light moved into production, but the Menlo Park operation never got big. In 1881, Edison moved operations to 65 5th Avenue, New York City, and closed down Menlo Park.

    Edison's actual lab in Menlo Park was about 20 people in one big room. The whole place, with much of the original equipment, was rebuilt at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI, and can be seen there.

    General Electric, which was formed by the merger of the Edison businesses and Thomas-Houston of Cleveland, became a very big company, of course. But that wasn't Edison's lab, although he was on the board of directors of GE for a while. Nor did GE ever do R&D in Menlo Park. GE R&D was (and is) in Schenectady, New York.

    There's a substantial literature on Edison's life and lab. There are even movies; after all, he invented those, too.