Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla - The Difference's Between Fame and Forgotten
Author: Geoff Ficke
by: Geoff Ficke
Thomas Edison is one of the most famous and revered Americans of all time, and deservedly so. School children are taught that he harnessed electricity, invented the light bulb and the phonograph. He was awarded 1093 patents during his long and rewarding creative life. His summer laboratory in Fort Myer, Florida is still a major tourist destination. In addition, Edison earned millions of dollars by commercializing his patents and product innovations. To this day we have all benefited from his genius.
Nikola Tesla, on the other hand, is virtually unknown today. He was born in Serbia, moved to America and became one of the most renowned scientists of his day. He was in many ways, the prototype for the amad scientista so often depicted in books and movies. His eccentricity and poor business decisions were the stuff of legends. And yet, Tesla's inventions and scientific advances are as important in our contemporary lives as Edison's.
As a young immigrant scientist Tesla actually worked for Edison. Edison held the patent on Direct Current (DC) and was, as always, aggressively pursuing commercialization of his patents. The famous banker J. P. Morgan was an early financial backer of Edison's DC. Edison constructed a generator in New York City that could provide the miracle of light in homes, including Morgan's Murray Hill mansion. It was considered a wonder of the day.
Tesla, however, recognized that DC had serious limitations, specifically in delivery of electricity across a vast grid. He championed Alternating Current (AC). Edison was furious. AC was a direct attack on his patents. He had no commercial claim to AC power generation. Tesla left Edison and the two great scientists became lifelong enemies.
Tesla introduced his theories on AC to George Westinghouse, another foe of Edison. The two became partners and a race between the devotees of AC and DC current commenced. Westinghouse and Tesla believed AC to be superior to DC because of the arc and greater footprint of power the system could deliver.
Edison, an unusual combination of man of science and excellent business- man, conducted an aggressive; some say savage public relations campaign to support his convictions that DC was the better technology. He conducted public electrocutions of animals in an effort to prove that DC was a safer, cleaner source of power. He even allowed DC to be used in the first electrocution of a death sentence criminal. This public display was botched and the criminal was re-electrocuted in a horrible manner. The public was shocked.
Meanwhile, Tesla was tasked by Westinghouse to harness the power of Niagara Falls to generate safe, widely disseminated electricity by utilizing the AC technology. The test and subsequent grid performance confirmed that AC was the superior technology. Morgan and Edison were forced to purchase interests in AC.
Thomas Edison prospered for the rest of his days. His connections with J.P. Morgan lead to the establishment of General Electric, one of the world's great enterprises to this day. He died rich, revered, and famous.
Tesla was an immense contributor to the evolution of our modern power system. The many scientific tasks involved in electrifying the United States and the world would have occurred much more slowly without his inventions and creativity. Tesla was crucial to the perfection and acceptance of AC, the standard used to this day. And yet Tesla died broke, alone, flustered.
Edison invented the light bulb. However, without electricity delivered widely, safely and affordably the light bulb was of little value. A car without the internal combustion engine is a wagon. Similarly, Tesla's perfection of AC was the tool that made the light bulb so valuable. Tesla's success inadvertently affirmed Edison's legacy.
Edison could sell. He was a genius at self-promotion. He could seek and obtain capital based on his reputation. He had charm and charisma. Edison created a legend for himself.
Tesla had none of these qualities. He made poor business choices. His reputation for being difficult closed many promising commercial doors. Tesla was dark and dour. English was his second language and he was never comfortable in a public format. His science has become obfuscated by his many futuristic predictions. Much of modern pseudo-science and today's UFO acolytes rely on morsels of Tesla's preaching.
The ability to commercialize inventions is the key difference between creative types and successful entrepreneurs. We all know people with vibrant imaginations and inventiveness. We all also know how few of these people succeed at successfully converting imagination into reality.
A successful entrepreneur needs a variety of skills and talents in order to cut through the din of our very competitive marketplace. Successful designers and engineers typically make great employees, unless they can communicate, sell, market and strategize. The inventor lacking in these skills has many other potential routes to success. Licensing, partnering and alliances are viable options.
Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Bill Gates and Ray Kroc are stellar examples of what it takes to succeed. They are multi-talented, adaptable and visionary. Nikola Tesla was a genius, but in only one area. His science is invaluable. Today, the personal, business and historic legacy of Tesla is mostly forgotten. Every student learns about Thomas Edison. It took an afternoon at the movies to remind me fleetingly of Nikola Tesla's important contributions.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/entrepreneurship-articles/thomas-edison-and-nikola-tesla-the-differences-between-fame-and-forgotten-1169930.html
About the Author
Geoff Ficke has been a serial entrepreneur for almost 50 years. As a small boy, earning his spending money doing odd jobs in the neighborhood, he learned the value of selling himself, offering service and value for money.
After putting himself through the University of Kentucky (B.A. Broadcast Journalism, 1969) and serving in the United States Marine Corp, Mr. Ficke commenced a career in the cosmetic industry. After rising to National Sales Manager for Vidal Sassoon Hair Care at age 28, he then launched a number of ventures, including Rubigo Cosmetics, Parfums Pierre Wulff Paris, Le Bain Couture and Fashion Fragrance.
Geoff Ficke and his consulting firm, Duquesa Marketing, Inc. (www.duquesamarketing.com) has assisted businesses large and small, domestic and international, entrepreneurs, inventors and students in new product development, capital formation, licensing, marketing, sales and business plans and successful implementation of his customized strategies. He is a Senior Fellow at the Page Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Business School, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.
I think the following links can be helpful for you.
http://www.teslasociety.com/ – Tesla Memorial Society of New York
http://www.infocobuild.com/books-and-films/science/nikola-tesla.html – documentary films and books related to Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was not into electricity for the money or fame, but rather for the people. He wanted to help provide inexpensive clean energy for all. Unfortunately, “The Powers That Be” were already gaining a strong choke hold on America and had other plans.
Tesla attempted to harness the energy from Earths electromagnetic grid. He was aware that the earth forms a giant generator whose energy can be tapped if one could cut through its magnetic field.
http://www.world-mysteries.com/doug_teslat.htm
When Tesla was working on his Wardenclyffe project (Power Tower), Some International Bankers of Europe, had already Shanghaied the U.S. government and the economy by taking control of the U.S. Monetary system. In 1913, they created the privately held, Federal Reserve Bank, and railroaded the President and Congress into accepting it as the Central Bank. Any project that could provide “Free Energy” to the populous was no friend of theirs since it would interfere in their quest for money, power and control of the people. They had already put their stakes in the internal combustion engine and oil. An energy they could monopolize and use to control and enslave the people. Coincidently, it is some of those same people’s families who run the world today to its detriment.
I didn’t hear about Nikola Tesla until I was in college. I didn’t read about him from any text book either, but instead heard about him from my electronics instructor. Since then, I have tried to understand why our education system is deliberately trying to keep us in the dark on this subject as well as others. In extreme cases we may even find ourselves being lied to. Apparently, those who have gained power, do not consider the populous, of a high enough a blood line, to be given true knowledge. Instead, we are fed, misleading and contradictory information, to baffle and bewilder us: thus keeping us in check, as their servants and no more.
It is said that Tesla often used ancient Sanskrit terminology to describe natural phenomena. He was versed in the nature of matter, antimatter, and the makeup of atomic structure that are described in the Vedas; a collection of writings, found in India, consisting of, among other things, dissertations on science and the nature of reality. The writings date back thousands of years and are thought, by Hindu, “not human compositions”.
http://www.veda.harekrsna.cz/index.htm
Aside from some of Tesla’s more well known achievements, there are some areas of his work that have been deemed “Top Secret” and “Classified” by our government. Some of those areas include teleportation of people and inanimate objects, invisibility, and time travel.
List of Tesla patents
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Tesla_patents
Upon Tesla’s death, much of his writings and work were confiscated by our government, on the grounds of national security; it was during WWII. Still, many of his published works, in the form of patents, are available from the U.S. patent office.
A story of the Man and “The Complete Patents of Nikola Tesla”
http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/new/tesla.htm
How does Nikola Tesla contribute to science?
I have a 3 page paper due next week and I really have no idea how to do this. >_< I’m supposed to write a biography about how he contributes to science. I did research on him but its hard for me to phrase it properly without plagiarism.
Here’s what I know so far (feel free to correct me, please) – he created a machine which has the ability to switch from direct currents to alternating currents
- he invented the tesla coil (which I dont know what the heck that is lol)
- he built towers in attempt to contact extraterrestrial life
- his biggest rival was thomas edison
- he came up with a unified field theory in the philadelphia experiment
yeah .. thats pretty much all i have (because im stupid XD)
can someone please help?
or at least share all the information you have
~ thank you!
NIKOLA TESLA BIOGRAPHY!!! help?
i have to write a three page paper on nikola tesla and his contributions to science. all the websites i went too dont give too much detail. can you give me some websites to help or anything information that you may have?
my work seems to be everywhere. i cant seem to make everything flow!!
do it on me ill make sure you get an A and ill do it THE HARD WAY (not meaning that in a yelling way just then need to be in caps way)
I need a biography for my senior project, i dont know who to choose. i want someone fun and interesting?
i want a book that i will enjoy reading. i was thinking about: Nikola Tesla, or Bradley Nowell (Sublime) OR even Chuck Norris.