Edison-Era Inventions Emerge From the Vaults of General Electric

General Electric stole Thomas Edison's name from his company which the combined new company was supposed to be called 'General Edison Electric' when Edison's company 'Edison General Electric' merged with 'Thomas Houston Electric Company' but the dirty swine Coffin removed Edison's name from the final name without informing Edison of that fact until it was too late for him to do anything about it.

That new company then became simply 'General Electric' with Edison's named completely removed. This was reported in a DirecTV special run by National Geographic.

I was more impressed with Nikola Tesla

"I was more impressed with Nikola Tesla"
there are lots of impressive people. Hitler was impressive.
But what about their impacts on the world?
Out of Hilter, Telsa, and Edison, which one changed the world for the better?

@inaka_rob

Tesla, definatly Tesla. Nikola Tesla had more contributions to modern society than either of those two, by far. Still developing on the ideas of Tesla a century later. How's that cell phone working for ya? Edisons big claim to fame is being phased out in favor of what? That's right, Teslas fluorescent. Imagine what life would be like if we had Edisons d.c. power plants every mile (D.C. doesn't travel well). However, Edison had a way better p.r. machine, which is why people still believe modern household electricity is an Edison creation. Sorry, he hated A.C. that's why the electric chair exists.

So, without Tesla, life would be way different. Oh, did I mention computers, yeah, some of Teslas ideas exist there too. Got no space for the hundreds of everyday stuff that Tesla had a hand in but you get the point. Tesla was a genius to be celebrated along with Einstein, Newton, daVinci, Hawking, etc.. And Nikola Tesla died broke and dejected because he spent his fortune advancing the technologies that were so far ahead of his time that we are only now starting to comprehend, ever heard of H.A.R.P? Yet, it's Edison that gets the credit, crazy huh?

funny, before even reading the comments my first thought was "screw edison, my votes for tesla" wish i could have met the guy

Dear @tindaddy,

Maybe the next time before writing something you will do some basic research or think first about the topic. This will probably spare you from writing things like "D.C. doesn't travel well". To make you a favor, for this time I'll provide you with link to this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current
Cheers and good luck comprehending. I still hope you don't have alien voices in your head Tesla reported about himself.

Sheesh! You guys are too much!
Both Tesla and Edison are giants and you should count yourselves lucky to be able to see the future from their shoulders!

Edison had persistence, Tesla was a true
genius-is-next-to Mad Scientist; This is
all in the history books, and on the Web
for your edification.
The US needs every current(Heh Heh)Tesla
it can find, to drive Hi-Tech invention
and produce enough new wealth to pay the
bills and the _enormous_ debts we have.

tindaddy is correct in everything he said havoc. sorry you should have researched what he wrote before you responded.

dc does not travel "well" loosely stated we understand what you were saying tindaddy. pushing dc to many homes just was not possible without a complete dangerous mess of wires that would have killed many people before being abandoned. ac is what makes things work today edison the criminal untalented man he was couldn't handle that the young mans alteration to his invention fixed the problem. he couldn't get over himself. then after Tesla proved himself made up many stories to discredit him so as to be still counted as a pioneer. the only thing edison did was create a bulb and ruin a genius that has caused another dark age and some loss of life in world war 1 when Tesla tried to offer radar but was laughed away by ignorance.
Tesla invented
microwave
radar
radio
alternating current
among many other princables we are discovering today.

the most amazing man that history is now starting to understand.

also for everyone here.

my coments are driven on at least 11 years of reading about tesla and barnaby the man that financed him.

this guy who throws a quick wiki link is the example of today.
1 paragraph he is a expert.

to explain the link specifically it describes HVDC.
which is HIGH VOLTAGE DC.

the equipment that can handle this is very very expensive because of the size and compounds IE porcelain high temp metals minerals and systems that are very expensive because they cant be easily made even today.

but for a jump between continents or states where the huge facility can be built it is looking practical.

so back when edison was spending time lieing about his college there was no way to produce the facilities with the technology they had in that erra.

maybe if he spent as much time in his own workshop electricity wouldn't even be a issue today

havoc_theory

Nice going, dooshbag. He said DC, not HVDC. You said "To make you a favor", then you try to insult him? You're a jerk. Pull the alien probe out of your arse, buddy.

@havoc_theory
You so funny, you make giggles from me

Edison 'The Wizard of Menlo Park' had more patents than any man in history: 1093.

A record that still stands.

However, if you count his patents in Europe, add another 275 for a total of 1368. Edison discovered the 'Edison Affect' which is primarily responsible for the later development of radio and TV and creation of wireless.

Those Tesla lovers always try to put Edison down but it was Edison who got the ball rolling on so many various creations.

For a more complete list, see this:

www.thomasedison.com/Inventions.htm

Those throwing out all that dusty Edison vs Tesla stuff might try backing a modern, living underdog or wronged person that's having trouble getting their ideas out of their garage. The same type of thing has happened many times, but people still want to back one dead person over another. "...there's an art to science that people continue to enjoy." That's what brought me to this article.

It serves Edison right to have his name stricken by General
Electric.He stole his best ideas from the true father of electricity Nicola Tesla.If it wasn't for J.P.Morgan we would all be enjoying free electricity wirelessly.

People sure are getting more, and more, fking vicious, as time is going on, . . . . . why are the Good in there too?

@ havoc_theory

I know for a fact that DC current doesn't travel as good as AC current. There are lots of losses when trying to transport DC current on big distances. AC current has a period and an amplitude which considerable helps the transportation process.
Now my beliefs are based on 5 years of electrotechnic study ..so what i'm trying to say is that you shouldn't make an affirmation based on the info contained in an article.
Thank you
btw TESLA RULES !

gizmowiz

You are dead wrong. Tesla got the ball rolling on those technologies and Edison used his financial and social power to "acquire" Tesla's research. I have studied Tesla for many many years and I can tell you that you are incorrect.

Edison had just invented the electric light bulb, but he needed a system to distribute electricity to houses. He designed a DC (direct current) system, but it had many bugs in it. Edison promised Tesla lots of money in bonuses if he could get the bugs out. Tesla took the challenge and ended up saving Edison over $100,000, which was millions of dollars by today's standards. Edison later refused to keep his promise. Tesla quit not long after that, and Edison spent the rest of his life trying to discredit Tesla (which is the main reason why he is so unknown today).

So it's only obvious why Edison holds more patents, he had more funding and clout plus the research of a brighter scientist to steal from.

The number of Patents Edison holds means nothing except he was a very rich very powerful man and he knew it.

Some things about your precious Edison;

"Edison soon had too much money invested into his DC system, and he tried his best to discredit Tesla by showing that AC was more dangerous than DC. Edison paid local children 25 cents for each stray dog they could bring him. Then he would hold press conferences and electrocute the dogs at public gatherings to frighten people. He claimed that DC could not kill, but in fact, it could. Below is a drawing from 1889 of a horse being electrocuted in Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory."

I could go on posting these snippets from old Newspapers regarding Edison's power and cruelty but a simple Google search should suffice for any curious minds. The information is not hard to find and hard to refute.

@ orionsune

Well said,
AC-DC Wars is common knowledge

The Propaganda is truly Amazing

It is amazing to think that someone dreamed up then put together such an invention and it sat on a dusty shelf for 70+ years. GE should have been installing solar on every piece of property they could get their hands on all this time. The US would be at the top of the solar industry not at the bottom.

It never ceases to amaze me when people who claim to be educated make such dumb and uneducated comments as have been expressed here. Tesla’s contributions were so far beyond the abilities of Edison the differences cannot be easily expressed in words. Edison relied upon the help and input from over 27 talented engineers; whereas Tesla worked in seclusion with never more than 6 assistants at any one time. I believe Tesla did more for human kind and our modern society than anyone else working in the field of electricity and its uses prior to WWII. He developed remote controlled model boats (applicable to toy cars); Radio Frequency Identification; Radar; and many other things too numerous to mention. However, Edison deserves his credit too, as long as it’s an accurate and honest credit. Edison’s modern day claim to fame is a based upon a falsehood; a falsehood taught daily throughout our public schools. Edison didn’t invent the electric light bulb – that invention predated him by almost two hundred years - he did discover – through trial and error – a cheap long lasting filament made of cotton impregnated with carbon. Edison doesn’t even deserve credit for the glass bulb or the use of a vacuum to sustain the filament. Yet he does deserve credit for many things far and above the phonograph or gramophone (whichever you prefer) that most people have long forgotten and never mention. Both men were head and shoulders above all their contemporaries.

BTW: Here's another tid-bit many of you will find difficult to accept.

Edison is NOT the top American inventor. He has been bested by a Mr. Donald Weder of Highland, Ill.

Mr. Weder, who is still alive and whose family runs floral packaging company Highland Supply, has his name on 1,321 patents.

Additionally, the earliest successful experiments in creating light using electricity occurred as early as 1802 -about 80 years before Edison even began experimenting.

1802: Humphry Davy, in Great Britain applied an electric current to a Strip of platinum to generate light. Obviously light bulbs made of rare platinum would not be practical, and this experiment did not generate enough light to be useful and it burned out within a few short minutes. But Davy demonstrated that making light from electricity was possible. Later that same year he went on to create a carbon arc lamp which is considered by many historians to be the first electric light. You want more info just Google "electric light"!

Imagen if Nikola Tesla was alive today. With Quantum computing so very new, and nanotechnologies, I ponder how far Nikola would take us?

I ponder some where near the warp engine.
I believe he was the true genius.

Nikola Tesla I have read very much about, and when you look at the other 'genius's' They fail compared too him.

Einstein was the greatest brain of the 20th century, Tesla was also a brilliant theorist, but not on the level of Einstein.

Edison was not a theorist, but he was very influential due to his PR savvy. For example; Edison didn't even invent the light-bulb, but most people think he did because he had a great self-promotion ability.

Tesla's fate was a tragedy, but I think history will remember him well. He is more popular now than ever, and Edison's reputation has dimmed.

Edison may have been clever - but I live in his old house & we still have many of the original lighting fixtures. Unfortunately, judging from the number of electric shocks and blown fuses, an inventor he may have been - but an electrician, he was not ;-)

Of course, it is possible that he just didn't foresee the need for high current vacuum cleaners and kettles..

Shall we continue this conversation to all the scientists and true genuis that were never recognized for their contributions? We will have to go far back to begin and I don't think it will ever end.

The real gold here is the nestalgia of having the old devices and ideas that they represented. The evolution of science and technology. The testament to human invention, ingenuity and genius.

Your arguments waste the point of the article. They also waste the time you could be coming up with your own. All these groupies and no stars. Sad. A true creator would know the vast contributions that both of these men made. They would ironically see the same human behavior getting in the way here today, as it did back then.

I guess Edison predicted all the devices that have been developed since his time to increase DC transmission It took these developments to utilize DC. Edison is still not vindicated.

Edisson, Newton, Einstein,Tesla etc. are no true genius.
The first one to discover a way to generate more energy than it consumes is going to be the true genius. Someone who can PROVE that a device of perpetual motion can produce more energy. Electromechanical or of other source will have solved the worlds never ending quest for energy with out poluting the environment or destroy it.These men were fine scientists but only ended up creating other problems to humanity. We have alternative energy sources but at what cost? And if this man can do this. Do we have the guts to use it or someone else is going to hide the new discovery just to have humanity's greed satisfied?