So I was doing some research and I found something that intrigued me. Just read Why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived - The Oatmeal and Nikola Tesla's Mysterious Electric Car Had No Batteries (And Probably Didn't Exist) So.... Tesla is my hero, and I wish I can find more about him and his work before I die.
I'll dig out one of my books and give u the title Was a good read about founders of the country, industrialists and yadda yadda, had great stuff in it about both Tesla and Edison I hadnt read elsewhere until this book.
Wouldn't you want the "<" pointing the other way? As it is, it reads like you prefer Edison... Thanks for the Oatmeal link though, I haven't seen that one yet. I love science stuff.
Those articles are really interesting. I'm not sure about the "earthquake machine" mentioned in the first one, though... MythBusters re-created one from his original plans and couldn't get it to work. Tesla was awesome, though.
Tesla was awesome because he understood how to use the less than / greater than signs. X > Y = X is greater than Y X < Y = Y is greater than X The pacman eats the bigger number, as my teacher used to say. Edison was a brilliant innovator and businessman, but Tesla was a brilliant scientist and inventor. Tesla was eccentric, so this cult of personality has sprung up around him ("he was a wizard" "he was from the future" "his inventions are kept secret by the government" etc.) but even stripping all that off, his work on electromagnetic induction is a foundation of our daily modern life. There's a reason Serbia has Tesla on their money.
Hahaha, I was kinda thinking the same thing. I wasn't gonna punch him though! Tesla was a GENIUS. There's a very good reason the US Government took (read: stole) all of his work when he died.
Fixed that, for ya. That said, I worry about a guy who electrocuted animals just to discredit his competition. (Not that Tesla didn't have his own eccentricities.)
Don't underestimate Edison, he was a smart guy in his own right. He had plenty of inventions of his own, and was an established captain of industry when Tesla entered onto the scene. Edison's knack for noticing an opportunity and developing a product or method that could capitalize on it is essentially unmatched in the modern era. He stands along Henry Ford as one of the godfathers of modern industrial innovation, and even Ford could not brag of making advances in as many different areas as Edison. While he never made the kind of paradigm-shifting leaps in discovery that Tesla did, Edison's ability to use existing technology in novel ways for so many new and attractive devices is nonetheless impressive. Unfortunately, he was also a ruthless businessman, petty, stingy, greedy and arguably cruel. Many called him unrefined, blunt, and pragmatic to a fault. He used shady business practices at times and manipulated every loophole and advantage he could to his own enrichment, even to the detriment of his own staff. If Tesla represents the advance of theoretical electronics, Edison represents it's business side. If Tesla represents the brilliance (pun not intended) and seemingly effortless advance of science and engineering, Edison represents the determined, dogged pursuit of successful results across an ocean of failed attempts. It is ironic, if not tragic that their respective personalities and courses of action made them rivals, if not bitter enemies (and I lay the lion's share of blame at the feet of Edison for this) until it was far, far too late for both of him. Who knows what wonders they could have accomplished if they had simply cooperated from the start?
Tesla was awesome squared. He was exponentially awesome. Edison was just a dick who stole people's work, got rich off it, and electrocuted dogs. If I had a time machine, I'd snap baby Edison's neck. What were you saying, noblevoivin, about the thread ending well? Didn't hear you. BTW, to the OP and anyone who wants a quick and easy way to recall which way the > and < signs face: Pac-Man eats the larger side.
That's how I remember it too! I even used to draw actual Pac-Men rather than just the sign when I first learned it.
The name of the book is "The Power Brokers" . Most of it deals with Edison and Tesla after they get the invention of the steam engine out of the way it move son to electricity. Fascinating read.
So you think that its oveeeeeer I loved their cover of signs! Who's Edison? What was their highest chart topper?
