Thomas Edison, you read the name and you know: "Inventor of the Bulb". We grew up reading that despite being deaf (one ear) he kept on working hard. In one version we were told deafness was an aftermath of a scarlet fever or mid-ear infection, in another it was an accident in a chemical laboratory. From being a self-educated person to being America's greatest inventor, we are told his aspiring stories so that we not only put in our efforts but also look beyond limitations without making any circumstance an excuse.
Our elders heard the same, so did me and so will our children probably. However, growing up amongst engineers i often heard them talking about Tesla and his inventions and how it wasn't Edison's work in the first place. Later on, i came to a conclusion that whatever is it about Edison or Tesla is simply like a prevailed misconception people have about Freud. Just as people say Freud is a Father of Psychology similarly layman like us (US: NOT BEING ENGINEERS) keep on attributing Edison about some work which might have been of Tesla.
Note: Freud is a father of Psychoanalytic, where as William James is a Father of Psychology: No one's a Machiavellian as per my knowledge.
Who's a Machiavellian? What is Machiavellianism? (Most of you might be wondering how this word is pronounced, so new right?) Machiavellianism in psychology refers to a personality trait in which a person is so focused on their own interest that they'll manipulate, deceive or even exploit others. In simpler words it's an art of being deceptive to get ahead. Thomas Edison was a Machiavellian Prince? Yes, i felt so as i went on a mission to read about uncommon rivarly of Edison and Tesla.
A young Serbian Scientist named Nikola Tesla was a brilliant inventor, however, his life of woe and tribulation started when he came to America in 1884, persuaded by Charles Batchelor (Plant Manager and personal friend of Thomas Edison). He came penniless to America but head full of ideas. However, a mistake he did was to commit to Edison's company who was then known as a thief of ideas than for inventing anything useful, by those who worked for him. In words of Edison himself: "Everybody steals in commerce and industry. I've stolen a lot myself. But I know how to steal."
When Tesla met Edison, he was hired right away. Tesla offered to redesign primitive Edison Dynamos completely. The kind of work he proposed seems to be a monumental task that could last years without paying off but Edison offered 50 thousand Dollars to him. Tesla worked 18 hours a day for his company where in a period of one year produced improved version of dynamo with automatic control. When finally time came to receive his well-deserved money, instead he was given a small raise with a reply from Edison: "Tesla, you don't understand our American Humor!"
Tesla's obsession was to create an alternating current system (AC) of electricity. Edison believed that workable system has to be based on Direct-Current (DC) system of electricity. Edison not only went against Tesla's research but later did all he could to sabotage him. When Serbian scientist Tesla was successful in creating an alternate current (AC) system, Edison went furious. He ruined Tesla's reputation by publicly declaring that AC system was unsafe to use. In order to prove, Edison captured all kind of household pets and electrocuted them to death with AC current. Later on in 1890 he convinced New York State Prison authorities to organize world's first execution by electrocution through an AC current. However, this turned out to be cruelest state authorized execution since the charge was too weak to kill human beings. Previously all electrocution had been done on small creatures only and hence the prisoners for execution was only half killed.
The AC system which Nikola Tesla designed is still the standard today-however after the patents were filed in his name (when he was working at Pittsburgh Magnate: George Westinghouse's electricity company), many other scientists came forward to claim for the invention stating that they had laid a groundwork for Tesla. His name was lost in the shuffle, and the public came to associate the AC system with Westinghouse company itself. Almost a year later, Westinghouse was caught in takeover bid from J. Pierpont Morgan who made him withdraw the generous royalty contract he had signed with Tesla for AC system. Hence, Westinghouse explained Tesla that his electricity company would not survive if they paid him his full royalties and instead persuaded him to accept a buyout of his patents for $216000 far less than the $12Million- patents were worth at that time. Thus, financiers deprived Tesla of his patents, his money as well the credit for the greatest invention of his career which is still the standard.
Nikola Tesla is also a real inventor of a Radio, instead Guglielmo Marconi is linked with the invention. Marconi made use of a patent Tesla had filed in 1887 and his work dependent on Tesla's Research. Once again Tesla received no money and no credit to his invention (and as an old man, he lived in poverty). Tesla believed that science had nothing to do with politics and rivalries that trouble the rest of the world. He also claimed not to care for fame and riches. But as the time passed, this belief ruined his scientific career since he couldn't attract any investor where as others stole patents he had already developed and got credit for themselves.
Edison was Tesla's exactly opposite. He knew in order to attract investors he ensured all the attention he could get for himself. Edison would simply talk about future inventions: robots taking over, machines that could capture thoughts-over which he actually had no intentions or brain to work over but that made the public talk about him. He did everything in order to ensure he received more attention than Tesla who was by far the greatest scientist with brilliant ideas, but his name was far less known. Edison was not much of a scientist or thinker. He was once caught saying: "I don't need to be a mathematician because I can always hire one".
Edison was in fact a business and public man, hitting on the opportunities to take credit even if it takes him to steal. He would deceive young mind full of ideas to work for him on a good cost and eventually giving them little cost but taking credit on his name/company. He would manipulate public opinion and intimidate others. He did not let anyone know of products that were actually superior in every way to his own gain a foothold with American public, because for him Tesla was a rival in context of his own desire to become America's greatest inventor.
In 1917, Tesla was told that he was to receive the Edison Medal of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. He refused by saying: "You propose to honor me with a medal which I could pin upon my coat and strut for a vain hour before the members of your Institute. you would decorate my body and continue to let starve, for failure to supply recognition, my mind and its creative products, which have supplied the foundation upon which the major portion of your Institute exists"
[Reference: The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, page 58]
The Machiavellian Prince believed that this world runs on the laws of Jungle when it comes to Power. There are animals who lives by making an effort to hunt themselves and their young ones. Where as there're others who live their lives on hunting of others. Instead of making a move themselves, they understand that others are available to do the work and they can have their stomach fed. And once you have the impression of Hyenas or Vultures, you seems to have a Godlike strength and power in entire jungle, and Lion became merely a symbol to be the puppet-king only. Being fed on creativity of others, their creativity become Edison's and Edison a genius to this world as "America's Greatest Inventor."
In David Bowie's portrayal of Tesla in the movie "The Prestige", Tesla is widely known for his theories such as terrestrial stationary waves (in simpler words he theorized that our planet can potentially be utilized as a giant conductor). In the movie, Tesla was successful in illuminating 200 lamps without a single connecting wire from as far as 25 miles away. The story goes that Tesla is basically creating electrical storms in his labs because he dared to expand upon the limited world of Edison's experiments. However, Tesla's ideas remained locked in the pages of a notebook largely because Edison had funding and investors, and Tesla did not. As a result not only Edison's name survived but world faced a delay in technological advancements that could have changed the world decades earlier-Until Tesla's notebook was opened again.
I am a psychologist by profession and has naive information regarding physics and its dynamics. This article was an effort to know the truth about people who were portrayed as heroes, who's power of Machiavellian-ism persists long after their death. This Machiavellian-ism is widespread today in many many workplaces, and has been a recently studied phenomenon in light of Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology. I'll conclude the article over the quote "The Blind Hen" by Fables Gotthold Lessing (1729-1781)
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| Thomas Edison on google search engine's first page. |
Note: Freud is a father of Psychoanalytic, where as William James is a Father of Psychology: No one's a Machiavellian as per my knowledge.
Who's a Machiavellian? What is Machiavellianism? (Most of you might be wondering how this word is pronounced, so new right?) Machiavellianism in psychology refers to a personality trait in which a person is so focused on their own interest that they'll manipulate, deceive or even exploit others. In simpler words it's an art of being deceptive to get ahead. Thomas Edison was a Machiavellian Prince? Yes, i felt so as i went on a mission to read about uncommon rivarly of Edison and Tesla.
 |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison#List_of_people_who_worked_for_Edison |
A young Serbian Scientist named Nikola Tesla was a brilliant inventor, however, his life of woe and tribulation started when he came to America in 1884, persuaded by Charles Batchelor (Plant Manager and personal friend of Thomas Edison). He came penniless to America but head full of ideas. However, a mistake he did was to commit to Edison's company who was then known as a thief of ideas than for inventing anything useful, by those who worked for him. In words of Edison himself: "Everybody steals in commerce and industry. I've stolen a lot myself. But I know how to steal."
When Tesla met Edison, he was hired right away. Tesla offered to redesign primitive Edison Dynamos completely. The kind of work he proposed seems to be a monumental task that could last years without paying off but Edison offered 50 thousand Dollars to him. Tesla worked 18 hours a day for his company where in a period of one year produced improved version of dynamo with automatic control. When finally time came to receive his well-deserved money, instead he was given a small raise with a reply from Edison: "Tesla, you don't understand our American Humor!"
Tesla's obsession was to create an alternating current system (AC) of electricity. Edison believed that workable system has to be based on Direct-Current (DC) system of electricity. Edison not only went against Tesla's research but later did all he could to sabotage him. When Serbian scientist Tesla was successful in creating an alternate current (AC) system, Edison went furious. He ruined Tesla's reputation by publicly declaring that AC system was unsafe to use. In order to prove, Edison captured all kind of household pets and electrocuted them to death with AC current. Later on in 1890 he convinced New York State Prison authorities to organize world's first execution by electrocution through an AC current. However, this turned out to be cruelest state authorized execution since the charge was too weak to kill human beings. Previously all electrocution had been done on small creatures only and hence the prisoners for execution was only half killed.
The AC system which Nikola Tesla designed is still the standard today-however after the patents were filed in his name (when he was working at Pittsburgh Magnate: George Westinghouse's electricity company), many other scientists came forward to claim for the invention stating that they had laid a groundwork for Tesla. His name was lost in the shuffle, and the public came to associate the AC system with Westinghouse company itself. Almost a year later, Westinghouse was caught in takeover bid from J. Pierpont Morgan who made him withdraw the generous royalty contract he had signed with Tesla for AC system. Hence, Westinghouse explained Tesla that his electricity company would not survive if they paid him his full royalties and instead persuaded him to accept a buyout of his patents for $216000 far less than the $12Million- patents were worth at that time. Thus, financiers deprived Tesla of his patents, his money as well the credit for the greatest invention of his career which is still the standard.
Nikola Tesla is also a real inventor of a Radio, instead Guglielmo Marconi is linked with the invention. Marconi made use of a patent Tesla had filed in 1887 and his work dependent on Tesla's Research. Once again Tesla received no money and no credit to his invention (and as an old man, he lived in poverty). Tesla believed that science had nothing to do with politics and rivalries that trouble the rest of the world. He also claimed not to care for fame and riches. But as the time passed, this belief ruined his scientific career since he couldn't attract any investor where as others stole patents he had already developed and got credit for themselves.
Edison was Tesla's exactly opposite. He knew in order to attract investors he ensured all the attention he could get for himself. Edison would simply talk about future inventions: robots taking over, machines that could capture thoughts-over which he actually had no intentions or brain to work over but that made the public talk about him. He did everything in order to ensure he received more attention than Tesla who was by far the greatest scientist with brilliant ideas, but his name was far less known. Edison was not much of a scientist or thinker. He was once caught saying: "I don't need to be a mathematician because I can always hire one".
Edison was in fact a business and public man, hitting on the opportunities to take credit even if it takes him to steal. He would deceive young mind full of ideas to work for him on a good cost and eventually giving them little cost but taking credit on his name/company. He would manipulate public opinion and intimidate others. He did not let anyone know of products that were actually superior in every way to his own gain a foothold with American public, because for him Tesla was a rival in context of his own desire to become America's greatest inventor.
In 1917, Tesla was told that he was to receive the Edison Medal of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. He refused by saying: "You propose to honor me with a medal which I could pin upon my coat and strut for a vain hour before the members of your Institute. you would decorate my body and continue to let starve, for failure to supply recognition, my mind and its creative products, which have supplied the foundation upon which the major portion of your Institute exists"
[Reference: The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, page 58]
The Machiavellian Prince believed that this world runs on the laws of Jungle when it comes to Power. There are animals who lives by making an effort to hunt themselves and their young ones. Where as there're others who live their lives on hunting of others. Instead of making a move themselves, they understand that others are available to do the work and they can have their stomach fed. And once you have the impression of Hyenas or Vultures, you seems to have a Godlike strength and power in entire jungle, and Lion became merely a symbol to be the puppet-king only. Being fed on creativity of others, their creativity become Edison's and Edison a genius to this world as "America's Greatest Inventor."
In David Bowie's portrayal of Tesla in the movie "The Prestige", Tesla is widely known for his theories such as terrestrial stationary waves (in simpler words he theorized that our planet can potentially be utilized as a giant conductor). In the movie, Tesla was successful in illuminating 200 lamps without a single connecting wire from as far as 25 miles away. The story goes that Tesla is basically creating electrical storms in his labs because he dared to expand upon the limited world of Edison's experiments. However, Tesla's ideas remained locked in the pages of a notebook largely because Edison had funding and investors, and Tesla did not. As a result not only Edison's name survived but world faced a delay in technological advancements that could have changed the world decades earlier-Until Tesla's notebook was opened again.
I am a psychologist by profession and has naive information regarding physics and its dynamics. This article was an effort to know the truth about people who were portrayed as heroes, who's power of Machiavellian-ism persists long after their death. This Machiavellian-ism is widespread today in many many workplaces, and has been a recently studied phenomenon in light of Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology. I'll conclude the article over the quote "The Blind Hen" by Fables Gotthold Lessing (1729-1781)
"A hen who has lost her sight, and was accustomed to scratching up the earth in search of food, although blind, still continued to scratch away most diligently. Of what use was it to the industrious fool? Another sharp-sighted hen who spread her tender feel never moved from her side, and enjoyed, without scratching, the fruit of the other's labor. For as often as the blind hen scratched up a barley corn, her watchful companion devoured it."
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