RE: Tesla Related Article

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Ben McMillen <spoonman534@xxxxxxxxx>

That  was the impression that I got as more and more knowledge about 
the two men and their history was gained..

I remember reading somewhere that if Edison had even a *basic* 
education in some form of organic chemistry, he would have found the 
perfect filament literally years before he actually did.. it appears 
that it was dumb luck (and that with alot of time and endless money, 
you can accomplish just about anything)..

I can't blame him for not giving up.. but still..

When one considers all the other events that took place during the 
'power struggle'.. the staged electrocutions of dogs and other, much 
larger animals.. all of the public mud-slinging against AC..

Westinghouse wasn't much of a scientist, but he was definitely a good 
businessman.. wich is in part why he hired Tesla (if memory serves me 
correctly.. )

.. what many of us would give to be a fly on the wall in those days..

;)

I guess my whole point is that it's good to see Tesla get some press 
again.. especially now that I'm sure alot of people who don't know 
the history will start asking questions..

Coiling In Pittsburgh
- Ben McMillen

Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Original poster: "alfred erpel"



Howdy Mark and all,


If you see this, then I am adding my own hearsay about Edison.
Going to elementary school in the '50s amd '60s we learned that Edison was a
near deity. My father told me otherwise. He said he had 10s or 100s of low
paid researchers using the brute force empirical approach with little or no
theoretical basis for each new experiment. He said the researchers did all
the work and Edison TOOK all the credit. Of course I didn't believe him.
In the decades since little clues and my life experience has amassed to the
point where now I think it more likely that Edison was just nothing more
than another robber baron of his time, standing on the backs of the people
that he could.
What does this have to do with coiling? Well skepticism is healthy
and necessary for good science. Maybe that's what.

Al Erpel (USA, PA 18901)




[stuff snipped]

> I was quite shocked when I heard all this as Edison was
> always an icon to me. But I got to thinking about the
> propaganda that Edison wrote when trying to support DC power
> distribution and kill AC power distribution and it is
> apparent that Edison may not have been the scientist that we
> give him credit.
>
> Mark
>
>
>
>



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