Should we really care who
was brighter? Or is it productivity that really counts? Who was the more
productive of these two famous men?
Edison is famous for inventing the phonograph, incandescent light bulb,
cement making technology,
motion picture camera, DC
motors and electric power generation systems, battery and several other
things we use every day and don’t think much about.
Tesla similarly
invented radio, fluorescent light, AC motors
and electric power generation systems and much more. Both these men
lived long lives, well into their 80s, at around the same time a century
ago.
There are big differences between Edison and Tesla. The main one seems to be based on who got the credit for what. Many Tesla fans accuse Edison of having stolen much from Tesla who worked for Edison during his early years. They claim Edison was a thief and that he died a rich and powerful man surrounded by friends because he robbed Tesla and others like him.
Meanwhile, Tesla died broke and miserable and lonely with his closest friends being wild pigeons he had enticed into his room at the Hotel New Yorker. Edison fans similarly suggest Tesla was a swindler who deceived investors into financing his ideas with promises he rarely kept. They suggest Tesla got his just rewards.
Both versions appear to be true. For example, Edison
did not invent the light bulb. Joseph
Swan was installing them in homes and landmarks in England years before
Edison got his light bulb patented and working. Edison
was buying out other people’s patents and when Swan eventually sued
Edison and won, Edison had to take him in as a partner in Edison’s British
company. Likewise, a deceitful
Tesla
managed to convince J.P. Morgan, the world’s most powerful financier
at the time, to finance his concept for wireless free electricity production
under the guise of sending radio messages across the oceans and to and
from ships at sea. Tesla was making artificial lightning with
Morgan’s money that was eventually cut off.
Edison and Tesla came to technological blows in the late 1800s when Tesla’s AC (alternating current) power systems that are used all over the world today came into competition with Edison’s DC (direct current) power systems. As it turns out, Tesla’s system was the better one. Tesla’s technologies were bought by railway air brake inventor George Westinghouse who developed them into what became the multinational Westinghouse company. Edison is the godfather of General Electric, presently the world’s 12th largest company. Both these guys were prolific inventors and became famous for it. But comparing them on a point by point basis, the reasons why Edison died rich and famous while Tesla died broke and lonely become clear based on relative productivity.