 |
Business | Industries | Finance | Tax |
| Index: > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
|
|||||
| First Prev [ 1 2 3 4 ] Next Last |
Main article: War of Currents
During the initial years of electricity distribution, Edison's DC was the standard for the United States and Edison was not disposed to lose all his patent royalties. During the commonly referred to "War of Currents" era, Serbian immigrant Nikola Tesla and Edison became adversaries due to Edison's promotion of DC for electric power distribution over the more efficient alternating current (AC) advocated by Tesla, who patented AC in Graz, Austria. Edison (or, reportedly, one of his employees) employed the tactics of misusing Tesla's patents to construct the first electric chair for the state of New York in order to promote the idea that AC was deadly. Popular myth has it that Edison invented the electric chair, despite being against capital punishment, solely as a means of impressing the public that AC was more dangerous than DC, and would therefore be the logical choice for electrocutions. In fact, the chair was primarily invented by a few of his employees, in particular Harold P. Brown, working at Menlo Park (though Edison certainly monitored their operations). [1]
Edison went on to carry out a campaign to discourage the use of AC, by what today would be commonly referred to as FUD. Edison did preside personally over several executions of animals, primarily stray cats and dogs, for the benefit of the press to prove that his system of DC was safer than that of AC. Edison's series of animal executions peaked with the electrocution of Topsy the Elephant. Ironically, Edison was against capital punishment, but his desire to disparage AC led to the invention of one of the world's most recognizable killing devices.
Many of Edison's inventions using DC ultimately lost to AC devices proposed by others: primarily Tesla's polyphase systems and other contributors, such as Charles Proteus Steinmetz (of General Electric). AC distribution systems replaced DC, enormously extending the range and improving the safety and efficiency of power distribution. Since the 1950s, High Voltage Direct Current ( HVDC) transmission systems have become more common in certain situations. HVDC systems are presently used for some specialised applications like the underwater interconnection of power systems.
As exemplified by the light bulb story, most of Edison's inventions were improvements of ideas by others, achieved through a diligent and industrial approach and team-based development. He was the undisputed head of the team but usually did not share credit for the inventions. He himself said: "genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration." Nikola Tesla, possibly Edison's most famous employee and great scientist in his own right, said about Edison's method of problem-solving: "If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor."
At a meeting in late 1885, of Edison, Edward H. Johnson (President of the Edison Illuminating Company ), Charles Batchellor (Manager of the Edison works) and Nikola Tesla, one of the group suggested guessing weights and Tesla was induced to step on a scale. Edison guessed that Tesla weighed 152 pounds (69 kg), to an ounce. Johnson confidentially related to Tesla that Edison could guess individuals' weight as he had developed the skill when he was employed for a long time in a Chicago slaughter-house where he weighed thousands of hogs every day.[2]
Initially, it was believed that Thomas Edison invented the motion picture camera, but it has since been proven that William Kennedy Laurie Dickson actually invented it at the Edison laboratories. However, Edison's influence on the history of film stretches beyond that of the instigator. He became a powerhouse of film production and must be given credit for establishing the standard of using 35 mm celluloid film with 4 perforations on the edge of each frame that allowed film to emerge as a mass medium and not just a vaudeville novelty. He built what has been called the first movie studio, the Black Maria in New Jersey. Here he made the first copyrighted film, Fred Ott's Sneeze.
His inventions benefited people world wide and in 1878, he was appointed Chevalier of the Legion of Honor of France and in 1889 was made Commander of the Legion of Honor.
On September 30, 1890, Edison obtained patent US437422 for telegraphy, US437423, US437424, US437426 for the phonograph, US437425 for a phonograph- recorder, US437427 for a "Method of Making Phonograph Blanks", US437428 for a "Propelling Device for Electrical Cars", and US437429 for a phonogram blank.
In 1891, Thomas Edison built a Kinetoscope, or peep-hole viewer. This device was installed in penny arcades where people could watch short, simple films. This was important to Thomas Edison especially because he had been searching for a way to entertain customers that were listening to music on his phonograph. Now, people could go to a penny arcade, put in a coin, put on the headphones and watch a film through the peep-hole. Later that same year, on December 29th, Edison patented the radio ("transmission of signals electrically").
On August 9, 1892, Edison received a patent for a two-way telegraph.
| Politics | Business | Finance |
 |
 |
 |
|