What people are most familiar with is that Edison invented the electric light, but after later research, Edison was not the inventor of the electric light, but at most he could be regarded as the innovator of the electric light.
As early as 180 1, Humphrey Deiss, a British chemist, used platinum wire to electrify and glow. Later, in 18 10, he made the world's first electric lamp with 2000 batteries and two carbon rods, but the light of this electric lamp was too strong, so it could only be used in city squares, and ordinary families could not use it. In the next few decades, scientists all over the world are developing electric lights. Due to the limited space, the small pots will not be described here. I just want to say, what is Edison doing at this time?
Until 1874, two electrical engineers in Canada applied for the electric lamp patent, but there was no fund for further research and development. At this time, Edison appeared. He first bought the patent, and then tried to improve the filament. After many experiments, Edison finally "invented" the carbonized bamboo filament light bulb in 1880. But then, the Englishman Swan sued Edison for infringing his patent and won the case. As a last resort, Edison was forced to let Swan join in and become his partner. Then, Goebbels, another Englishman who held a patent for the invention of light bulbs, died. Edison found his widow again and even tricked him into obtaining Goebbels' patent. It can be said that Edison didn't invent the electric light, but he owned the patent right of the electric light. Edison used other people's inventions to gain great recognition from later generations.
Edison made huge profits because of the appearance of electric light, so he started to create his own studio and company. Edison set up his own laboratory in a small town in New Jersey, USA, and recruited a large number of developers. In his laboratory, there are 14 outstanding scientists, physicists, engineers, mechanics and other inventors, who are called "scientific lunatics" by Edison. In just six years, this group of "scientific lunatics" contributed more than 400 inventions to Edison's company. What about Edison? His main job is to deal with customers and increase media exposure.
From this perspective, Edison is not a person, but a team that helps him work. This group of people created the person "Edison", who introduced the brand "Edison" to the market through various commercial operations and deified himself.
A professor at Stanford University once said: Edison didn't invent the electric light, but he successfully commercialized his invention. Therefore, Edison was not a great inventor but a successful businessman. Not only that, he is also a mercenary villain, who increases his reputation by squeezing employees and suppressing talents.
Tesla, the "father of alternating current", is a buried genius, and his reputation is extremely disproportionate to his contribution, all of which is caused by Edison. Why?
1880 Edison invented direct current, and two years later Tesla invented alternating current and made the world's first alternator. /kloc-came to America in 0/884 and worked in Edison's company. Edison put him in charge of the design of some electrical appliances and promised him that if you can improve the motor and generator, you will get a reward of 50 thousand dollars (equivalent to millions of dollars now). So, it took Tesla a year to finally complete the improvement of the generator and almost redone Edison's generator. Edison successfully obtained a patent to improve the generator and made huge profits from it. When Tesla asked Edison for a $50,000 bonus, Edison refused on the grounds that "you don't understand our American humor". At that time, Tesla's company in Edison only received a salary of 18 US dollars per week, and later asked for a rise to 25 US dollars, which was also rejected by Edison. Tesla was fed up and resigned angrily. When he left, Edison lied to him and put all 24 patents of Tesla in his own name.
Later, Tesla founded his own company and continued to promote his own alternating current. Edison knew very well that alternating current was the future of mankind, but he spent a lot of money on his own direct current. If it is replaced by alternating current, his loss will be very great. As a result, he began to oppose Tesla everywhere and tried every means to prevent Tesla from promoting alternating current.
Tesla often holds some press conferences to introduce its alternating current to investors. Often when a press conference is held, Edison will bring a group of people to the door to make trouble. They will create a commotion in the venue, spread rumors that alternating current will explode, and then lead the guests to their own press conference. Even Edison paid to make the first electric chair with alternating current in human history, which only made people feel that "using alternating current equals death."
1895, Edison did an even worse thing. He sent someone to burn down Tesla's laboratory, which led to Tesla's bankruptcy. Among them, for all mankind, the biggest loss is that Tesla has studied for many years, and the research report on the harm of X-rays to human body, radiation and plasma will be published soon, and all the achievements will be burned. This also directly led to the later Roentgen and Madame Curie doing experiments with their bodies. After being greatly hurt, Tesla's point of view was demonstrated again. All this is the result of Edison's "militia".
In addition, Ma Keqin, the inventor of the world's first machine gun, was harassed by Edison. In a bidding project, Edison learned about Ma Keqin's machine gun project, so he applied both hard and soft measures to Ma Keqin and deliberately suppressed it. Ma Keqin couldn't stand this kind of harassment. He sold the patent of machine gun to Edison at a very cheap price and left the United States for Europe. Thus, Edison became the inventor of the famous Maxim machine gun.
It can be said that Edison used various disgraceful means to deal with his competitors and earned high profits. As far as invention is concerned, he is far from being so great as described in the textbook. He is only good at using other people's inventions and turning them into commercialization. So Edison was just a successful businessman, and he was far behind other inventors of the same period.
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