Speaking of Edison, most people think of the light bulb, the king of invention, the genius, and his genius is ninety-nine percent sweat plus one percent talent, of course, some people will say that Edison was a businessman, what kind of person was Edison? Let's reveal the secret together today.
Edison "invented" electric lights
Today our story begins with the light bulb, if you search for Edison light bulbs in Google, there is a good chance that this will be recorded, on October 21, 1879, Edison in his laboratory to curl the cotton thread carbonized as a filament, invented the world's first light bulb. From this moment on, the light bulb became synonymous with Edison, and when it came to the light bulb, the brain would involuntarily think of Edison.
But was the light bulb really invented by Edison? I will not draw conclusions, but I will tell you a few stories before I say,
1. In 1801, the British chemist David energized the platinum wire in an experiment, and the result was that the platinum wire emitted a dazzling light In 1810, David invented the electric candle, to put it bluntly, it is the arc illumination emitted by two energized carbon rods, perhaps everyone thinks that this is not a light.
2. In 1854, the American Henry Goebbels, he turned on a carbonized bamboo wire and put it into a vacuum glass bottle, in the vacuum, the carbon filament glowed, at this time Henry's "light bulb" can continuously emit light for more than 400 hours.
3. Fast forward to 1874, when two Canadian electrical engineers invented a new technique in which they filled a glass bubble with nitrogen and then put in an energized carbon rod that could still emit light, but both were poor ghosts, and the experiment was halfway through. In order to make a living, the two sold the patent to Edison in 1875.
4. This time came to 1878, a year before Edison "invented" the light bulb, when the Englishman Joseph Wilson Swan completed an experiment, in the vacuum, to the carbon rod power, this time can basically be regarded as a light bulb, the clever Swan immediately applied for a patent in the United Kingdom, and he registered a special company in the United Kingdom to install electric lighting in the homes of the British people.
At the end of these four stories, our protagonist Edison appeared, in 1879, Edison claimed to have experimented with more than 1600 kinds of materials, did thousands of experiments, and finally found carbonized cotton filament as a filament material, unbeknownst to Swann as early as 19 years ago. A year later, in 1880, Edison, after thousands of experiments, found that carbonized bamboo filament worked better, but this conclusion was reached by Goebbels as early as 1854.
Seeing this, everyone should start to wonder, is the light bulb really not invented by Edison? So why does the U.S. Patent Office say that the light bulb was invented by Edison? Let's continue to see that in 1883, Edison was ready to promote his own light bulb to the European market, and the first stop he came to was Britain, but Edison's electric lamp was immediately sued by Swann, and Edison lost the case, so Edison asked Swann to join Edison as a partner in the British company. Later, after some means by Edison, he spent money to buy Swann's patent.
At this time, everyone wondered, it seems that Edison is just improving the electric lamp, but why should we say that Edison invented the light bulb? In fact, Edison built a power generation system and generators because he and his company commercialized electric lights, so that more families could use electric lights.
Edison's strong team
As we all know, Edison has 1093 invention patents, which is an unprecedented record and is a veritable "king of invention". At this point, it has to be said that Edison and his team, Edison has a laboratory in New Jersey, USA, where he employs a large number of engineers, mechanics. Physicists and chemists, there are 14 core members of this team, these people are responsible for research experiments, Edison is responsible for connecting with investors and dealing with the media. In this team, everyone attributed all the invention patents to Edison, while others were paid handsomely.
From this perspective, Edison is more like an individual "brand" responsible for providing trust endorsements and attracting investment for the products invented by his team. But the existence of the "Monroe Park" laboratory is not a secret, why has everyone been willing to mention Edison's name for a long time, and few people have said his team? Where did Edison get the money to support his team with experiments and patents?
The gold lord behind Edison
John Pierre Ait Morgan
At this time, it is necessary to mention the big gold lord behind Edison, the famous John Pieret Morgan, and this person is also a magical figure, he is a famous Banker, Financial Giant, and Famous Collector in the United States. After his death, it was found that his fortune was only $60 million, and the equivalent amount of art he collected was just over $100 million. With the resources and property he controlled at the time, the figure was unbelievable—"he wasn't even a rich man," another tycoon, Rockefeller, who said of him at the time.
In 1879, Morgan took a stake in Edison's "Edison Electric Company" because Morgan was keenly aware that Edison's invention—or discovery—could change the entire world.
Sometimes, there is also technology, there is an idea, there is a fight, but if there is no big money behind it, it is equal to zero - just like in 1875, the two sold the patent of the light bulb to Edison's Canadian electrical engineers.
"Throwing money" is a big support that Morgan first gave to Edison, and Edison, with Morgan's support, experienced the feeling that "having money is willful": for patents that feel promising, they will all be bought! See talented engineers and hire them right away!
Morgan's second support for Edison was a vision of business. Considering, for example, that Edison's power company would have to lay a power grid to popularize electric lights, Morgan immediately formed a copper company—something that ordinary inventors simply could not do.
The third support, morgan, through his various powers, was to get the media to speak for Edison— including the famous New York Times. They packaged Edison as a "genius inventor" and attacked Edison's various competitors through various negative reports. In the end, Edison became a veritable "invention" king.
Later, because some of the views that Edison insisted on were wrong today, Morgan, who had a sharp eye, immediately acquired Edison's company, changed the name of the company, and established today's General Electric Company, which had nothing to do with Edison at this time. One must be wondering what wrong judgment Edison made that caused Morgan not to follow him anymore?
AC DC Wars
Edison's biggest mistake was to stick to the development trend of direct current, he believed that direct current is the future, so in this battle, Edison seemed to be a little unkind, his life's biggest enemy Nikola Tesla.
Nikola tesla
Although now you Google Tesla, feel that he is a god, which has an amplified rhythm, but I have to say that Tesla is indeed a genius, compared with ordinary people, he is indeed a god-like existence, in the invention of this matter, Tesla and Edison between a galaxy, about Tesla I will also publish articles in the near future We will understand when the time comes.
Interestingly, Tesla, who is 9 years younger than Edison, originally admired Edison very much. In 1882, Tesla became an employee of the European branch of the Edison Company, and in 1884, because of his excellent performance, he was directly recommended to go to the headquarters of Edison's American company. By chance, Edison told Tesla that tesla would be rewarded with $50,000 if it could improve the generators the company produced. $50,000 back then is equivalent to about $1 million today.
I have to say that the cattle man is different, Tesla actually improved the generator of Edison, so Tesla went to Edison to fulfill his promise, and Edison this guy said: Don't you understand The humor of the Americans? However, Edison did not stand a dime, he raised Tesla's salary, he can get $25 a week,
Martian Musk's Tesla car is to commemorate Nikola Tesla
Tesla has given up the Nobel Prize many times, and he has also given up the alternating current patent, and if this patent is paid, then he will become a billionaire.
The contradiction between the two gradually appeared, and Tesla looked down on Edison more and more, after all, the IQ was not at the same level, so Tesla left Edison's company and set up his own company, and the contest between the two officially began, and a war of alternating current and direct current began. In this battle, Edison used a lot of conspiracy, he publicized the disadvantages of alternating current in public, he once spent money to buy children's pet puppies and kittens, and then electrocuted them in public with alternating current, and then crazy Edison also killed an elephant with alternating current in the zoo, but at this time everyone was still unmoved, after all, everyone can distinguish the good things, after lighting the elephant Edison is not satisfied, this time he turned his eyes to humans, yes, this time he wanted to electrocute humans.
Chair
On August 6, 1890, the first "electric chair" in human history ushered in its first prisoner to be executed, and this "electric chair", invented under the impetus of Edison, claimed to be able to execute executed prisoners quickly and without pain, but the real purpose was to prove how dangerous alternating current was. It was a very bad execution, and the prisoner suffered more painfully than any punishment.
The final battle result of DC AC is believed to be known to everyone, we have learned in physics class, and now we use ALTERNA.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="64" > everyone should have a new understanding of Edison, and it is undeniable that Edison is an excellent businessman. Here we will remember his famous saying: Genius is ninety-nine percent sweat plus one percent talent! However, the teacher did not speak the second half of the sentence when I went to school, but the one percent talent was often more important than the ninety-nine percent sweat! </h1>