Edison, this name must be familiar to everyone, he is a famous great inventor in human history, for a long time occupied in the school textbook, became the object of everyone's admiration during the student period. However, such an "inventive giant" also has some black history that is less known.
Regarding the invention of the electric light bulb, we are familiar with the textbook version, it was Edison who invented the first electric lamp in human history in his laboratory, using carbonized cotton thread as a filament, but is this really the case? Unfortunately, it's not. The inspiration for electric lamps originated from the platinum wire energizing luminescence experiment of the British chemist David in 1801, after which it invented the electric candle, which is to use the arc between two carbon rods to illuminate, which is the origin of electric lamps. Later, in 1854, the Englishman Henry Gobert and the Canadian inventors all invented the prototype of the electric lamp with a glass cover, but unfortunately one of them did not apply for a patent, and the other did not have the funds to continue, and finally this patent was bought by Edison for a lot of money.
A year before Edison "invented" electric lights, Another Englishman, Swann, completed the experiment of "energizing carbon wires under vacuum" ahead of schedule, invented the modern light bulb, and applied for a patent. So later, when the American Edison expanded his business in the United Kingdom, he was sued by Swann for infringement, and Edison lost the case and finally had to spend money to buy Swan's patent.
So, Edison was at best the "improver" of the light bulb, not the "inventor", so why is it said that Edison invented the electric lamp in later generations? That's because it was Edison and his team who built the generator and power generation system, the one who really put electric lights on for thousands of households.
Edison and his team were mentioned earlier, but this so-called team is Edison's own company. In a small town in New Jersey, USA, Edison had his own laboratory, and his laboratory incorporated a group of physicists, engineers, mechanics and other professionals to form an invention team to carry out various research and experiments. Most of Edison's 1,093 invention patents are the result of these team members. What Edison has to do is to be creative like a boss, and connect the inventions to customers and businessmen to achieve commercialization.
So in a sense, Edison was a "big Internet celebrity" and successfully created an "Edison" IP to provide trust endorsement for his team's inventions to attract investment.
Nikola Tesla, another of Edison's contemporaries, was also Edison's lifelong enemy. The confrontation between the two was in the judgment of the future trend of DC and AC, which was also the biggest mistake of Edison's life and the most indelible stain.
Nikola tesla
Interestingly, tesla in his youth was a die-hard fan of Edison, and he also joined Edison's European branch and was transferred to the US headquarters for his excellent performance. But Tesla did not get what he wanted in the United States, aside from Edison's "bad account", he found that Edison was not so smart in scientific invention, but compared with his own higher system education, he was still very stupid, and some things could be directly concluded through mathematical calculus, but Edison needed to repeat the experiment over and over again, and the gap was obviously not on an order of magnitude.
Soon after, the biggest conflict between the two broke out, Tesla invented alternating current and firmly believed that alternating current was the general trend of the future; while the conformist Edison insisted on his direct current and scorned alternating current. So Tesla flew solo, set up its own company, and began to compete head-on with Edison's company.
In the subsequent competition, Edison also did a lot of disgraceful things with his IP advantages and connections in the media, such as using various means to demean Tesla's ALTERNA on various occasions and publicize its harmfulness. In order to achieve this goal, Edison once used alternating current to kill kittens and puppies bought by elementary school students in public, and even bought government officials to use alternating current "electric chair" callers instead of hanging and executing death row inmates; all these acts were intended to prove the danger of alternating current and attack the status of Tesla alternating current in people's minds.
But in the end, Edison lost the battle of the century, and Edison invested all his wealth on direct current and direct current transmission systems, and what we use now is alternating current.
Although it is true that Edison had a lot of black history in his life, this did not prevent him from becoming a scientific great, and no one is perfect, and we cannot deny Edison's great contribution to human development. Although more than one person was ahead of the curve in inventing electric lights, it was Edison who really made him light up the world through his business model.
What do you think of Edison's black history?
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