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Posts: 8931
Jun 29 08 3:06 AM
Sceptical Observer
For instance, when Edison found out about the power station that westinghouse was building (Niagra Falls), he was ferious and had children pick up cats and dogs off the street and then electrocuted them with his new invention, the electric chair. He took some of the ideas and used them to make a chair capable of killing a man, and then demostrated on the stray animals the kids found, and he held a press conference to show it off. It was to be a "more human way of killing people" but he called 'being westinghoused'.
Edison used the stray animals, and even an elephant (where did he get the stray elephant from, I wonder) to discredit Tesla's Alternating Current system because he (Edison) had invested in Direct Current systems. He wanted to show how dangerous AC was. The fact that Edison later adopted the AC system is testament that he was lying or, at least, exaggerating the dangers in order to discredit his opponent. He was more of a businessman than an inventor and was an unscrupulous one at that. Some of Edison's patents have been successfully challenged in recent years - including his "light bulb" invention. Edison took other people's ideas, worked upon them and then claimed them as his own "inventions".
Westinghouse bought Tesla's AC patent for $1,000,000 and Tesla moved on to another project - wireless power transmission. His chief investor, JP Morgan, withdrew from the project when he realised that what Tesla was proposing would provide free electricity for everyone. The business world doesn't like to give anything for free. As soon as Tesla refused to co-operate with the government, he was branded as a "mad scientist", yet the day after his death all of his research was confascated and has never been returned or accounted for. His inventions, however, have slowly been introduced as "new ideas" by both military and commercial interests.
John
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