Thomas Edison Would Brag on Himself Way Too Much
“Edison… ‘Just made five patents today!’, ‘Magician of Menlo Park? I could get used to that.’; ‘There’s way 246 to not make a light bulb!’, ‘Oops, gotta expand my workshop again!’ Despite controversial claims that Thomas Edison was a fraud, the claims are unsubstantiated. But his hubris did get in the way of a lot of things. Most notably his Alternating Current (AC) vs Direct Current (DC) feud with Nikola Tesla. Edison’s DC method had reigned supreme and was threatened by Tesla’s AC method of electricity. In order to discredit Tesla’s current, Edison resorted to extremes and publicity.
Tesla originally was employed by Edison. Tesla only worked for Edison for about six months, and after a time spent digging graves, he received enough investor cash to set up his own company in Rahway, New Jersey, close to Menlo Park. Those investors took the company out from under him, and it wasn’t until 1887, with a new factory in Manhattan, that Tesla was able to truly pursue his AC motor. Soon after, he licensed his patents to George Westinghouse, Edison’s chief rival in the race to supply cities with power. The race between AC and DC would escalate from there, with Edison pulling out nearly all the stops to prove that AC was dangerous. In 1903, poor Topsy the Elephant was electrocuted to prove that Alternating Current was far more dangerous than Direct Current.