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Empires of light

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Zogzog

Electrical
Mar 7, 2006
1,579
US
Anyone ever read "Empires of light"? I have seen the story of Edison, Tesla, and George on several History channel and Discoverly channel specials and read about the war of the currents on several web sites dedicated to those guys but this book is a great read, picked it up this weekend and cant put it down.
 
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Tesla is not a household name today like Edison probably because Edison dedicated much time to discrediting Tesla.
 
Tesla was also OFF the main stream, so Edison or not, he would have been less appreciated by the general public no matter what.

TTFN

FAQ731-376
 
Tesla was nuts, everything he did had to be divisable by 3 (I think it was 3, might have been some other number) hotel room numbers, # of shrimp in his shrimp cocktail, everything! He was also a germaphobe and overall a crazy genius, like most are.

Anyhow, great read, check it out.
 
So Tesla was a wierdo. He still managed to get into the SI units game (T = the SI unit of magnetic flux density I believe. One wonders why the more famous Edison is not similarly honoured ? The Edison ... a unit of light intensity perhaps ? Or something to do with recording quality ?
 
The thread on the lightbulbs is called E for Edison (E14, E27) - one can say he got screwed.
 
The "more famous" Edison did very little original work himself, so, other than claiming fame as his claim to fame, he hardly rates for getting a unit named after him.

TTFN

FAQ731-376
 
"The "more famous" Edison did very little original work himself, so, other than claiming fame as his claim to fame, he hardly rates for getting a unit named after him. "

Very true, he didnt "do" much besides improve the light bulb (He didnt invent it)
 
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