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Who was more important Edison or Tesla?

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LAN_403

Bored Chemist

Wed Mar 07 2007, 07:03AM

Registered Member #193 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022

" , as already pointed out, that a simple transformer is all that is needed to go from AC to AC, or AC to DC using a rectifier"
Yes, but have you seen how many smpsus there are?

Simon

Thu Mar 08 2007, 04:23AM

Registered Member #32 Joined: Sat Feb 04 2006, 08:58AM
Location: Australia
Posts: 549

BjÃ¸rn BÃ¦verfjord wrote ...

Basic things like lightbulbs, electric motors and computers. Things that a single person without relevant eduaction could invent and build with no money, things that would directly influence the life of almost every single person on earth.

I would still disagree with this. What enamelled copper wire was to hobbyists once is what a uC is to us now. The kind of education you need to tinker with emag to make an electric motor is about the same level as what you need to create something like, say, the Web, which was as much the product of genius as the lightbulb.

Also, "It was easy to be a genius when the basic necessities weren't invented," is a funny statement. The whole thing about genius inventions is that they are genius inventions. If it were obvious they needed to be invented they wouldn't be genius inventions. Same goes today. I mean, it's heading to the logical territory of, "Name a device that anyone could make that hasn't been invented yet. See? You can't. So everything's been invented."

On the whole, I'd say progress is most made by big labs with lots of resources. I just don't think there is something majorly different about now from in the Tesla/Edison day.

Bjørn

Thu Mar 08 2007, 05:43AM

Registered Member #27 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058

The difference is that the basic inventions live almost forever, like the universal digital computer will not be forgotten until all software is forgotten. So the WWW and all other software will be just a tiny insignificant flicker in the lifetime of the computer.

The person that stumbles over a simple basic invention will forever be a genius. The simple easy to discover inventions have been mostly exhausted because there were not infinite many of them. For each new generation of inventions it becomes easier to make something new but the invention is fragile because it often depends on fads for survival and the lifetime is short. It also competes with millions of other "inventions" so you rarely get a genius to rise above the mass.

So easier to clobber something together, much harder to be considered a genius.

Bored Chemist

Thu Mar 08 2007, 06:50AM

Registered Member #193 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022

Simon, you say "I would still disagree with this. What enamelled copper wire was to hobbyists once is what a uC is to us now. " I think there's a difference; I can make enameloed copper wire.

Steve Conner

Thu Mar 08 2007, 12:37PM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Bjoern can make a microprocessor. :P

Ben

Sun Mar 11 2007, 06:51PM

Vigilatny
Registered Member #17 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 02:47PM
Location: NL
Posts: 158

The problem here is you're all sad proponents of the Great Man Theory

Bjoern, if you want ot be a genius solve one of these. (Or go with these instead.)

Alex

Sun Mar 11 2007, 07:09PM

Geometrically Frustrated
Registered Member #6 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:18AM
Location: Bowdoin, Maine
Posts: 373

Oh really? We are looking at history through the great man lens, after all, we are comparing the influences of two people.

However, certainly not everyone here has said that we wouldn't have the things we have today if it weren't for Edison or Tesla, and therefore not all of us are "sad proponents" of this theory. In fact, some people here have argued that these are relatively simple inventions that were just waiting to be discovered. So far you're just a "sad opponent" of the theory, having made a claim (Edison and Tesla are not great men) but given no evidence to warrant it.

Ben

Sun Mar 11 2007, 07:24PM

Vigilatny
Registered Member #17 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 02:47PM
Location: NL
Posts: 158

Apparently the winking wasn't enough to indicate my joking tone. Anyhow some have alluded to it, but no one specifically mentioned the great man theory.

Hopefully seeing it in big blinking lights(or just wikipedia) will dampen the passions of this "debate".

Alex

Sun Mar 11 2007, 07:48PM

Geometrically Frustrated
Registered Member #6 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:18AM
Location: Bowdoin, Maine
Posts: 373

Ah, sorry, I mistook your wink as a 'knowing' one, rather than an indication of a joking tone.

Steve Conner

Mon Mar 12 2007, 12:09AM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

So you're saying that "great" men are just symptoms of history rather than causes of it?

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