Ah… supporters of Evil Thomas Edison are begining to emerge from the depths to defend his questionable claims (at least in other blogs)! Well, I say to these individuals, Think Again! As any good Steampunk would recognize, Edison was a mildly successful tinkerer, and a superb marketer. Losing numerous patents due to his endemic theft and hubris, he is still acclaimed at the “father of the incandescent lightbulb”, though he was stripped of his patents in two countries (US & UK).
His attempts at promoting his lackluster DC current scheme fell short, to Tesla’s brilliant AC system. Instead of another monologue, I found a different means of furthering this arguement…
Not to say that Edison does not have is place in Steampunk history, not at all… he should be lumped with the Robber Barons of the time, such as the likes of James Fisk and Jay Gould!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robber_baron_%28industrialist%29
A rather fair analysis of Edison’s history:
http://www.answers.com/topic/thomas-edison?cat=technology
More revelations about his deceptions:
http://www.reformation.org/thomas-edison.html
A further explination of the incandescent lightbulb conflict:
http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/explain/docs/edison.asp
