This could NEVER EVER HAPPEN!!

[Playinghardball]

[TDale313]

1. He truly was a visionary. n/t

[Duer 157099]

2. Yeah, but did he know about

LOLcats????

[rpannier]

10. Of course he did

It was his life's work to have it created. That's why so many people have worked so hard these many years

[NYC_SKP]

3. Edison gets way too much credit, Tesla far too little.

I wish we had let him live, and I wish he would have been able to realize his dreams.

It would be a different world.

“No matter what we attempt to do, no matter to what fields we turn our efforts, we are dependent on power. We have to evolve means of obtaining energy from stores which are forever inexhaustible, to perfect methods which do not imply consumption and waste of any material whatever.

If we use fuel to get our power, we are living on our capital and exhausting it rapidly. This method is barbarous and wantonly wasteful and will have to be stopped in the interest of coming generations.”

[BlancheSplanchnik]

11. Wow!

Heeeey!

Hi SKP!

[NYC_SKP]

18. Hi Blanche!

[diane in sf]

12. If there was a 'like' button I'd hit it.

[Egalitarian Thug]

16. Edison is but one example of government dictating winners and losers and leaving the people

to pay the consequences of their decisions. He was a very bright man with a good idea that turned that one success into an industry based on stealing the work of others.

[mrdmk]

20. Two things here, Edison was a better salesman (won't find that in a K - 12 history book)

Westinghouse was a better Mechanical Engineer than Electrical Engineer IMHO, knew enough and what people to keep around. Tesla did invent the A/C motor which made Westinghouse's adventure into A/C electrical power generation complete. Yet, in the end, Westinghouse did screw Tesla fairly good. Good enough to place Tesla in poverty for the rest of his life.

[NYC_SKP]

21. Edison also reneged on a $50,000 agreement earlier.

So, yeah, Tesla was beaten up from all sides.

He didn't get the idea of cutthroat capitalism, which was alive and well a century ago.

[mrdmk]

24. Yes, very true! Tesla did work for Edison...

Unfortunately, for Tesla, the math that goes with A/C Electricity is theoretical and hard to understand. As much of a genius as Edison was about his inventions, I believe math not to be his forte. Therefore when Tesla and Edison argue about the best means of delivering electrical service to the customer, Edison did not want to deal with a utility that he could not understand, thus control. Also, there was a feeling that Tesla offended Edison because of this argument.

[NYC_SKP]

25. Edison, upon the refusal to pay, ""Tesla, you don't understand our American humor."

In 1885, Tesla claimed that he could redesign Edison's inefficient motor and generators, making an improvement in both service and economy.

According to Tesla, Edison remarked, "There's fifty thousand dollars in it for you—if you can do it"[43]—this has been noted as an odd statement from an Edison whose company was stingy with pay and who did not have that sort of cash on hand.[44]

After months of work, Tesla fulfilled the task and inquired about payment. Edison, claiming that he was only joking, replied, "Tesla, you don't understand our American humor."[45][46]

Instead, Edison offered a US$10 a week raise over Tesla's US$18 per week salary; Tesla refused the offer and immediately resigned.[43]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

[Jenoch]

4. Tesla was certainly the greatest

inventor of electrical devices. He invented the electric motor. He was more responsible for electricity, radio, and other forms of electronic devices than other, more well known inventors and patent holders. His idea to transmit high voltage electrical power without wires however was a bit nuts.

[jeff47]

5. Why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla

[Gravitycollapse]

6. The Oatmeal- Why Nikola Tesla was the great geek who ever lived.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla

[FourScore]

7. This man fascinates me. n/t

[geckosfeet]

8. Genius bound.

[Marie Marie]

9. Huge Tesla fan here.

Had he lived longer, I think we would have seen even more amazing things from this visionary.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. Tesla envisioned a massive machine supplying wireless electricity to the world...

What killed it was he added two words,..."for free".

[Egalitarian Thug]

17. Jonas Salk: "Would you patent the sun?"

Any good American today, "Hell yes".

[defacto7]

14. One of the greatest minds and visionaries.

And such a tragic end to a most stunning beginning due to the power of corporate moguls who were unable to see past their ego and money, and too stupid to envision the future.

[Skittles]

15. I didn't realize he was so hot

oh sorry, I went off-track there

[Th1onein]

19. I KNOW! Day-um! He's HAWT!

[KittyWampus]

22. Here is Eliphas Levi in mid 1800's.

He was referring to what we know as electromagnetic energy. Read the following quote, keeping in mind what is being referred to, and much of what is written in esoteric literature will begin to make sense.

"Furthermore, there exists in nature a force which is immeasurably more powerful than steam, and by means of which a single man, who knows how to adapt and direct it, might upset and alter the face of the world. This force was known to the ancients; it consists in a universal agent having equilibrium for its supreme law, while its direction is concerned immediately with the great arcanum of transcendental magic... This agent...is precisely that which the adepts of the middle ages denominated the first matter of the Great Work. The Gnostics represented it as the fiery body of the Holy Spirit; it was the object of adoration in the secret rites of the Sabbath and the Temple, under the hieroglyphic figure of Baphomet or the Androgyne of Mendes."

[Liberal_in_LA]

23. kick