Thomas Edison: Not As Bad As You Think?

Thomas Alva Edison he invented things but you probably know that you probably know a couple things about good old Tommy Boy he used to be revered as one of the greatest Americans of all time but now he Garner's mixed reactions we all have opinions about this guy it's sort of a trend today that we say he was a crooked talentless businessman who stole inventions and passed them off as his own but I don't think that's fair but in the mean time I want to take a look at some of the more notable moments of his life and let you come to your own conclusions on this guy Thomas Edison was born in 1847 in Milan Ohio but moved to Port Huron Michigan in his early days as a kid he was a bit of a troublemaker as is innate curiosity drove him to do some pretty odd things like sitting on duck eggs to see if they hatched yeah that happened as was common in this time he didn't have much of a formal education instead his mother taught him the basics and he developed a love for reading this love would never fade away as he went through as much literature as he could possibly consume this is probably the most interesting part of Edison's mind his education would always be fueled by his own volition while he had a passion for learning it wasn't his only interest he was always starting various business ventures even in his youth at age 12 he began selling candy and newspapers to a local train station here he befriended the station manager who took him under his wing and teaching him the ins and outs of being a telegraph operator don't get us in like this quite a bit as Telegraph's were just about the most technologically advanced thing he had seen to this point communication over the nation and an instant was still very much cutting edge at this time he also worked with chemistry experiments just for fun I guess he was developing quite a large skill set especially considering he wasn't even a teenager yet at 14 he started a small newspaper that would be distributed to the railway he was stationed at again he was a very business savvy kid over the next few years he landed a job as a true telegraph operator and in this found ample time to tinker on the tech or that I mean in Vice he wanted to invent stuff he worked the night shift where less telegrams would come in and used a lot of his time just reading and working on inventions and of course still with some chemical experiments these inventions were not just novel works of a man's hobby though he created a telegraph machine that could send multiple messages at once something that was very much desired by the big operators Western Union found this out and offered him a large sum of money for his creation which he eagerly accepted this was his first big break and gave him the cash to start his true dream a research lab the location one low Park New Jersey he hired a number of talented individuals to assist him in one job invents he would work constantly all for the purpose of creating new things and yes he made quite a few things of course he had help from his assistants and later in life didn't actually make some of the things listed under his name but regardless he was integral to many of these projects starting in the first place and I won't cover all of his inventions but just a select heat the cool ones first off the phonograph now what exactly was this well it was truly the first way to replay recorded sounds this was a big deal prior to this if you wanted to listen to music you would actually need to be in the same room as the musicians at the same time they were playing or maybe just put a telephone up to them either way this was no longer the case Edison's inspiration came from the concept of transmitting information through telegrams he had decent knowledge of the relatively new telephone created by Alexander Graham Bell and sort of combined the concepts of this with earlier telegram experiments he had done himself sound could be recorded with a needle on a diaphragm and effectively imprint the information upon whatever was needed but at first it was rough days Edison's phonograph few cylinders wrapped in tin foil with itched grooves to place sounds it was quite fragile and each recording could it be easily played back without the threat of ruining it seeing this Alexander Graham Bell applied a wax exterior instead of the foil which improved quality Edison was not too happy about this you see Edison's motivation for inventing wasn't solely for the benefit of man he wanted to win he saw himself as the one who worked the hardest and the one who knew best so having another already famous inventor add on to his project create a sort of rivalry between himself and bow anyway Edison's phonograph launched him into worldwide fame not just because the device he made was revolutionary but because he had the charisma to sell his product he understood that business and marketing was just as important to the success of any invention as the invention itself he was a sociable guy who made friends with the press he didn't come off as an awkward scientist but instead in every man with a sense of humor this is really quite relevant to why Edison was so famous back in his day he had both a good knack for invention and business his goal was to make his name a brand a brand that people trusted Edison's phonograph definitely gave him mass popularity but it's not his most famous work no that would be the incandescent bulb now I know what you're saying Edison didn't invent the light bulb he perfected it I mean yeah that's true that's also true for many inventions throughout history all invention builds upon existing technologies and Edison's work was very much in this vein the desire to have an alternative to the dangerous flammable lanterns currently in use was definitely out there but any prototype light bulbs created to that point would burn for mere seconds and we're certainly not viable as a consumer product first off Edison's ballparked for a reasonable timeframe before burning out and yeah that's great but arguably more importantly Edison had the motivation and means to begin implementing the required infrastructure to support its spread just having a functional light bulb isn't enough to light a home you need electricity and distributing that electricity to the local residents would become Edison's primary focus for years to come providing electricity to even a single square mile of lower Manhattan proved troublesome Edison had been promoting the use of single home use generators that could be placed in basements to provide power but these things were obnoxiously loud and really were an option to less wealthy consumers the alternate solution provided by Edison would require that many power plants would be located across the name far too many to be reasonably constructed but Edison carried on his method of delivering power was direct current which had many faults I talked about this in the Tesla video but with direct current you need far more power plants than alternating current Edison refused to shift to AC insisting his method was better in order to convince the public he started a marketing campaign to show the dangerous nature of alternating current he would have live animals executed and even had AC be used as the means of execution in the first electric chair this is generally regarded as one of the lowest points for Edison's career but I think it's important to know just how far he was willing to go to win over time Edison's method proved too much of a hassle and the nation would soon be powered by alternating current he spent many years trying to build infrastructure to give the world light and technically he succeeded even if it wasn't his system that won out in the end as Edison was working on the electric light he became more of a businessman than an inventor his time was mostly devoted to dealing with corporate issues rather than researching in the lab he did find this optimal but it was just what was needed to be done and after he reached such a point of prestige his Dane was truly a brand people knew Edison as the genius who gave the world light and so any product or service with his name attached gave people confidence in what they were getting now we've covered just a bit of Edison's career and the final invention of his I want to look at use motion pictures now he really didn't invent this all by himself but he was an integral part to spreading it success he was attending a lecture taught by Eadweard Muybridge who was using a newly developed system to capture a quick succession of images for the purpose of studying the motion of animals Thomas became interested in developing an easy way to have repeating images be captured and viewed to give the illusion of he had his associate William Dixon work on this and he came up with the kinetograph this was a device in which people could view short movies albeit with the use of microscope seriously you had to look into a lens to view this no projection no screen but still it was very novel and some saw as a bit of a party trick but nobody really saw it is something too revolutionary at most Edison thought it could accompany photographs and provide some images to go along with the music however the popularity of the kinetograph grew far greater than Edison ever expected most of the content available was several second long films of vaudeville performers doing their act and tiny shots with multiple kinetograph would open up these places could see a good profit as people would come in and pay a small fee to view the machines in this week a projection system was developed so that multiple people could see the films all at once Edison did not make this or have any involvement but he did make sure to buy up the patent rights he soon was marketing the whole motion picture system under his brand it would invest in studios to produce content for us he had a bit of a monopolistic edge in this sense by 1908 medicine founded a trust between multiple movie studios he also maintained that he owned all the patents on all the devices that actually allowed the creation well many found that Edison wanted to take control over the entire film industry and Edison wanted money from each film made Edison effectively controlled the industry by this point so filmmakers and producers began to move very far away from him as to hopefully escape his powerful hold on film all the way to Los Angeles California in Hollywood that's how that started Edison by this point really wasn't the best guy after the AC versus DC debacle and his monopoly over film he was definitely limiting the progress of society but the public wasn't really aware of all this it was really seen as just Edison changed the world Thomas Edison retired at the age of 79 after a few years he grew ill and it was apparent to everybody he wouldn't have much time left as his health grew steadily worse the media covered each change in his condition as national news when he did finally pass away the nation mourned the loss of what they saw as one of the greatest men of not just the 20th century but of all time he was seen as the one who brought the world music and light to the home and created the medium of film again that's not all he did but it's most relevant to this video now is crediting edison with all this accurate well with the phonograph he worked off the technology create by Alexander Graham Bell for the telephone and then Alexander Graham Bell worked off Edison's phonograph to improve it more the light bulb Edison created was the first with actual practical use film it's a bit sketchier since he really didn't have all that much to do with its creation now I've gone over many of the controversial moments of Medicine's life he did great things in some less great things for many decades after his death the common consensus was that he was basically a flawless genius inventor over time his more shady dealings and ego began to leak into the public consciousness though now it seems like a trend to only despise Edison but I personally believe the less savory characteristics he had shouldn't completely define his life Edison created and marketed technology that has influenced all of our lives sure he built off the works of others but that's the nature of invention his business aptitude financed all his projects and while he didn't use the most graceful or empathetic methods the Edison hate train has gotten out of hand he was admired as a near-impossible genius in his time and for a good while after while the public didn't have all the information to make a correct assessment of Medicine's character he still affected their lives in real meaningful ways as more of the public became privy to his monopolistic exploits and his propensity to take credit for his employees hard work it seems like the actual good he did for the world was considered irrelevant Edison was a driving force behind much of the technology shaking the world during his lifetime whether from conception or just financially could he get all the credit no but without him many groundbreaking projects when it had been even taken off I think it's important to understand the nature of this man he was driven to win at all costs and worked hard to achieve his goals he was a man who knew what he wanted and did anything to get that he just happened to help the world in the process this is Tyler of knowledge hub

Channel: KnowledgeHub

Views: 385,987

Rating: 4.8774505 out of 5

Keywords: Thomas Edison, Tom Edison, Edison, Lightbulb, Phonograph, Record Player, Invention, Inventor, Light Bulb, Light, History, KnowledgeHub, KnowledgeHub Edison, KnowledgeHub history, alternate history, alternatehistoryhub

Id: QfG2c8d066o

Length: 12min 36sec (756 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 28 2019