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Question: Why do articles indicate Thomas Edison was a genius!?
I have seen some articles indicating that Thomas Edison was a genius!. He was no genius!. Tesla was the real genius!. Any opinion!?Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Tesla and Edison fell out over the practical (business) uses of electricity!. Edison backed DC electricity because it can't be transmitted, or sent very far!. In downtown Chicago, each large building had it's own generator called a "dynamo!." Edison, of course, built and sold these dynamos!. He thought it was good business to sell not only the lighting fixtures, elevator motors and other electrical devices, but to sell the machines that made that electricity!

Tesla, on the other hand, felt that AC electricity could do much, much more than DC because AC can be "phased" so that it takes less electricity to do more work!. An elevator motor in DC, for example, might be 8-10 feet across (~3 meters)!. The AC equivalent, only 2-3 ft!

Both men were geniuses (genii!?) but had different approaches to marketing and applications, that's all!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

Hi Kurt,

I gladly defer to Albert Einstein, who surely knew the meaning of the word!. Einstein said a genius was someone who had "two good ideas!." By that definition, I'd say we have to call Edison a genius; he had far more than two good ideas!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

True Telsa might of know more about Electricity and it application!. But Edison was smart enough to know it wasn't going to do any good unless people were willing to buy it!. You notice he didn't die in a hotel room broke and penniless Telsa did!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

If he wasn't he was damned close!. You cannot invent the number of brilliant things that Edison did that completely changed the world and not be some kind of geniusWww@QuestionHome@Com