General Question

ragingloli's avatar

Who do you think is the more important inventor, Edison or Nikola Tesla? Also justify your decision.

Asked by ragingloli (52278points) July 27th, 2009
Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

8 Answers

filmfann's avatar

Tesla. We are still trying to catch up with his remarkable theories and inventions. Edison (working with Westinghouse) did his best to crush Tesla. Had we listened to Tesla, we would have energy independance, since much of his power sources were from the Earths magnetic field.

Inofaith's avatar

I recently saw a short film docu about Tesla and it reveiled to me the importance of this great man.
Haven’t gotten too deep into it but by the looks of it Tesla changed the world more dramatically with his ideas.

cookieman's avatar

Here’s a little reference for ya.

kevbo's avatar

I’m paraphrasing, but a recent quote I heard was “The history of science is the story of suppressed invention.”

filmfann's avatar

@kevbo Ooooh, I like that!

The_Compassionate_Heretic's avatar

Edison was better at playing the business game while Tesla seemed to be the better engineer.

Inofaith's avatar

@The_Compassionate_Heretic It seems to be always like that, one is very skillfull and passionate about the field.. while others run with the credit because of smooth talk etc.
(applies to a lot of things/professions)

dalepetrie's avatar

Taking it as a given that Tesla was the superior inventor/engineer/intellect, one must also consider the term “importance” in relation to the question, whose inventions have had a greater overall impact on modern life? At that point you kind of have to get into how many of Edison’s ideas were derived from Tesla’s work. Where would the world be today if there were no Edison and where would it be today if there were no Tesla? I think a case could be made either way.

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