Tim Williams wrote:
"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
Wasn't it Westinghouse who was the proponent of the DC power
distribution system, and Tesla the proponent of AC distribution?
Nah, Edison was DC. Westinghouse bought rights to Tesla's patents and
employed him.

I recall soon after Tesla arrived, he was digging ditches for Edison; I
don't remember if he did anything technical. I know he didn't like Tom and
his big interest in DC. g

Tesla did technical work for Edison - he moved from Paris
to New York 1884 to work for Edison there. In fact, Edison
promised a significant amount of money (50000 usd) to
Tesla for optimizing DC generator design - Tesla did it - and
when ready, presented it to Edison and asked for his money.
Edison gave nothing, and just said "Tesla, you don't understand
our American humour". At that point, Tesla stopped working
for Edison, and went to dig trenches rather than work for Edison.

Luckily, he found supporters, could patent his AC ideas, and
got George Westinghouse to commercialize the multiphase AC generator
and motor. Originally Tesla's deal was to get 2.5 usd / horsepower
of AC electricity sold.. However, he later (stupidly) gave up this
royalty because of his friendship with Westinghouse, and
died in a hotel room in New York, nearly penniless, in 1943..
He was a great scientist, but a very poor businessman.

Edison was a crook and a businessman, not a real scientist.
History is written my winners, either of war or business.

Kristian Ukkonen.

In article , Kristian Ukkonen says...

Edison gave nothing, and just said "Tesla, you don't understand
our American humour". ...

Edison was a crook and a businessman, not a real scientist.
History is written my winners, either of war or business.

Edison was *all* those things. Crook, businessman, and scientist.

He was the inventor of an amazing thing: the corporate
research laboratory. The principles he discovered are still
in use today. What ones are those?

1) go out and get venture capital, by trading on your reputation
as a big wheel.

2) promise whatever you have to to get the money.

3) use the money for anything else you feel like when you get it.

4) you don't have to deliver what you promised in the first
place.

5) be sure the PR machine is running all the time.

6) never pay any bills.

7) hire young folks and pay them next to nothing.

8) when they start to learn and wise up about what's going on,
fire them and hire new young kids.

9) keep all the information about what you are doing secret.

10) most important: be sure that everyone knows you never sleep
and work around the clock, and you expect them to do so likewise.
Pretend to be at the lab "all the time" but in reality have
regular life just like your employees would like to have.

But just because he was a crook and a charlatan, does not mean
he was not an innovator and a genius. He was all those things.

The most important thing he invented: corporate resarch laboratories.
They did not exist before him, they are ubiquitous now.

Jim


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jim rozen wrote:
He was the inventor of an amazing thing: the corporate
research laboratory. The principles he discovered are still
in use today.
Jim



This is probably true, though I think Dionysis of Syracuse was an
important precursor.

I would have hated to work for Edison though. The two corporate
research labs I worked for treated their scientists and engineers a lot
better than Edison did. While my contracts required that I license any
patents over to them, my name would go on any patents, so at least I
would have the honor. One also paid a few hundred bucks bonus for
employee patents. Tom did not even acknowledge his helpers. He took
ALL the glory, as well as the money.

This is like the prof whose grad student makes a big discovery, and the
world never hears of the person. There are several grad students and
assistants who should have shared in Nobel prizes.

"jim rozen" wrote in message
...
In article , Kristian Ukkonen says...

Edison gave nothing, and just said "Tesla, you don't understand
our American humour". ...

Edison was a crook and a businessman, not a real scientist.
History is written my winners, either of war or business.

Edison was *all* those things. Crook, businessman, and scientist.

He was the inventor of an amazing thing: the corporate
research laboratory. The principles he discovered are still
in use today. What ones are those?

1) go out and get venture capital, by trading on your reputation
as a big wheel.

2) promise whatever you have to to get the money.

3) use the money for anything else you feel like when you get it.

4) you don't have to deliver what you promised in the first
place.

5) be sure the PR machine is running all the time.

6) never pay any bills.

7) hire young folks and pay them next to nothing.

8) when they start to learn and wise up about what's going on,
fire them and hire new young kids.

9) keep all the information about what you are doing secret.

10) most important: be sure that everyone knows you never sleep
and work around the clock, and you expect them to do so likewise.
Pretend to be at the lab "all the time" but in reality have
regular life just like your employees would like to have.

But just because he was a crook and a charlatan, does not mean
he was not an innovator and a genius. He was all those things.

The most important thing he invented: corporate resarch laboratories.
They did not exist before him, they are ubiquitous now.

Jim


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JRR(zero) at pkmfgvm4 (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
==================================================

Good reply, Jim. I can tell you really know all the corporate shenagins
that are used to maximize productivity of peons. The one re. work around
the clock is a great example of some of the B.S. that is fed to underlings.
Another is the manager that travels a lot of the time. He sets the stage by
letting it be known he always leaves very early in the day and returns very
late in the evening - both before and well after normal work hours. What is
not known is what he really does on the road. Maybe the meetings he attends
only last a short while with the rest of the day for goofing off; time with
his mistress; visits with family members in "business travel" destinations;
has a lousy home life and wants to get away at company expense; builds up
frequent flyer miles for taking his family on vacation; portrays business
travel as a super perq and one that should be paid for by travelling in
one's time off whenever possible; etc., etc. ad nauseum.

All too often the corporate ladder is climbed over the bodies of honest
folks that only want an honest day's pay for an honest day's work.

Bob Swinney

In article , Robert Swinney says...

Good reply, Jim. I can tell you really know all the corporate shenagins
that are used to maximize productivity of peons.

Let's just say there are *still* plenty of folks around who think
that that particular aspect of Edison's plan are outstanding!

Don't get me wrong, edison did indeed break so much new ground
it's impossible to really understand all the things he did. Not
all of the projects were succesfull, of course.

He tried to perform electrolytic separation of iron from iron
ore - never did work after sinking large amounts of money into
the plan. He did make some lovely all-concrete houses that
exist to this day in NJ - that was a plan before its time though.

He discovered thermionic emission (edison effect) and as such
is the father of the vacuum tube, lee deforest notwithstanding.

But his accountant used to complain because his stack of payable
bills was *so* tall in the office that the ones at the bottom
had decomposed and could not be inspected. He NEVER paid his
bills. He as a crook in that regard.

But he understood the keys of image and reputation.

Hun


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