Unofficial Tex Murphy

Today is Tesla's birthday.
Were he alive, he'd be 159 years old, and the oldest buzzard on the planet. So here's to celebrating history's most overlooked brilliant mind!

Tesla strikes me as being along the lines of Thomas Edison. Long live the legacy!

Brilliant minds have always, fascinated me. I've several books about Tesla.

(Thanks for poking me about the name glitch, B.)

If you ever want another poke let me know. I see alleged typos all over the place and don't know what to do.

I'm a little dismayed by the comparison of Tesla to Edison. Edison was more charlatan/showman/conman than inventor. Most of his inventions he basically 'stole' from others, including from Tesla (who worked for him until Edison swindled him).

I had just read something that he didn't actually invent the lightbulb. Did he simply get the credit for being charismatic?

Edison had a habit of getting subordinates and others to work out the kinks in an invention and then claiming them as his own.

As I understand it, Edison actually bought a patent from Canadian inventors who had developed a working light bulb. There's more on that here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Woo ... nventor%29.

It could be argued that, since Edison bought the patent, and then made changes to the design to make it commercially viable, he in a way did invent the light bulb. Perhaps it should be phrased that he invented the "first commercially viable light bulb". I don't think too many people would quibble about that.