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On January 27, 1880, Thomas Edison patented the electric incandescent lamp. He is given credit for inventing it but it was NOT him but the genius, Nikola Tesla, who did.
In 1882, Tivadar Puskás got Tesla a job in Paris with the Continental Edison Company.
Tesla began working in what was then a brand new industry, installing
indoor incandescent lighting citywide in the form of an electric power utility. The company had several subdivisions and Tesla worked at the Société Electrique Edison, the division in the Ivry-sur-Seine suburb of Paris in charge of installing the lighting system.
In 1884, the company transferred him to the United States to manage the Edison Machine Works, a manufacturing division situated in New York City. The Machine Works on the Lower East Side, in Manhattan in
an overcrowded shop with a workforce of several hundred machinists,
laborers, managing staff, and 20 "field engineers" struggling with the
task of building the large electric utility in that city. As in Paris, Tesla was working on troubleshooting installations and improving generators.
Tesla had been working at the Machine Works for a total of six months when he quit. It is unclear why. It may have been over a bonus he did not receive, either for
redesigning generators or for the arc lighting system that was shelved. Tesla had previous run-ins with the Edison company over unpaid bonuses he believed he had earned.
Tesla stated the manager of the Edison Machine Works offered a $50,000
bonus to design "twenty-four different types of standard machines" "but
it turned out to be a practical joke".
Later versions of this story have Thomas Edison himself offering and
then reneging on the deal, quipping "Tesla, you don't understand our
American humor." Tesla's diary contains just one comment on what happened at the end of
his employment, a note he scrawled across the two pages covering 7
December 1884, to 4 January 1885, saying "Good by to the Edison Machine
Works".
Soon after leaving the Edison company, Tesla was working on patenting an arc lighting system, possibly the same one he had developed at Edison.
In March 1885, he met with patent attorney Lemuel W. Serrell, the same
attorney used by Edison, to obtain help with submitting the patents.
Serrell introduced Tesla to two businessmen, Robert Lane and Benjamin
Vail, who agreed to finance an arc lighting manufacturing and utility
company in Tesla's name, the Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing.
Tesla worked for the rest of the year obtaining the patents that
included an improved DC generator, the first patents issued to Tesla in
the US, and building and installing the system in Rahway, New Jersey Tesla's new system gained notice in the technical press, which commented on its advanced features.
The investors showed little interest in Tesla's ideas for new types of alternating current
motors and electrical transmission equipment. After the utility was up
and running in 1886, they decided that the manufacturing side of the
business was too competitive and opted to simply run an electric
utility. They formed a new utility company, abandoning Tesla's company and leaving the inventor penniless. Tesla even lost control of the patents he had generated, since he had assigned them to the company in exchange for stock.
He had to work at various electrical repair jobs and as a ditch digger
for $2 per day. Later in life Tesla would recount that part of 1886 as a
time of hardship, writing "My high education in various branches of
science, mechanics and literature seemed to me like a mockery".
Simply because Edison was able to gain the patents for them, he took credit for other Tesla inventions as well.
Viewfinder links:
Net link:
Missed in History ~ Nikola Tesla: the War of Currents, Part 1
Styrous® ~ Sunday, January 27, 2019
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