I don't like Edison either. They paint such a rosy picture of him when they talk about him in school and then later you find out about stuff like Topsy the elephant (which there's video of!). It's just too creepy for me.
He and tesla were rivals. They were both trying to generalise electricity use and supply it to the public, only they strongly disagreed about which form it should be supplied in. Edisson if I remember rightly promoted it in D.C. form (direct current) and tesla in A.C. form (alternating current) which we use today. Edisson would go out in the streets and electrocute stray dogs (and even an elephant) with A.C. current to try and turn people against tesla.
He used that among other devious methods to try and ruin his rivals reputation. He succeeded and tesla lost credit for many of his inventions. As far as I know tesla was never guilty of foul play against him.
That, in my opinion qualifies thomas edisson as a bastard :-)
Yes, nowadays A.C. has been sensibly chosen as the standard form, but back in the days there was a large and somewhat fiery debate over the matter. Tesla did in fact invent the D.C. motor, which is quite a feat as other motors rely on the constantly changing direction of current. I'm no scientist so I couldn't adequately explain how it works, and would probably bore you in the process anyway.
Apart from that it does not, as you said, have many uses.
Well I knew about the competing of the two current thing. That does sound really fucked up though. Though in the field of science people really do not have a lot of regard for animals anyhow. So can not say it is too surprising.
Yes and I do too but the fact is all lab work and medical research is done on animals. I personally think they should do it on convicted life row prisoners. Since they cost housing a lot of money. They are automatically cleared of all debt when sent to prison and they basically do nothing for community at this point. They do more damage to community if they let them out. So why not use them as test rats apposed to all these creatures that are innocent which we breed purely for experiments.
I can agree on what concerns the animals, though I'm not entirely sure about using prisoners as a substitute. Perhaps only for the most hardened and violent criminals, though it would be hard to set boundaries.
My fear is that it would be used as an excuse to torture and kill possibly innocent citizens (after all, many great people such as nelson mandela were considered criminals at the time).
That said it I bet it would drastically lower violent crime rates. Even so, nowadays tissue cultures can be grown in a petri dish to perform tests on. The sole reason animal testing continues to exist is laziness.
Who is your favorite scientist?
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Tesla without a doubt! Thomas edisson was a bastard :-/
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LaMer
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I don't like Edison either. They paint such a rosy picture of him when they talk about him in school and then later you find out about stuff like Topsy the elephant (which there's video of!). It's just too creepy for me.
Was he?
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GeneralFelix
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He and tesla were rivals. They were both trying to generalise electricity use and supply it to the public, only they strongly disagreed about which form it should be supplied in. Edisson if I remember rightly promoted it in D.C. form (direct current) and tesla in A.C. form (alternating current) which we use today. Edisson would go out in the streets and electrocute stray dogs (and even an elephant) with A.C. current to try and turn people against tesla.
He used that among other devious methods to try and ruin his rivals reputation. He succeeded and tesla lost credit for many of his inventions. As far as I know tesla was never guilty of foul play against him.
That, in my opinion qualifies thomas edisson as a bastard :-)
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D/C is impractical and impossible to use for commercial electricity delivery. It has it's uses, but it's limited. There's no competition there.
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GeneralFelix
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Yes, nowadays A.C. has been sensibly chosen as the standard form, but back in the days there was a large and somewhat fiery debate over the matter. Tesla did in fact invent the D.C. motor, which is quite a feat as other motors rely on the constantly changing direction of current. I'm no scientist so I couldn't adequately explain how it works, and would probably bore you in the process anyway.
Apart from that it does not, as you said, have many uses.
Well I knew about the competing of the two current thing. That does sound really fucked up though. Though in the field of science people really do not have a lot of regard for animals anyhow. So can not say it is too surprising.
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GeneralFelix
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Well perhaps he seems particularly bad to me as I have strong feelings against animal testing (and cruelty to them in general).
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Yes and I do too but the fact is all lab work and medical research is done on animals. I personally think they should do it on convicted life row prisoners. Since they cost housing a lot of money. They are automatically cleared of all debt when sent to prison and they basically do nothing for community at this point. They do more damage to community if they let them out. So why not use them as test rats apposed to all these creatures that are innocent which we breed purely for experiments.
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I can agree on what concerns the animals, though I'm not entirely sure about using prisoners as a substitute. Perhaps only for the most hardened and violent criminals, though it would be hard to set boundaries.
My fear is that it would be used as an excuse to torture and kill possibly innocent citizens (after all, many great people such as nelson mandela were considered criminals at the time).
That said it I bet it would drastically lower violent crime rates. Even so, nowadays tissue cultures can be grown in a petri dish to perform tests on. The sole reason animal testing continues to exist is laziness.