Thomas Edison: Not As Bad As You Think?

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  • čas přidán 27. 03. 2019
  • Thomas Edison gets a lot of hate. Too much, in fact. I wanna make my defense of this inventor and why the bad he did in life shouldn't negate the good.
    Follow me on Twitch: / knowledgehub
    Twitter: / knowledgehubty

Komentáře • 1,3K

  • @Guardias
    @Guardias Před 5 lety +2974

    People want historical figures to be either pure good or pure evil. Far too often we forget that they were human just like us.

    • @goyonman9655
      @goyonman9655 Před 5 lety +54

      True

    • @TheRezro
      @TheRezro Před 5 lety +175

      In this case it was more that he lived on end of age of romantic inventors, when those were usually credited to singular people. And he opened legit modern lab where many scientist worked in exchange for they patents or as teams. And because law was still imperfect those inventions were credited to him, so when it come out to public attention people start hating him as a thief. When he still was decent inventor on his own merit and most of all successful businessman. Generally only true fuck up he made was his inability to accept that his idea of electricity is flawed and that direct current has no future, what forced him into some caricature events, from which he become known nowadays.

    • @maggintons
      @maggintons Před 5 lety +47

      Isn't that the just the internet in general?

    • @TheRezro
      @TheRezro Před 5 lety +13

      @@maggintons No. Only teenagers..

    • @KnufWons
      @KnufWons Před 5 lety +1

      Yeah... wait you’re just like Edison?

  • @zaedin1
    @zaedin1 Před 5 lety +2788

    Time to learn about Thomas Edison from my favourite history teacher, Vladimir Lenin.

  • @benpeters5851
    @benpeters5851 Před 5 lety +659

    Thomas Edison: I alone will own the movie industry!
    Disney: Hold my singing teacup

    • @HistorywithMrMink
      @HistorywithMrMink Před 4 lety +8

      That's funny! lol

    • @emeraldfinder5
      @emeraldfinder5 Před 2 lety +3

      yeah… Disney’s monopoly on the animation industry was definitely something

    • @JmKrokY
      @JmKrokY Před 2 lety +1

      True

    • @glasscardproductions4736
      @glasscardproductions4736 Před 2 lety

      @@emeraldfinder5, was? Was?! WAS?! TELL ME, HAS THIS TIMELINE FINALLY GRANTED US MORTALS *A SLIVER OF PERFECTION?!*

    • @ChickenGruel
      @ChickenGruel Před rokem

      Thomas Edison: THIS SINGING TEACUP IS MIINE!

  • @dialaskisel5929
    @dialaskisel5929 Před 5 lety +1715

    Sounds like a dude. Not a great dude. But not the worst dude. Except for that whole roasting elephants business. That's pretty low.

    • @LisaBowers
      @LisaBowers Před 5 lety +89

      Edison did not electrocute Topsy the elephant. Read this:
      *"Myth Buster - The Edison Papers"*
      _Did he have anything to do with the execution of Topsy? The answer is an emphatic “no.”_
      edison.rutgers.edu/topsy.htm
      *"Topsy the Elephant Was a Victim of Her Captors, Not Thomas Edison"*
      www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/topsy-elephant-was-victim-her-captors-not-really-thomas-edison-180961611/

    • @jamestown8398
      @jamestown8398 Před 5 lety +111

      The elephant he electrocuted was going to be put down anyway, because it deliberately killed a person during a circus performance.

    • @TBustah
      @TBustah Před 5 lety +72

      @@bisqkuit1882 Even some of the dogs were part of an experiment he was doing on request from the SPCA to see if electrocution was a humane way of euthanizing animals. They even gave him dogs for this purpose, and he paid kids to collect additional strays for him. Of course, we know now how inhumane it is and we have better ways of doing it, but hindsight is 20/20. At the very least, it was probably better than hanging.

    • @Seth_Hezekiah
      @Seth_Hezekiah Před 5 lety +11

      I don't see how. In the end it's an animal, and they didn't have the resources we do now.

    • @mortal19901001
      @mortal19901001 Před 5 lety +53

      I heard he even fried Sloths and was responsible for the extinction of dinosaurs

  • @WAMTAT
    @WAMTAT Před 5 lety +1412

    He was a complex human, like everybody else.

    • @calebm6485
      @calebm6485 Před 5 lety +70

      alexander williams something I’ve noticed about a lot of people, myself included, is that we like to simplify very complex topics and people into single adjectives, like ‘greedy’ or ‘childish’ when the person in question usually deserves a much more detailed analysis.

    • @Baxterbrookies
      @Baxterbrookies Před 5 lety +3

      He was a douche like most westerners.

    • @Christian-vq3lr
      @Christian-vq3lr Před 5 lety

      Yeah, just like Wilson, and who would ever shit on him... oh, wait.
      Ps. Wrong channel, I know, but they’re related.

    • @ziggy8253
      @ziggy8253 Před 5 lety +1

      He was a dick, like everybody else.

    • @oddsdenver9673
      @oddsdenver9673 Před 5 lety +12

      Baxter Brookies
      He was a douche, like most *people*

  • @samcavanagh7993
    @samcavanagh7993 Před 5 lety +677

    wow that bit about film producers moving to LA because of edison is really interesting, never knew that.

    • @mysteryman7877
      @mysteryman7877 Před 5 lety +18

      Should’ve moved further away to escape him. Alaska, ho!

    • @dylanmorris7946
      @dylanmorris7946 Před 5 lety +91

      One of the many reasons Hollywood was used as a film destination at the time was so filmmakers could smuggle their films across the border to Mexico in case of an emergency, like say... Edison sending the cops to arrest them for "infringing" on his patents.

    • @Filomatia
      @Filomatia Před 5 lety +106

      Think about the irony: film industry moved to California in order to avoid being charged for using Edison's intelectual property; nowadays its the industry which bitches the most about intelectual property being consumed without payment.

    • @mirzaahmed6589
      @mirzaahmed6589 Před 5 lety

      @@mysteryman7877 Hawaii.

    • @Grosvenor77
      @Grosvenor77 Před 5 lety +8

      @@Filomatia exactly

  • @darkmage07070777
    @darkmage07070777 Před 5 lety +994

    He wasn't a god. Nor was he a devil.
    He was human. Same as all the rest of us.

    • @FrozenDung
      @FrozenDung Před 5 lety +24

      Wow so deep did you get that from Twatter?

    • @crunch1757
      @crunch1757 Před 5 lety +18

      darkmage07070777 a human who electrocutes elephants

    • @papaversomniferum2365
      @papaversomniferum2365 Před 5 lety +14

      He was a dickhead for sure. Yup, there are lots of dickheads around our globr but Edison made a first step.

    • @localcrackhead2904
      @localcrackhead2904 Před 5 lety +10

      He tortured animals to try to prove that his inferior system was better. Your average person would probably not do that...

    • @noahadams5694
      @noahadams5694 Před 5 lety

      darkmage07070777 One other thing is for sure he was really really intelligent.

  • @spicylatte2165
    @spicylatte2165 Před 5 lety +355

    Tesla and Edison were both smart and amazing inventors, they both deserve lots of credit for what they did

    • @darnit1944
      @darnit1944 Před 4 lety +73

      For the scientific and business community, they are respectable. For normies who based their knowledge on reddit posts, *Tesla good, Edison bad elephats elephants free energy*

    • @jamesonbolen9058
      @jamesonbolen9058 Před 3 lety +7

      One came up with free flowing energy as Edison created the electric infrastructure we have still today as I'm looking at my $221 electric bill..

    • @0x0michael
      @0x0michael Před 2 lety +19

      @@jamesonbolen9058 AC was invented by Tesla, AC powers your house so that's actually on Tesla. Do some research man.
      And there's no such thing as free energy

    • @Khoros-Mythos
      @Khoros-Mythos Před 2 lety +4

      Except Tesla didn't actually invent anything, he made 1 extremely minor adjustment to an already existing invention. Not to mention he was completely wrong about almost everything in science.

    • @Khoros-Mythos
      @Khoros-Mythos Před 2 lety +1

      @@0x0michael That is a flat out lie.

  • @kaily9456
    @kaily9456 Před 5 lety +257

    You know I think I was more susceptible to the semi-hate train there is for Edison on the internet before I actually picked up a book. For anyone who hasn't picked up a book I would recommend doing that. A biography always gives you a much more open eye than any articles I read about Edison/Tesla/electricity on the internet.
    Anyway, the book I read was "Tesla: Inventor of the Modern" by Richard Munson and though it's obviously not an Edison biography, there was a lot about Edison as well as his relationship with Tesla that I never read on the internet. His rivalry with Tesla was petty and their personalities did inherently clash in a lot of ways, but why did no one ever tell me the two of them were actually friends??? Like, exchange-letters-up-to-Edison's-death level friends? After Tesla's lab burnt down and he lost all his work, Edison offered Tesla to use his lab while he got back to work and even though he did electrocute animals for the sake of his own profits, I was still touched by that. Also worth noting....... Edison was not the greediest business titan of the industrial era and I think since he's the most famous people will easily forget that.
    Not to defend his bad actions. They're still bad, but I really agree with what you're saying here, op. Hearing this and that about him on the internet really doesn't put his character well into perspective. I'd highly recommend anyone watching this video to pick up a good nonfiction book. Tesla: Inventor of the Modern is a decent place to start.

    • @megabladechronicles962
      @megabladechronicles962 Před 4 lety +57

      Edison did one thing that I find very interesting. So he and one of his lad assistants exposed themselves to x-rays to see their effects, and as a result Edison's vision was damaged and his assistant suffered from fatal radiation poisoning. However, Edison kept the assistant on his company's payroll until his death, something extremely uncommon for the time period. Say what you want about his capitalist nature, but that's pretty charitable for someone that is often portrayed as a man of greed.

    • @fairytaledollpatterns7258
      @fairytaledollpatterns7258 Před 2 lety +7

      Where as I have mixed feelings about tesla. The man was smart, but I have no doubt, he was hard to get along with.
      He fell in love with a bird, and was afraid of fat people. I dont think he was easy to get along with by any stretch of the imagination.

    • @kaily9456
      @kaily9456 Před 2 lety +5

      @@fairytaledollpatterns7258 I mean. I know that, I'm talking about a book about him. He was extremely finicky and overly romantic which ultimately caused the long downfall of his career. That's only one facet of his life and character. Not everything about him is flattering. Like I said, pick up a good biography. You don't have to like the person it's about at any point while reading it, but it's a better source for understanding the time, place, choices and life of someone than an article on the internet that says "Tesla was in love with a bird?! 😱" (even that, to some extent, I would argue some people mischaracterize or sensationalize for the point of fascination)

    • @wadeguidry6675
      @wadeguidry6675 Před 2 lety +3

      Three very important words you mentioned/ implied: read a book. Thank you.

    • @mightisright
      @mightisright Před rokem

      Why does it always have to be Edison V Tesla on the internet? Both people had lives without the other and both did great things. None of you morons (myself included) did anything close to what they did for the world so tread lightly. People who can barely change lightbulbs shouldn't be so cocky.

  • @MisterSyrup
    @MisterSyrup Před 5 lety +67

    I never understand the demand for ideological purity with historical figures. No one is perfect, and times change.

  • @richarddavenport6335
    @richarddavenport6335 Před 5 lety +887

    Guy who said the joke: Tesla
    Guy who said the joke louder: Edison

    • @TBustah
      @TBustah Před 5 lety +32

      The biggest joke was his idea to provide the country with free power, through means that any electrician can tell you never would have worked.

    • @gallyun3363
      @gallyun3363 Před 5 lety +8

      @@TBustah read into the ionosphere, I think you may find it intriguing.

    • @caesarmatty
      @caesarmatty Před 5 lety +3

      @Guilielmo Primus czcams.com/video/k1tsGGz-Qw0/video.html

    • @pranishchhetri777
      @pranishchhetri777 Před 5 lety +28

      The business-savvy corporate who worked day and night to make new inventions: Edison
      The guy who thought the world revolves around him and would just make up his intentions to later say they were stolen/lost/broken- Tesla

    • @thebigdawgj
      @thebigdawgj Před 5 lety +12

      @@pranishchhetri777
      Counterpoint: No.

  • @danksenzuweed2
    @danksenzuweed2 Před 5 lety +145

    So Edison was the "live long enough to see yourself become the villain" type of guy, did a lot of good, created and helped create a lot for things but ended up becoming greedy and and full of himself.

    • @Seth_Hezekiah
      @Seth_Hezekiah Před 5 lety +8

      Ok, but because it was a capitalist system, it didn't really hurt anyone else.

    • @khangb3
      @khangb3 Před 5 lety +3

      Yare yare

    • @lolmeme69_
      @lolmeme69_ Před 5 lety

      Pretty much.

    • @levongevorgyan6789
      @levongevorgyan6789 Před 5 lety +28

      No, he was still the hero at the end, even risking his life and limb to study X-rays, and then spending the rest of his time warning everyone about their dangers.

    • @mrdoormat6809
      @mrdoormat6809 Před 3 lety +5

      Nah, he's just bussinessman of its time. See, this is example on how people judge others in black and white manners without putting propper context.

  • @warrenlehmkuhleii8472
    @warrenlehmkuhleii8472 Před 4 lety +44

    “He founded a trust...”
    Roosevelt: Oh no you did not!

    • @idioticproductions4000
      @idioticproductions4000 Před 2 lety

      Three common quotes of teddy
      1.COME HERE TRUSTS, I DONT WANT TO HURT YOU, JUST KILL YOU
      2.BULLY!
      3.FUCK YOU, WILSON

  • @kylepietrusiewicz2749
    @kylepietrusiewicz2749 Před 4 lety +49

    This is the calmest Edison comment section I've ever seen, also a pretty fair shake given to the man, unlike a lot of other pieces on Edison which are basically just hit pieces and slander.

  • @mafiousbj
    @mafiousbj Před 5 lety +268

    So basically he was the original Steve Jobs, but he actually did some inventing in his youth?
    I wonder how people will talk about Jobs in a few decades, if his reputation will suffer like Edison´s because he didn´t invent most things directly attributed to him in the popular mind.
    Anyway grey is not accepted by most people. We want to simplify things and see them either black or white and forget the complexities. This applies to Edison as well as Tesla (better inventor but less charisma/wealth that didn´t let him achieve all his potential)

    • @TheRezro
      @TheRezro Před 5 lety +15

      It already did..

    • @TheRibbonRed
      @TheRibbonRed Před 5 lety +25

      And thanks to his own arrogance, his bad outweigh the good in the public eye once all the truth came out.
      Shame, but I suppose that's life. If only he didn't get too far of himself and maintained a healthy competition instead of a monopoly.

    • @bumblingbureaucrat6110
      @bumblingbureaucrat6110 Před 5 lety +28

      Wozniak is the true MVP of Apple.

    • @NoNameAtAll2
      @NoNameAtAll2 Před 5 lety +25

      Even when Jobs was alive everyone understood that he is an *advertiser*, not an inventor

    • @TheRibbonRed
      @TheRibbonRed Před 5 lety +14

      @@NoNameAtAll2 that's because he and his team are trying to portray himself as an inventor/engineer, no?
      People have a natural suspicion for a businessman selling new products. But an inventor? Well, that's gonna turn heads around. It did around the times of Edison and it did when Jobs was around. Certainly ain't gonna change if people still doesn't have time or will to research others.

  • @will3346
    @will3346 Před 5 lety +64

    Don’t forget about the automatic hammer and six legged chair. Those were both his invention as well.

  • @nicklapallo9090
    @nicklapallo9090 Před 5 lety +435

    I literally went into this video saying "change my mind" and you did. So, he really was more of a profit driven anti hero than the villian he has been made out to be. Neat.

    • @Seth_Hezekiah
      @Seth_Hezekiah Před 5 lety +27

      And I wouldn't even call him an anti hero.

    • @Cendoria
      @Cendoria Před 5 lety +40

      Also he glossed over the fact Edison had literally nothing to do with the electrocution of Topsy. So Edison is slightly less bad than the video portrays, too.

    • @thebigdawgj
      @thebigdawgj Před 5 lety +21

      Nah, if you're profit-driven like Edison versus humanity-driven like Tesla, you're the villain.

    • @erigor11
      @erigor11 Před 5 lety +11

      Profit driven assholes are always "villains". Everything would be better without them. We need more Teslas, more Maxwells, more Darwins... we need more (real) bright minds with actual passion for something, not just desire for power/money, a trait that could only reside on weak minds.

    • @louisvictor3473
      @louisvictor3473 Před 5 lety +4

      Profit driven and any kind of hero, yeah totally compatible...

  • @altEFG
    @altEFG Před 5 lety +15

    Edison's main flaw was that he was a salty egoist, from what I can gather. He was no doubt very talented, but maybe he could achieve even greater things if he wouldn't let his ego demand that all the glory was his alone.

  • @Steampunkkids
    @Steampunkkids Před 5 lety +136

    It’s hard to talk about Edison without including JP Morgan. I feel it was a disservice to this video that JP Morgan was not included as I feel he played a pivotal role in Edison’s success.

    • @KyoushaPumpItUp
      @KyoushaPumpItUp Před 5 lety +5

      JP Morgan did a disservice to Tesla so it's fair. An eye for an eye.

    • @TheLazySleeperLives
      @TheLazySleeperLives Před 5 lety +27

      @@KyoushaPumpItUp JP Morgan also screwed Edison out of his own company

    • @JohnSmith-wx9wj
      @JohnSmith-wx9wj Před 5 lety +12

      JP Morgan was the actual devil.

    • @Steampunkkids
      @Steampunkkids Před 5 lety +3

      John Smith, I couldn’t agree more. J.P. Morgan was the devil. And, everything he touched became corrupt

    • @CatobisGaming
      @CatobisGaming Před 5 lety +9

      John Smith he pretty much single handily saved the us economy.... not kidding look it up

  • @jamiekamihachi3135
    @jamiekamihachi3135 Před 4 lety +18

    It reminds me of my favorite Civil War general, Sherman. He was just an interestingly complex human with tons of flaws but accomplished a lot.

  • @jerry3790
    @jerry3790 Před 5 lety +151

    You could say the discussion over Edison is almost as heated as an incandescence light bulb.

    • @kolamoose8717
      @kolamoose8717 Před 5 lety +7

      Jerry Rupprecht 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

    • @fulcrum2951
      @fulcrum2951 Před 5 lety +2

      czcams.com/video/gBNxGZP49ls/video.html

    • @siigull1550
      @siigull1550 Před 5 lety +9

      Almost as heated as those elephants

  • @drano9862
    @drano9862 Před 5 lety +45

    So you're saying he knew what he wanted and would do anything for it?
    ...So he's chaotic neutral.

    • @thomasedwardharrison2879
      @thomasedwardharrison2879 Před 2 lety

      Slytherin

    • @goldenhorse4823
      @goldenhorse4823 Před rokem

      Is it? Robbers have the same mindset. Natrual means he would have not do good or bad but just do to benefit him. He did evil so was he

  • @Verrisin
    @Verrisin Před 5 lety +30

    So, Hollywood came to be, because people wanted to get away from Edison? Now, that's some legacy!

  • @jamesscott7215
    @jamesscott7215 Před 5 lety +52

    Historical figure: *does something bad*
    Living people: yeah they can rot in hell

  • @HistorywithMrMink
    @HistorywithMrMink Před 4 lety +29

    I've come to believe he has been vilified much more than he should have. Regardless of anyone's opinion, his impact on innovation cannot be overlooked.

  • @mestre12
    @mestre12 Před 5 lety +27

    No man is perfect. Evryone have a flaw.

  • @shiinaai2978
    @shiinaai2978 Před 5 lety +34

    Thomas Edison: I've made a sound recorder!
    Everyone Else: It's too fragile!
    Graham Bell: Here, I make it more durable.
    Thomas Edison: You've crossed me for the last time!

  • @madalyngragg3623
    @madalyngragg3623 Před 3 lety +11

    Thomas Edison and J Edgar Hoover seem to have similar historical legacies where they were considered heros to the general masses during life, started to get criticized after death or shortly before death, and then had a large hate bandwagon write off any good they did. They were not perfect, no one is, but assuming they were complete monsters shows humanity's unwillingness to accept the grey that makes up the real world.

    • @BeyondDaX
      @BeyondDaX Před 2 lety

      The world still lives in a very absoluteness of black and white. It's all they ever see

  • @jason9875
    @jason9875 Před 5 lety +16

    I’ve been to his workshop in NJ, very cool with all the belt driven machines!

  • @Nosirrbro
    @Nosirrbro Před 5 lety +10

    He wasn’t necessarily a bad person, he just was a not at all altruistic person operating as a rational actor within a flawed system beyond his own control.

    • @fess3068
      @fess3068 Před 2 lety

      Why do you say this like all systems aren’t flawed?

  • @FengLengshun
    @FengLengshun Před 2 lety +6

    Ah, so he's basically the era's Steve Jobs then.

  • @allanchon1361
    @allanchon1361 Před 5 lety +28

    gud vid. My opinion has been moderated

  • @dexter111344
    @dexter111344 Před 3 lety +3

    Alexander Graham Bell: Hey, I invented something.
    Edison: Cool, I can use that invention of yours to invent another thing.
    Bell: I can take your invention and make it better.
    Edison: So you've chosen death.

  • @drago5819
    @drago5819 Před 3 lety +7

    8:38 Imagine spending months on an invention just for people to say “Nice party trick”

  • @katherinewiykovics1602
    @katherinewiykovics1602 Před 5 lety +5

    Best Edison story I know I learned from a worker at the Henry Ford Museum is when Henry Ford made his Greenfield Village (ie he bought up a bunch of famous places like Robert Burns house and the Wright Brothers' bicycle shop and moved them all the way up to Dearborn Michigan) as a celebration of American invention, he included the Menlo Lab. When Ford brought Edison in to view it, he asked his very old friend (there are pictures of the two of them camping in tents together, it's hilarious) what he thought. Edison looked around and said "It's missing something". Ford being the perfectionist was all "What is missing?!", and Edison replied "Not enough dust". Note if you ever make it up to Michigan, that place is ridiculous and is literally a museum of American Invention and consumerism. You won't believe the stuff they got.

  • @JK-gu3tl
    @JK-gu3tl Před 5 lety +51

    Oh oh, here comes the Tesla Brigade.

  • @grungeguy97
    @grungeguy97 Před 5 lety +12

    Edison's lab in West Orange, NJ is now a National Historical Park. Really interesting place to see his accomplishments up close. When I interned there, I got a sense of just how much he improved the standard of living for the world and helped to industrialize the US in particular. Was he the most ethical guy? Not exactly. His smear campaign against AC (RIP elephants!), active pursuit of forming monopolies (as in the film industry), and taking credit for his employees' work are all stains on his personal character and reflect the Success Gospel school of thought which prevailed in this time. When it comes to evaluating a figure like Edison though, it's best (in my opinion) to do so by focusing on what improvements he made rather than base judgement around today's standards.
    Also Edison's talking doll is the stuff of nightmares:
    www.nps.gov/edis/learn/photosmultimedia/hear-edison-talking-doll-sound-recordings.htm

    • @hamurabi1066
      @hamurabi1066 Před 5 lety +1

      you know the elephant thing is a myth, yeah?

  • @trygveplaustrum4634
    @trygveplaustrum4634 Před 5 lety +25

    Inventions are completely useless without mass production. Imagine if computers remained the toys of colleges, or if film was the pet of Hollywood. No, true innovation comes through scalability, and Edison played a most important role on that front.

    • @TheGuruStud
      @TheGuruStud Před 5 lety +1

      out of greed, not b/c he cared about the knowledge or science. He's a piece of shit schmuck.

    • @Robotpanda89
      @Robotpanda89 Před 5 lety +5

      Well no shit dumbass, who’s going to mass produce a product for science. It’s called capitalism, and in his attempt to sell inventions, he spread technology and knowledge

    • @TheLazySleeperLives
      @TheLazySleeperLives Před 5 lety +9

      @@TheGuruStud Almost all money Edison acquired through his company was invested back into new creations. Edison was the original creator of the R&D department

    • @TheGuruStud
      @TheGuruStud Před 5 lety +1

      @@TheLazySleeperLives original thief of tech and govt funding. He's a hack. Intelligent, but still a hack

    • @G-LukeJA
      @G-LukeJA Před 5 lety +6

      @@TheGuruStud every single large scale device is a product of greed and profit. From the bed your sleeping on, to the thing your watching this video. Stop being naive

  • @shulkash8799
    @shulkash8799 Před 5 lety +86

    Thomas Edison also known has
    The wizard of Menlo Park
    The king of patents and lawsuits
    And the mighty presi-King

  • @CrystalWilliams24
    @CrystalWilliams24 Před 5 lety +7

    I literally saw an Edison lightbulb for sale today, and thought, "wasn't he an asshole?"
    Then I saw this video in my feed.

  • @blacksunshinegaming9315
    @blacksunshinegaming9315 Před 3 lety +3

    My great great grandfather worked for edison, we have family pictures with him and still have some of the early phonograph wax wheels

  • @WhaleManMan
    @WhaleManMan Před 5 lety +15

    Edison invented a lot of his stuff at first, but as time went on he basically had as much as involvement as an investor would.

  • @josephgioielli
    @josephgioielli Před 5 lety +5

    And he had his own musical, THE ELECTRIC SUNSHINE MAN. It was ghastly.

  • @johnkilmartin5101
    @johnkilmartin5101 Před 5 lety +48

    He wasn't home schooled because there was no school available or that his parents chose to. He had a problem with self regulation which continued throughout his life.

  • @rocker56_
    @rocker56_ Před 5 lety +128

    I heard someone seriously say he wrote the Declaration of Independence
    Edit:80 likes ok so WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • @prouddegenerates9056
      @prouddegenerates9056 Před 5 lety +33

      I know a kid that thought Africa was a state

    • @prouddegenerates9056
      @prouddegenerates9056 Před 5 lety +17

      Part of the US, he also thought the US was the entity of the Americas

    • @franks.6547
      @franks.6547 Před 5 lety +7

      Maybe confused with Benjamin Franklin?

    • @josephhernandez8810
      @josephhernandez8810 Před 5 lety +2

      Frank S. Ben didn't right the declaration either.

    • @nathan3585
      @nathan3585 Před 5 lety +8

      @@josephhernandez8810 ACTUALLLY... Benjamin Franklin did. The three main authors of the declaration of Independence were Thomas Jefferson ( the person this kid probably mistook Edison for), John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. Though there were many more, those three are often regarded as the "fathers" of the DoI

  • @hoodclassicsofcalifornia
    @hoodclassicsofcalifornia Před 5 lety +26

    That original Earth profile picture, I'll never forget that.

  • @LoganJP0120
    @LoganJP0120 Před 5 lety +168

    Thomas Edison was an innovator who did weird stuff, as was Tesla, I think lots of inventors have been worse than Edison, enjoyable video.

    • @flybeep1661
      @flybeep1661 Před 5 lety +14

      "Lots of people" I'm assuming you're referring to inventors (engineers, like he was)....so lets hear a few....who were worse. Because you're full of shit if you can't at least name a few.

    • @DeadBaron
      @DeadBaron Před 5 lety +4

      An old time Elon Musk.

    • @LoganJP0120
      @LoganJP0120 Před 5 lety +15

      @@DeadBaron Edison smoking a pipe, "what if we put light, in a bottle, and you could enslave it"

    • @dr.vikyll7466
      @dr.vikyll7466 Před 5 lety +9

      @@LoganJP0120 the light or the bottle?

    • @bigslurpee2078
      @bigslurpee2078 Před 5 lety +6

      @@flybeep1661
      Lightbulb man bad

  • @evilekard
    @evilekard Před 5 lety +80

    To be fair, I don't despise Edison because of the way he went about being an actual inventor, I despise him for his shitty business practices. He's not all that different from the robber barons of his time and they weren't cool to me either. Most of it is just the fact that he made every business clash he had personal, I.E. attacking Tesla's character because he had no scientific basis for AC being worse than DC.

    • @xo-1320
      @xo-1320 Před 5 lety

      They were still friemds surprisingly enough... well frenimies.

    • @jerry3790
      @jerry3790 Před 5 lety +9

      Don’t you despise all business practices Mr Lenin?

    • @lolmeme69_
      @lolmeme69_ Před 5 lety +3

      Oof

    • @evilekard
      @evilekard Před 5 lety

      @@jerry3790 Not particularly no.

    • @evilekard
      @evilekard Před 5 lety

      I would give you a super thought provoking reply about my personal politics or something like that but I'll do you a solid:
      Communism bad. Free enterprise kinda good. Lenin sorta douche.

  • @katel1272
    @katel1272 Před 5 lety +18

    BREAKING NEWS: Thomas Edison Coughs Twice Within Ten Seconds!!!

  • @techguypaul
    @techguypaul Před 5 lety +26

    He was basically the Steve Jobs of the late 19th/early 20th century.

    • @briangonigal3974
      @briangonigal3974 Před 5 lety +1

      Steve Jobs was the Steve Jobs of the late 20th/early 21st century. Edison was the Jobs of the late 19th century.

    • @MickeyD2012
      @MickeyD2012 Před 5 lety +1

      You're right, he WAS pretty terrible and evil. And both of them stabbed their more capable and successful "friends" in the back.

    • @techguypaul
      @techguypaul Před 5 lety +6

      @@MickeyD2012 lol no, he was neither terrible nor evil. He revolutionized the industry. Jobs was the one who got stabbed in the back when he was first ousted from Apple.

    • @MickeyD2012
      @MickeyD2012 Před 5 lety +3

      @@techguypaul "He revolutionized the industry" Making it cool to fuck the consumer is not revolutionary. At least Edison had the consumer in mind.

    • @darnit1944
      @darnit1944 Před 4 lety +5

      @@MickeyD2012 fucked the consumer right? You tell me what has he done to make consumers fucked? Electrocuting elephants is a dick move but not screwing consumers.

  • @darkmyro
    @darkmyro Před 3 lety +2

    That kinda seems like a common thread with big business men"he didn't attempt to help the world, but somehow did along the way" that being said I think we should celebrate people, but also remember they are people and sometimes make bad decisions. Like just as many bad people have helped the world as good people have hindered it and vice versa.

  • @bobbyferg9173
    @bobbyferg9173 Před 5 lety +6

    For some reason I am getting a Cave Johnson vibe from Thomas Edison.

  • @louisduarte8763
    @louisduarte8763 Před 5 lety +9

    Thanks for this video. All too often, we forget people, including famous and historically important ones, are complex.

  • @fifthcolumn388
    @fifthcolumn388 Před 5 lety +6

    He was the Wizard of Menlo Park. He was a great man. Greatness can be evil, noble, or ambivalent, and is often a mix of all three.

  • @SeanFrancisNBallais
    @SeanFrancisNBallais Před 5 lety

    What font was used in the first two seconds (0:00 - ~0:02) of the video?

  • @Vaerenn
    @Vaerenn Před 5 lety

    Make sure my fellows to join the KnowledgeHub Discord Server: discord.gg/EUqE3Ft , so you can suggest videos like i suggested this one.

  • @isamekailmahmud9302
    @isamekailmahmud9302 Před 5 lety +4

    a hardworking curious guy who was a bit too egoistic and mysteriously charming

  • @Evzone1821
    @Evzone1821 Před 5 lety +12

    He was an off brand Nikola Tesla.

    • @levongevorgyan6789
      @levongevorgyan6789 Před 5 lety +2

      He was an INSPIRATION to Tesla.

    • @darnit1944
      @darnit1944 Před 4 lety +2

      He was bringing cheaper electronics to the household. I respect both Edison and Tesla as the greatest men of the late 19th to early 20th century.
      And you just read Twitter and reddit post for your knowledge.

  • @NoahTheNoah
    @NoahTheNoah Před 2 lety +2

    I had no idea that people thought negatively of Edison I just assumed that the common opinion was that he was a really smart guy…

  • @NAT-mi1ps
    @NAT-mi1ps Před 3 lety

    What was the music used in this video, especially the sixth track?

  • @emilygordbort7300
    @emilygordbort7300 Před 5 lety +3

    I feel that Thomas Edison was a good inventor who just got old and stuck in his ways
    like ford or... really a lot of people

  • @lizerdspherex
    @lizerdspherex Před 5 lety +6

    Funny how we've gone back to looking into a box at a small screen as a means of novelty entertainment. Albeit in a more mobile form.

  • @thehammurabichode7994
    @thehammurabichode7994 Před 9 měsíci +2

    He has a lot of incredible traits! I just can't get over the whole "taking credit for his employee's inventions" thing. There's no excuse I can think of for that. It's just so hideously unfair to treat someone that way.

  • @vesuwio
    @vesuwio Před 5 lety +1

    Antonio Meucci, who was he and why am i posting this? I know, do you?🤔🔔
    Well, Edison, in his later years was the person that stoped at a octagon on the way to build the wheel, as long he made money.

  • @earthhound
    @earthhound Před 5 lety +4

    Thomas Edison! Thomas Edison!
    Just because you say his name, doesn't mean you're right!

    • @earthhound
      @earthhound Před 5 lety +1

      @@anonymousperson9735 That could've been a feature length episode where an alternate timeline is created where the world is ruled by Nikola Tesela's head on a steam punk mech.

  • @ihatefortnightgivemeareaso5659

    Tomas Edison
    He sat
    He wasn’t fat
    Most importantly he wasn’t laid back

  • @emmarose4234
    @emmarose4234 Před 4 lety +1

    I’m reminded of this little exchange in a LeapPad cartridge, “A Day at Moss Lake”:
    Sly: “Wow, Buzzy! Leap really saved the day with his jet-saving invention!”
    Buzzy: “That Leap! He’s a regular Thomas Edison!”
    Sly: “He’s an English muffin?”
    Buzzy: “No, Sly! Thomas Edison was an _inventor!_ He invented the lightbulb...and the movie camera!”
    Sly: “I love movies! Thanks, Mr. Edison!”
    🤦‍♀️

  • @Llamarama100
    @Llamarama100 Před 3 lety +1

    35mm film is only a standard because Edison used to buy 70mm film strips from Kodak, then split and spliced it for extra length.

  • @michaellyden2580
    @michaellyden2580 Před 5 lety +3

    2:12 Fewer*

  • @thomasturner6980
    @thomasturner6980 Před 5 lety +33

    Well technically for any invention to happen then you have to use the previous technologies to invent new ones, so your not stealing them your just building on them

    • @Crawdithe98
      @Crawdithe98 Před 5 lety +3

      Rather if this was meant to be taken seriously or not, those are some words of wisdom.

    • @jacobraposo730
      @jacobraposo730 Před 5 lety +1

      So basically give credit to the person that invented fire or the wheel

    • @ricefarmer8553
      @ricefarmer8553 Před 5 lety

      @@jacobraposo730 No give the credit to mother nature

    • @darnit1944
      @darnit1944 Před 4 lety

      Exactly, there is no such thing as stole technology.

  • @jonathanvillegas4900
    @jonathanvillegas4900 Před 2 lety +2

    This just comes to show that no person is "perfect."

  • @dontsubscribetome3262
    @dontsubscribetome3262 Před 5 lety +1

    no mention of Louis le Prince the actual inventor of film mysteriously dissapearing right before he was gonna show his invention to the World.

  • @compatriot852
    @compatriot852 Před 2 lety +4

    I really don't understand where the ridiculous vilification of Edison came from

    • @cajunguy6502
      @cajunguy6502 Před 2 lety +2

      Clickbait on the internet. Articles titled things like "10 Facts They Didn't Teach You In History Class" are made to draw you in. And you feel smart, because you learned something that others may not know. But they forgot to tell you why they didn't teach these facts in history class: because they aren't even remotely true. We LOVE a David v Goliath story, we love stories about injustice, because we feel like we are helping just by know "the truth." So a fake narrative you didn't learn in school about 2 well known historical figures that paints one as an altruistic nerd and the other as and megalomaniacal Businessman is going to grow in popular quickly, before anyone has the chance to fact check it.

    • @bigearl1624
      @bigearl1624 Před rokem +2

      He's the Steve jobs of the 20th century

  • @maxis2k
    @maxis2k Před 3 lety +17

    Building off of others is fine. It's actually an art in itself. The problem was Edison wouldn't credit the people who helped him. Not even the people in his think tank. We can hate his ego while still marveling at his body of work.

  • @christiangreen2324
    @christiangreen2324 Před 4 lety

    Where did he get the music for this video I like it

  • @alenasenie6928
    @alenasenie6928 Před 4 lety +1

    As an electronics engineer student I have to say the problem with DC at that time was that the voltage couldn't be changed so easily so at low voltage the energy decay faster than at high voltage, AC can change voltage just with two wires and that was easy by that time. But DC can change voltage now. It requires transistors and that is why then it has more drawbacks than ac, but now the dc to dc converter is way more efficient than ac to ac and then to dc, we have archived 99% efficiency in dc to dc and since it does not produce capacitive and inductance effects with ground it can be transported underground and underwater, it is needed to connect the world power supply and generate energy where is more convenient now ac is more limited than dc.

  • @moqqy
    @moqqy Před 5 lety +3

    Nothing and no one in this world is perfect. This applies to Edison as well.

  • @DuranmanX
    @DuranmanX Před 5 lety +14

    Thomas Edison was basically the Keiji Inafune of technological innovation. Did more in marketing and selling ideas than coming up with them. And while that's not as romantic, it's certainly as important.

    • @jorgeamadosoriaramirez8953
      @jorgeamadosoriaramirez8953 Před 5 lety +2

      no one says it wasn't. Except Edison himself. Had he not insisted in taking credit for all the inventions, people wouldn't had a problem with him. At least, not such a big problem as they do now.

  • @WeezaY5000
    @WeezaY5000 Před 5 lety +1

    I still feel about Edison how you made me feel about Woodrow Wilson after his video. Tesla is to Edison as Roosevelt is to Wilson. Some alternate reality is having a hell of a time.

  • @angelgarciadelrioromero5740

    There is a spanish contemporany novel which is called "la ciudad de los prodigios" and the main character really remind me to edison .

  • @chrisgurney2467
    @chrisgurney2467 Před 5 lety +15

    Joseph Swan invented and patented the first practical incandescent light bulb before Edison

  • @PhilipJackson03
    @PhilipJackson03 Před 2 lety +3

    Thomas Edison is a great case of how to treat a historical figure objectively and not lean into the narrative.
    He was a man who did many great things but should not be absolved from the shitty behaviour and business practices he was known for. He was a mixed bag and that goes for a lot of other historical figures too.

  • @SaraBearRawr0312
    @SaraBearRawr0312 Před 5 lety

    This is actually a very good point. Many inventors or visionaries are not creating from the ground up but improving on existing technology. Its similar to how Marconi may be credited with the radio but it was based on Teslas concepts.

  • @angusmacdonald7187
    @angusmacdonald7187 Před 5 lety +2

    Ah yes, welcome to history! First wave: praise! Second wave: condemnation! Third wave: trying to balance... :-)

  • @primotef8863
    @primotef8863 Před 5 lety +6

    "And if the people knew you stopped me from making power FREE, they would curse the con Edison with every utility!" - Nikola Tesla, impeccably dressed

  • @efstrix
    @efstrix Před 5 lety +7

    isn't ironic that edison dream (that every house should have their own electricity generator and every person a electric car) is fulfilled 100 years later by a company called tesla

  • @lukeevans6332
    @lukeevans6332 Před 5 lety

    Where did you get the video of the robotic hand?

  • @weird1012
    @weird1012 Před 2 lety +1

    Where Gorge Westinghouse at?

  • @Neillan
    @Neillan Před 5 lety +2

    Isn't this Cody's brother?

  • @Jebbtube
    @Jebbtube Před 5 lety +3

    The message I come away from this is that Edison was a self-centered, but intelligent narcissist who was too stubborn to admit when he was wrong, and wanted to keep an iron grip on everything he could.

  • @strikertango3724
    @strikertango3724 Před 5 lety

    Interesting choice using the Toon Blast game music haha

  • @Niklas.K95
    @Niklas.K95 Před 5 lety +2

    A 'nice guy' rarely changed the world

  • @Justin_Joy
    @Justin_Joy Před 5 lety +12

    "he came off as an everyman with a sense of humor"
    This part reminds me of Elon Musk.

  • @Gunbladefire
    @Gunbladefire Před 5 lety +20

    eh, a few good deeds doesn't absolve someone for being a corrupt person. Especially with over the course of their life doing less for others and becoming more about profit than peoples lives.

    • @traveller7552
      @traveller7552 Před 5 lety

      Marc Loui Rivero “Andrew Jackson” “local bully” idk what I should use then

  • @Mkoivuka
    @Mkoivuka Před 5 lety

    So the kinetograph is to video, what Vine/TikTok will be to...?

  • @CEO_Of_Racism-fk3qv
    @CEO_Of_Racism-fk3qv Před 5 lety +1

    Spokes Person: Thomas what is your take
    Thomas: its illuminated family.

  • @patrickhessman1349
    @patrickhessman1349 Před 5 lety +5

    I imagine Nikola Tesla's strong internet fandom had something to do with the more negative perception of Edison you encounter these days.

  • @fakename105
    @fakename105 Před 5 lety +26

    Every time I talk shit about a historical figure, like Columbus or Edison, somebody makes a video about how he wasn't that bad 3 days later. An I reverse psycic?

    • @oneofmanyparadoxfans5447
      @oneofmanyparadoxfans5447 Před 5 lety +5

      Columbus thought that the Earth was 1/3rd the size the ancient Greeks mathematically (and very accurately) calculated it to be and didn't believe there could be another continent beyond Europe, Africa, and Asia, unlike the Greeks who postulated that because of the _sheer size_ of the planet, there had to be another continent out there. The guy really gets far more credit than he deserves.

    • @oneofmanyparadoxfans5447
      @oneofmanyparadoxfans5447 Před 5 lety +3

      As for you being a reverse Psychic, I'd be willing to put money on that. Stranger things have occurred. Much stranger.

    • @the_big_boogaloo_man946
      @the_big_boogaloo_man946 Před 5 lety +11

      @@oneofmanyparadoxfans5447 He didn't think the world was one-third the size the ancient Greeks measured, Toscanelli, the great Cartography of Europe at the time, the person Columbus based his calculations on, believed Asia was much larger than it actually was.

    • @oneofmanyparadoxfans5447
      @oneofmanyparadoxfans5447 Před 5 lety +1

      @@the_big_boogaloo_man946 My mistake.

    • @the_big_boogaloo_man946
      @the_big_boogaloo_man946 Před 5 lety +3

      @@oneofmanyparadoxfans5447 Keine Problem, Columbus is such a controversial subject in modern day that honestly anybody can make a claim about him

  • @Minty1337
    @Minty1337 Před 5 lety +2

    edison sounds like me, tbh, see you in like 30 years when i invent the lightbulb again

  • @steven95N
    @steven95N Před 4 lety +2

    I tried to hatch chicken eggs when I was 6. I put them (all 18) on a pillow and sandwiched another on top and sat on them and played my Gameboy.
    Most of them broke before my parents found out half a day later. I really just assumed that was something a ton of people did as children. I grew up an idiot boot though. Never got my chance to zap Dumbo : (

    • @emmarose4234
      @emmarose4234 Před 4 lety

      I tried to hatch a store-bought chicken egg on a pillow when I was really little. All it did was mess up the pillow. I think we had to throw it away.