Talk:Thomas Edison/Archive 1

message: I have read that, similarly, the credit traditionally given to Thomas Edison for the invention of the Light Bulb is misplaced.  I am not competent to assess this claim.
He did invent the filament for the light bulb...I know that.
: No he didn't.  He came up with one that extended the lifespan of the bulbs from 150 hours to 1200.  Joseph Swan patented the carbon filament lightbulb a year before Edison.  Wikipedia needs to get this right, and not rely on me either.  --Belltower
Well read the change I have just made and you will see that even Swann wasn't first.  I think it is OK to say that he is widely recognised as the inventor of the light bulb (which is true) but wikipedia should show the prior art as well.
As soon as the voltaic pile or battrey was invented, experimenters saw that a wire could be made to glow, in the early years of the 19th century. Swann's and others efforts were inferior to Edison's because for one, they did not have a high enough vacuum, so the filament burned out quickly, and more importantly, they did not consider the larger question of limiting the amount of current required by the bulb . Edison's filament had high resistance, making it practical to run conductors from a central generating plant for many blocks, without the high cost of copper for the larger currents of earlier bulbs. Edison developed a complete system, with his own generators, switches, fuses, fixtures, etc and was the first to develop a useful bulb which could be used to replace gas lights economically. Leading scientists such as Tyndall wrote that he was sure to fail in his effort to "subdivide the electric light." This goes agaiunst the claim that others had invented it previously.Edison 17:46, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Light Bulb credit is misplaced?

message: He is one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production to the process of invention
Is this strictly true? He had a workshop of inventors. He mass produced the products of invention, but mass production to the process of invention seems somewhat contradictory. Mintguy
::I agree with your objection here. Suggested rewordings? -- Infrogmation 01:37 Jan 25, 2003 (UTC)
:: It seems an unneccesary recent addition.
::: Could change it to "...one of the first inventors to mass produce the products of invention", but i'm not sure if he was truly one of the first. Mintguy
:: No, that is actually right.  He applied the principles of mass production to invention.  For instance, he had a lab, in which several hundred people tried different filament materials until one was found that worked well.  He used assembly line techniques in the research itself, not just in producing the product.  --ssd 23:59, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: first inventors to apply the principles of mass production?

message: Re: Light bulb. It just isn't an Edison invention. He holds no valid patents on it, only the ones he bought from Swan. Mintguy
Something like: Edison did not invent the electric lightbulb, but it was Edison's relentless attention to detail that made the lightbulb a practical, commercial proposition. That sticks closely to the facts, and avoids all the tedious minor detals that get in the way of the flow of narrative. If desired, mention can be made of the actual inventors in a place where this will not distract, and will not make Wikipedia look like a place where partisans argue until the resulting text is so full of qualifications and carefully negotiated balancing opposites that the bones of the disagreement show through more clearly than the flesh of the entry. Tannin 01:45 Jan 25, 2003 (UTC)
:I'd go along with that. Mintguy
::Yes good; I put that in.  -- Infrogmation 02:27 Jan 25, 2003 (UTC)
Pretty sharp.-Stevert
I'm trying to highlight the fact that when you ask most people in the US who invented the light bulb they will say Edison, which is actually far from the truth. Hence "Edison is often incorrectly named as the inventor of the light bulb" Mintguy
: I'd say most people all around the world, Mintguy. Well, actually most people would say "who cares?" or "beats me", but you know what I mean. The question then, becomes how should we deal with this? Essentially, there are three approaches:
:* Say "Most people believe X but they are wrong." The trouble with this approach is (a) that it's very difficult to do in such a way as not to imply that there are grounds for controversy (which, in this case, there are not), and (b) that by providing the reader with semi-conflicting information about two quite different questions at the same time, it is confusing. Come back and ask that same reader what he learned a little later (i.e., seek to discover what things have made it past his short-term and into his long-term memory) and chances are you'll be told: Edison? Something to do with lightbulbs wasn't it? Didn't he invent them or something?  
:* Simply ignore the misconception and get on with laying out the facts. This approach risks some clueless fool marching in a little later and adding the myth in big bold letters as an obvious improvememt, can't understand why you guys didn't know that!
:* Try to provide the facts so simply and clearly that the reader can see for himself what the real triumph was, and is then in a position to (a) understand the facts of history, and (b) understand the reason for the myth, and thus be in a position to immediately refute it if he meets it elsewhere. One fact, two understandings is always better than two facts, misunderstanding.
:No prizes for guessing that I am in favour of the third approach. Partly, this is a matter of taste. Mostly though, it is a matter of effective communication. Tannin 03:24 Jan 25, 2003 (UTC)
Tannin's version looks fine to me. I think some of the confusion may have been whether or not to note that a significantly improved version of something pre-existing can also be called an invention. -- Infrogmation 02:46 Jan 25, 2003 (UTC)
:If anything then, the prize should go to William Coolidge who invented the tungston filament. Mintguy
: Just so, Infrogmation, When is an invention an invention? Tannin
----
I query the statement that:
"On January 19, 1883 the first electric lighting system employing overhead wires began service in Roselle, New Jersey."
Charles F Brush's station was supplying power to street lights on Broadway in 
1880. The April 1881 issue of Scientific American featured a cover story on the Brush system in New York.  Tiles 00:09, 1 Oct 2003 (UTC)
thread_title: Re: Light bulb

message: This is a contradiction:
"Though Edison did advocate executions via AC electrocution..."
"Ironically, Edison was against capital punishment, but..."
Which is correct?  Anyone have any quotations to back it up?  --  Omegatron 15:27, 23 Dec 2003 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm not sure about this, but that does sound fishy.  He did advocate executions via AC?  is this a joke?  I know that Edison's lightbulbs only used direct current, so why would he want to execute people with ac? Greenmountainboy 16:26, 23 Dec 2003 (UTC)
replies: text: Apparently it's true, and there's even a whole book on the subject; Googling shows this at Amazon for instance. Stan 16:58, 23 Dec 2003 (UTC)

text: If it's a joke, it's Edison's joke.  IIRC, he hated AC, as it competed with his DC.  He did hate the death penalty, and was hoping bad publicity around it would give AC a bad name -- the electricity that kills or something.  Didn't seem to work.  -- ssd 00:03, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: contradiction

message: Reverted to last edit by Reddi to remove extreme POV edits Tiles 07:50, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Reverted to last edit by Reddi

message: On 26 Oct a vandal removed large chunks of the article with this edit. Unusually, that was not caught right away, and further good edits were made since. I reverted to the pre-vandalism version just now; I'll next look to see what significant was lost of more recent improvements. -- Infrogmation 14:46, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: I only spotted one small link, and reinstated it. Double checking welcome. -- Infrogmation 15:07, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  vandalism 

message: Perhaps something interresting : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7318180.stm
You might want to see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89douard-L%C3%A9on_Scott_de_Martinville wich is in some language but not in english...
It seems that Edison "stole" an other invention  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.252.16.155 (talk) 11:25, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Missing information for first record 

message: Should be "off the train" not "of the train". he's right
ME  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.137.191.236 (talk) 11:48, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Error In Article 

message: I think he was great because he invented the light bulb and loads of other things.
:This massive article says NOTHING about his later years and death. That needs to be changed. Weatherman90 01:52, 15 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text:  I thought it was Henry Ford who was widely rumored as having been Anti-Semitic, not Edison. Perhaps both of them have been accused of it, however... DarthCat 02:30, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tomas Edison by Kate 

message: Knowing Thomas Edison as he is there should be a section on his (largely unsuccessful) work on military technology for WWI.  It was sort of an early transitional step into the era of Big Science, as collaborative, scientifically-based labs were more successful in creating useful military inventions than Edison and his helprs with his tinkering approach of many independent minds. --ragesoss 08:29, 28 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: It was called the Naval Consulting Board.  --RedJ 17 13:10, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Military Work

message: I don't know if it is a typo or vandalism. In the introductory section it states "In 1995, three generations of Edisons took up farming ..." I'm assuming it should be 1795? I've changed it, if not, change it back. --Davril2020 00:21, 29 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Error in the Introduction

message: I think that it is really a shame that, on the third topmost line of a supposedly "good article", lies a baffling factual error:
Nevertheless, Edison is considered one of the most prolific (in terms of patents) inventors in history, holding 1,093 U.S. patents in his name (the most ever issued to one individual),[...].
You may want to check more thoroughly into this problem . Wikipedia isn't the place for legends, and especially not the heading lines of such an important article.
Just to remind you, Wikipedia:Good_articles reads be factually accurate and be referenced. False assertions of this kind inevitably will happen, and that's fine, but it is the raison d'être of good articles to avoid them.
:I just noticed that too and I remembered reading the Slashdot article.  But that's the great thing about Wikipedia, if you see something that is blatantly wrong, you can easily correct it.Shadow demon 06:39, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Most patents ever issued to one individual 

message: I was reading this for the first time tonight. I found that ALL the discriptive headers  staring with "Inventor" and going through "Media Inventions" repeated, right up to the header "Homes." I deleted all the dupes. I did NOT mark this as a minor edit, but I did leave a marker with text at the point of deletion. Is it more correct to simply delete the duplicates and post HERE, or leave a mark as I did, for large text deletions?
Cpswarrior 07:06, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Duplicate Paragraphs Deleted 

message: Somebody did a poor job of repairing the vandalism of 3/1/06. I have pasted the overwritten text back (the sections Inventor and Menlo Park). Clarityfiend 09:51, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Marriages and later life 

message: I think it should be noted (maybe in the Trivia section) that Edison was one of the first movie pirates, making copies and profiting from "From the Earth to the Moon". 69.161.146.61 05:17, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Movie Pirate

message: I remember reading somewhere that it was a myth that Edison only needed a few hours sleep. Apparently he took frequent naps during the day. Can anybody confirm this and add it to the article if true? 
I'm removing the qualifier "(in terms of patents)". He was one the most prolific, period. Clarityfiend 02:32, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Sleep Myth + minor quibble

message: The bit about Tesla under Improvements should either be deleted or rewritten, as it implies that Tesla did his work in alternating current when working for Edison, when it had been done years earlier.  He worked for him briefly, and little contact with him after that, so it's inaccurate to say "it was related as were the two men."
*Tesla's most important AC work, such as the brushless induction motor and the polyphase AC transmission system was actually done after his time working for Edison, not before.The Tesla article says he worked for Edison for a year, so it was not all that brief.Edison 20:49, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tesla 

message: Yes, yes, sofixit (and I will, eventually), but this article is currently quite deficient in failing to discuss his experiments in magnetic ore beneficiation. He invested a great deal of his personal fortune in the process, only to be wiped out by the availability of cheap, rich Mesabi Range ores by the time he had sufficiently perfected it. Choess 04:52, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Iron ore separator 

message: There is an entry for two way telegraph in 1892. I do not see why this is worthy of listing, and if there is no comment in support, will modify it. This refers to a patent 480,567 for a duplex telegraph, which actually allowed 2 messages to be sent in the same direction at the same time. The original Morse telegraph in the 1840's was of course a two way instrument in that messages could be sent in eithr direction, although one at a time (simplex). Inventors wished to make better use of the expensive telegraph wires by using polarity or frequency division to send multiplt messages at the same time, and this work led to the development of the telephone. But Edison patented 10 Duplex telegraphs in the 1870's, and had patented a "sextuple" telegraph before the one cited in the article. Did the 1892 patent have a big effect on the industry somehow? I propose to change the listing to "Duplex Telegraph, 1874." This would refer to patent 147917, which was his first such patent.Edison 14:46, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Media Inventions