ringzero said:
Fermi was a great 20th Century Italian physicist, notable for research in nuclear fission and quantum mechanics.
Maybe you mean Tesla, the great Serbian electical engineer who was a contemporary of Edison?
Isn't this a bit over the top?
Edison may have been shrewd, perhaps even underhanded, in his business dealings - but evil, I don't think so.
Edison was a visionary who provided workable solutions to the some of the toughest problems of his day: electric lighting, recorded sound, motion pictures, etc.
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You are correct: it was Tesla who invented the AC motor. My memory is slipping. I studied Edison in High School, many decades ago.
But to put things into perspective: As an alternative to hanging, the Electric Chair was invented by Harold P. Brown for use in capital punishment (more humane...?) It used AC current, of course.
Edison attempted to get Congress to name the Electric Chair the 'Westinghouse Chair', before it could be lawfully adopted for use in capital punishment.
Edison did a lot of very underhanded, and by most standards, very unethical, things like this to try to stifle, discredit, and malign (to put it mildly) his competitors. He was a consummate megalomaniac.
He accomplished many great things, (much through the work of his subordinates, for which he took full credit) but he was a thoroughly unpleasant person.
I remember reading that people who loaned him money early on, reportedly either were never repaid, or did not receive the promised share in the profits his tremendously profitable patents brought.
It has been widely reported that he and/or people acting as his agents, lied, cheated, and stole. And as a wealthy and powerful man, he largely got away with it.
Not a candidate for sainthood. He has a great place in American, and world history.
But he never, to my knowledge, shot an elderly hunting companion in the face with a shotgun, sending him to the hospital, and causing a moderate heart attack. But he likely could have gotten away with it.
Such an egregious disregard for human life, and safe hunting and firearms practices, could never, ever happen with any public figure today, of course.
