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HarlanCulpepper t1_jd9tgkr wrote

Didn't he outright steal from other inventors?

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City_Stomper t1_jda6sle wrote

Yes he did, he was a business man more so than a scientist and inventor. Nikola Tesla worked for him, sent unpaid. Edison claimed that Tesla "didn't understand American humor".

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dandrevee t1_jda1n9x wrote

Its inspirational for sure...

But I'm not sure if it's motivating me to keep going with the inventing and attempting.. or if it wants me to take the Edison route and just start stealing shit

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beardedbrawler t1_jda84a8 wrote

He also really liked a type of wine, Vin Mariani, which was a Bordeaux wine treated with coca leaves.

Dude loved him some cocaine.

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Gamebird8 t1_jdb0ujr wrote

I mean, this quote isn't real. He never said it... And the proof that he said something somewhat close to it is anecdotal.

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secretid89 t1_jdb7kv6 wrote

Yes, and he probably stole the quote from someone else, too. :)

At least that’s what I tell myself, so that I can reconcile being inspired by the quote with the fact that Edison turned out to be a dick.

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Angryfunnydog t1_jdcdfej wrote

Well he tried to do something 10k times and failed 10k times, then decided to steal this shit

Don’t know man, the quote sounds sincere lol

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mpfmb t1_jdb35wt wrote

That's the one that worked!

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r31ya t1_jdbas94 wrote

Is MenloPark is basically the prototype of the current research corp where every worker sign-off any of their creation to be branded "Edison-creation"

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We_Make_Soap t1_jdbma8l wrote

He also electrocuted and killed an elephant and other animals and also shocked people in public so they would be afraid of alternating current. He knew it wasn’t dangerous. He also invented the electric chair so it’s ironic he actually was intentionally killing people with direct current.

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Angryfunnydog t1_jdcd8uv wrote

Obviously because he couldn’t do anything himself even with 10000 tries, that’s motivating

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ChatGPT4 t1_jda5zw6 wrote

You can call it "stealing" if it was patented. And then it wouldn't be counted as his invention. Invent anything, I'm almost sure there's someone who thought of it first. You might seen it somewhere, or in your dream, or in a movie... So - to make it simple - we have patents. If you're serious about inventing things - you just file a patent. If it's granted - it's yours. If it's not yours - it's not granted ;)

I for example - invented Windows before Windows. But Microsoft made it ;) No hard feelings, I couldn't make it anyway. Seriously, I've just made a GUI on top of DOS, it displayed a movable windows with frames and some controls. 320x200, 256 colors, VGA resolution.

Now let's translate it into a lightbulb. You make a bulb with a filament that glows for a while then the filament burns. You get the idea. It took a lot of work to actually make a bulb with a filament that doesn't burn that quickly, produces enough light to be useful, at the same time being relatively cheap to manufacture. Don't forget about manufacturing process.

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wildadragon t1_jdaltbc wrote

He worked in the patent office so he saw the inventions literally before they were patented, he could have easily copied, destroyed the original patent application, and refiled as his own. It would be his word against theirs and he has a patent as proof when they dont.

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