Many people usually go under-appreciated for their work that leads to major engineering feats. It seems to me that society likes to look at the past and attribute one thing or one person to what changed everything, when in reality it is the accumulation of several events that lead to major breakthroughs. Thomas Edison never invented the light bulb, but he did find a filament for the incandescent lamp so that it could be mass produced.
Which is what I said and my point stands: how many people can actually give the correct answer to who created the first light bulb? Edison was attributed all of the credit when he built off the work of others, which isn't to say that's a bad thing but that this is usually how breakthroughs usually come about.
I have mixed feelings about the "correct" answer. Davy showed that wires glowed when enough current was passed through them. Does that count? Swan improved on that with his lightbulb lasting longer, but a few minutes life is incomplete. Edison finished the invention.
Me, I tend to give the credit for the invention to Edison, while acknowledging that he stood on the shoulders of others. It's how credit is done for most inventions.
You might give more credit to the hundred or so people (all the equivalent of our PhD graduates today) who were doing the actual work for him.
Edison's contribution was to pay them enough so they could eat and live, and point them at a project.
And Edison's an even more interesting example to bring up in a Jobs discussion because of the whole history between himself and Tesla (and if nothing else tells you about the man's character, the elephant-electrocuting nonsense during the current wars would tell you all you needed to know).
> Edison's contribution was to pay them enough so they could eat and live, and point them at a project.
Edison's long string of inventions suggest his contribution was far more than that. (And the money used to pay his staff came from his prior inventions, Edison was not born rich.)
> elephant-electrocuting nonsense
We find that reprehensible today. But people at the time did not, and it's better to judge him in the context of his time.
>He also invented the industry that was able to deliver power to homes so they could use those light bulbs.
Correct me if i am wrong, but i thought Edison was a proponent of DC current, rather than AC (it was tesla who pushed AC). I might have those two mixed up though.
