Forum - View topicThe Real-World Stories Behind Dr. Stone's Inventions
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steelmirror
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Edison and his team weren't trying to "muscle their competitors out of the business", they were trying to invent a practical light bulb technology that could be mass produced and used in large quantities by normal people. Existing light bulbs at the time (Sawyer's included) used expensive filaments based on platinum and other precious metals, and needed to operate in evacuated vacuum containers, which were very hard and expensive to produce and even more expensive and delicate to maintain. They didn't really "exploit" Swan's patents (except inasmuch as all scientific breakthroughs are built on the shoulders of giants), they improved upon that expensive and impractical light bulb technology with both a new filament (noted in the article), as well as one which could operate in a nitrogen environment, making it much easier to manufacture and maintain the bulbs for long periods. This was the key innovation which made light bulbs practical for everyday use, and not merely specialized use in industrial or prestige locations. It is the difference between solar panels of the 50's and 60's which were fundamentally operating on the same principles as those today, but needed much more expensive materials and were far too inefficient. They could be used in some expensive applications, but would never be practical for deploying to millions of homes around the world like modern solar panels are today, with their vastly improved materials science and efficiency. So yes, more than one person contributed to inventing the light bulb. But the major breakthrough, the one which moved it from an expensive toy for the elite to a ubiquitous feature in billions of homes, was indeed Edison's humble contribution of the (mostly) modern carbon filament light bulb. |
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Hiroki not Takuya
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Thanks for this, you are quite correct in the details and I thought the article seemed to be trying to portray Edison as a "ruthless capitalist" or something "stealing" inventions like the Chinese do these days. That would be a gross mischaracterization. Lots of things (like solar panels I wanted to use in 1975 but too $$$) get thought up but have to wait years on other key technological innovations to make them realizable and then practical. It's a fascinating study I encourage people to undertake and maybe Dr. Stone will do that...
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Xavon
Posts: 382 Location: Minnesota |
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Penicillin is a mold/fungus. Not a bacteria.
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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Maybe he deserves more credit for the filament contribution, but the larger issue is that the vast majority of people think he invented the light bulb all on his own from scratch, a belief that isn't his fault but also clearly isn't true. The grandiose ideas a lot of people have about heroic capitalists have a lot to do with myths about a lone genius changing the world all on his own with no input from anyone else. And, apparently, the belief that only the Chinese steal other people's ideas... For a really strange bit of Edison history, look up his feud with Tesla over DC vs. AC power, involving such oddities as claiming AC is dangerous because it was used to power an electric chair. Ultimately the whole argument was pointless, of course, since these days we need both (AC for long-range transmission and DC for anything computer-related). |
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steelmirror
Posts: 342 |
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No, he spent thousands of prototypes and years of effort trying every variation he and the other members of his lab could think of, and eventually after that ridiculous amount of effort they were rewarded with a breakthrough that ended up changing the world. It's a very interesting story, and it isn't the story of one man alone of course, but Edison really was an incredibly hard-working and gifted engineer who lived in the right place at the right time, and stole ideas from the right people. That's absolutely worth celebrating in its own right, and you don't need to denigrate or downplay hie legitimate accomplishments to acknowledge where other people fit into the story, as well.
Not gonna lie, Chinese businesses steal tech and counterfeit goods all the time (just walk around the right neighborhood in literally any Chinese city to find out), but yeah, they aren't the first and won't be the last to do so. |
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