“I don’t care if they stole my idea, I care that they don’t have any of their own.” – Nikola Tesla
Father of the Electric Age – Thomas Edison or Nikola Tesla?
I bring into your presence a dilemma in the form of a solemn question, ‘Who was the father of the Electric Age’? Now most us would from a legitimate image of Thomas Edison illuminated amidst numerous light bulbs appear almost instantly as an answer but truth be told, the correct answer however is Tesla. Edison actually worked with his team over the ideas of 22 other men who previously tried yet failed in creating the light bulb.
Coming to why Tesla holds superiority over Edison was that the latter invented the DC current system with the help of Tesla. Nikola Tesla was later sidelined by Edison and therefore he started working on his own invention of the Alternating Current (AC). This invention proved far better than Edison’s Direct Current system such that to this day, provides electricity to the whole planet. Tesla might also have other inventions and great ideas on his resume like the invention of a Hydro Electric plant at Niagara Falls, but the alternating current system let alone proves his great importance and how he was not given enough credit for existing. We seem to somehow overlook the second person who tries to create something bigger, instead stay fixated and idolize the person who was just first to do something.