So Thomas Edison is famously linked with the incandescent light, as well as the application of electricity through copper wiring, however he's also infamous for having stole these ideas from others and claiming them as his own.
Here's what I was wondering: if Edison hadn't dicked over Tesla and Tesla's idea of ambient, wireless electricity was the chosen format for powering the future, do you think it would've greatly advanced our rate of technological growth or would we still be where we are today?
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Definitely because Tesla was a true inventor vs a theif ?
tiredjusttired
Level 4
May 5, 2018
1
In the interest of fairness it's worth pointing out that Tesla nabbed his big idea, AC power supply, from the lab he trained in.
As for technological advancement, wireless power transfer might actually have held us back since power emissions follow the inverse square law; every time you double the distance from the transmitter you quarter the power received. The enormous waste of energy inherent in transmitting enough power to drive electronic devices would be quite prohibitive.
Rufus_Maximus
Level 7
Apr 29, 2018
0
I see. But then who's to say our technology wouldn't have advanced? Wiring became safernas time went on, who's to say in 2018 we didn't have some way of amplifying the wireless aspect without a loss of power
@AssassinofWords amplification would simply mean wasting more power, again, current transmitters run into hundreds of thousands of volts and can't power a transistor radio at any sort of practical distance. In wireless chargers where the TX and Rx coils are within millimetres of one another only 50% power efficiency is achieved. The more power you transmit, the more you waste. Imagine the fossil fuel consumption if at least 50% of all electricity generated was lost to the air... Then imagine how much power is lost when the tx and Rx are more than millimetres apart.
I've wanted to go back in time, and punch Edison in the face for as long as I can remember.
StylisticIdiot
Level 6
Apr 28, 2018
1
Ugh, yeah. He's the embodiment of America "Take what isn't yours, proclaim it is and make money off it, hand over fist."
Edison is such a dick.
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