On 2 Dec 2004 20:42:14 GMT, Ray Heindl <
[email protected]> wrote:
> "Mike Kruger" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Roger Zoul wrote:
>>>
>> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,18069-1376728,00.html
>>>
>>> The author uses words differently than I do, apparently.
>>
>> LOL! I particularly like this part:
>> "How many fan websites are there devoted to electricity or
>> the light bulb?"
>>
>> But how did the light bulb make it on the list? Wasn't the
>> light bulb invented by Thomas Edison, an American?
>
> There was a British inventor named Swann who developed a light bulb
> about the same time Edison did, and who is, I've heard, widely regarded
> in the UK as "the" inventor, as Edison is in the US. What set Edison
> apart from various other light-bulb inventors is that he went on to
> assemble the whole system of generators, switches, meters, sockets,
> etc., that were needed to make the light bulb practical.
>
> From <http://www.design-technology.info/inventors/page27.htm>:
> "Joseph Swann worked on developing a filament lamp before Tomas Edison
> and patented a design for an electric bulb. The patent however was
> ultimately acquired by Edison buying the company that owned the patent.
> "
>
What really happened was that Edison figured out to empty the tube of
oxygen which would consume the filament. Someone else invented it, he
just improved it and got all the credit. Edison was famous for that.
Many of his inventions were not his own but ones that he found and
improved then patented in his name.
Same thing that happened in photography, it was not DaGuerre who was
the inventor, just the improver who got credit. Television was invented
by Philo T. Farnsworth, but RCA held him up so long his original patents
expired and RCA got the credit and the money. There are lots of crooked
invention patents out there if you know the history. Some companies like
RCA are big enough to sit and wait while the other guy starves. Of course
look what finally happened to RCA. Gulp! European, now the name is all but
dead. When the purchase took place the new company had the balls to
rewrite the data manuals to say that they had invented the LED or
Light Emitting Diode. There were a whole lot of American engineers ******
about that, but it got the point across, money talks.
On a final note about Edison he wanted to distribute DC power and fought
Nicola Tesla almost into bankruptcy before Tesla found backing in
Westinghouse.
Guess who won, even though Westinghouse is all but a memory now?
Money does talk.
Sorry about the off topic, but I am an electronics engineer and don't
like money rewriting history.
Here is an on topic sort of thing. Has anyody put and serious thought
into taking those dynamo hubs and charging a NiMh battery pack with them
so they could be used as a motor for some bonked rides home? Not rockect
science but doable, maybe even with Lithium batteries.
Huh? Come on now, this is a bright group.
--
Bill (?) Baka