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The Underappreciated Nikola Tesla, and Other Under-Recognized Historic Figures

Khalid Elhassan January 12, 2020 32 min

Nikola Tesla - A New System of Alternating Current Motors and Transformers — Nikola Tesla. Pintrest

39. Getting Shafted by Thomas Edison

With a record of 1093 patents to his name, Thomas Edison, “The Wizard of Menlo Park”, is often described as the world’s most prolific inventor. In reality, most of Edison’s inventions were either by people he hired and whose inventions he then patented in his own name, or by strangers who had nothing to do with him, but whose inventions Edison simply stole.

Nikola Tesla was among those in the former category. Shortly after Tesla’s arrival in the US, Edison hired the brilliant but naïve new immigrant to redesign his electrical generators and perfect his light bulb, promising him $50,000 if he did so. Tesla did so, but when he asked for the $50,000 he had been promised, Edison laughed it off, telling him: “Tesla, you just don’t understand our American humor. When you become a full-fledged American, you will appreciate an American joke“.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.