After visiting the national park that is 'Edison's Home and Lab' in NJ, Edison was smart, IMHO, but not genius level. Even the house they lived in as a family has no family pictures, and previous occupants pictures are on the walls.
It seems Edison was the consummate workaholic, and outside work, life was pretty austere. His labs where he had lots of minions working on inventions that got his name on them (instead of theirs) was obviously high tech and high end for the day. It was interesting place to visit for a techie geek. The old Edison Battery factory (where the Edison Ni-Fe batteries were made) was purchased by Exide at the time I visited years ago, is just across the street. The old factory is being turned into condo's and commercial park from what I can tell. I don't think there are any manufacturers of NiFe batteries in the US anymore. They can be purchased new, but they are imports from China (surprise) and Russia. Exide isn't in the NiFe business at this time. That battery technology was interesting. It was used to power cars, trucks, and even train engines back in the 1900-ish time frame. Many of the original batteries are still working in solar power systems, along side new ones today. With minimal care they just don't wear out like Lead-Acid batteries do [about 5 year life] but the NiFe cost about 3 to 5 times as much as Lead-Acid, mainly due to the increased cost of Nickle in the past 10+ years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison_National_Historical_Park for those who care. Also his cast concrete garage was surprisingly interesting as well. Built in turntable for the cars and car wash inside. On Tue, May 27, 2014 at 3:36 PM, Curt Lundgren <[email protected]> wrote: > When I think of 'geek heroes' I include Nikola Tesla and Edwin Armstrong. > I can't drive by WSM's stick (sorry, broadcast terminology for 'antenna') > without thinking of Armstrong. That 'pole' on top of the Blaw-Knox > antenna was a 49 MHz FM broadcast antenna; FM having been invented by > Armstrong. > > Dirty dealings by David Sarnoff of RCA led to the adoption of the 88-108 > MHz band for FM, effectively killing Armstrong's invention. Armstrong > committed suicide; Sarnoff died rich. > > And so it goes… > > > On Tue, May 27, 2014 at 3:29 PM, John F. Eldredge <[email protected]>wrote: > >> I would say that it is more a matter of knowing the history of >> engineering, given that Edison died in 1931 and Tesla died in 1943 (yes, I >> had to look those dates up). >> >> >> On May 27, 2014 12:31:56 PM CDT, "Steven S. Critchfield" < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> > I didn't build a tesla coil and I got it. Of course it might be more >> > telling of age though. >> > >> > ----- Original Message ----- >> > > Pretty obvious, it seems. Did anyone else build a tesla coil as a >> > kid? >> > > Mine would throw an arc 2' in length. >> > > >> > > Curt >> > > >> > > >> > > On Tue, May 27, 2014 at 7:10 AM, John F. Eldredge >> > > <[email protected]>wrote: >> > > >> > > > Let's see who gets this visual pun. >> > > > >> > > > -- John F. Eldredge -- [email protected] >> > > > "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate >> > > > cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." >> > > > Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. >> > > > >> > > > -- >> > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the >> > > > Google Groups >> > > > "NLUG" group. >> > > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] >> > > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> > > > [email protected] For more options, visit >> > this >> > > > group at >> > > > http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en >> > > > >> > > > --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the >> > > > Google Groups >> > > > "NLUG" group. >> > > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, >> > > > send an >> > > > email to [email protected]. >> > > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > > >> > > >> > > -- >> > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the >> > Google >> > > Groups "NLUG" group. >> > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] >> > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> > > [email protected] For more options, visit this >> > > group at http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en >> > > >> > > --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the >> > Google >> > > Groups "NLUG" group. >> > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, >> > send >> > > an email to [email protected]. >> > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> >> -- >> John F. Eldredge -- [email protected] >> "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot >> drive out hate; only love can do that." >> Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. >> >> -- >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "NLUG" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected] >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected] >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en >> >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "NLUG" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > -- > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "NLUG" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "NLUG" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- ><> ... Jack "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart"... Colossians 3:23 "If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the precipitate" - Henry J. Tillman "Anyone who has never made a mistake, has never tried anything new." - Albert Einstein "You don't manage people; you manage things. You lead people." - Admiral Grace Hopper, USN "a nanosecond is the time it takes electrons to propigate 11.8 inches" - " - http://youtu.be/JEpsKnWZrJ8 "Life is complex: it has a real part and an imaginary part." - Martin Terma -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NLUG" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NLUG" group. 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