I bet that rich dumb ass would love this comparison.

  • Madison420@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Education Edison owed him 50k, roughly 1.2 million dollars in today’s metrics.

    Several months after Edison employed him, Tesla announced that his work was successfully completed. When Tesla asked to be paid, however, Edison seemed astonished. He explained that the offer of $50,000 had been made in jest. “When you become a full-fledged American you will appreciate an American joke,” Edison said. Shocked and disgusted, Tesla immediately resigned.

    Not just a shitty person but a literal bigot that likely would have followed ford in aligning himself with Hitler, he simply didn’t live long enough and missed it but like 7 years.

    • Tnaeriv
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      8 months ago

      I’d really like to see where you got that quote, because it’s complete bullshit. This story originally comes from Tesla’s autobiography:

      The Manager had promised me fifty thousand dollars on the completion of this task but it turned out to be a practical joke.

      But you see that? He never said it was Edison, just ‘The Manager’.

      Btw in that same book Tesla calls Edison “a wonderful man”.

      Edit: nvm, I found what you quoted. It’s this fucking pile of garbage

      • Madison420@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Where did you find that. I’ve got multiple sources who say the same, you’ve got “nuh uh” for a subject better you not I were alive to know first hand.

        How is sourced PBS publication “a fucking pile of garbage” you never even offered actual criticism.

        Ed: another, this one from 1919.

        https://books.google.com/books?id=xrhhE4q5gmgC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PA65&dq="The+Manager+had+promised+me+fifty+thousand+dollars+on+the+completion+of+this+task+but+it+turned+out+to+be+a+practical+joke."&hl=en&source=gb_mobile_entity&ovdme=1#v=onepage&q="The Manager had promised me fifty thousand dollars on the completion of this task but it turned out to be a practical joke."&f=false

        • Tnaeriv
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          8 months ago

          Where did you find that

          I told you. In Tesla’s literal autobiography called “My Inventions”, full text of which you can find here.

          I’ve got multiple sources who say the same

          None of them are Tesla though. It’s all just a giant echo chamber all quoting each other, sometimes changing it slightly, but noone ever can be bothered to actually check the primary sources.

          you’ve got “nuh uh” for a subject better you not I were alive to know first hand

          Wha?

          How is sourced PBS publication “a fucking pile of garbage”

          It doesn’t seem to contain any sources whatsoever. They also say that “Tesla claimed” those things, yet they never say where or when he supposedly claimed that.

          The link you sent doesn’t seem to contain anything, but it looks like it’s supposed to link to the magazine “Electrical Experimenter”, so I went ahead and checked its every 1919 issue. Couldn’t find what you’re claiming. In fact I couldn’t find anything negative about Edison at all. Curious.

          The earliest source I could find of that claim is a book called “Prodigal Genius: The Life of Nikola Tesla”, released in 1944, so a year after Tesla’s death, and it also doesn’t say where that quote is actually taken from. Interestingly, the author of this book claims that upon hearing the request for payment Edison said: “Tesla, you don’t understand our American humor”. So quite different to what the PBS article claims. In fact, it seems like the newer the source, the more villainous and bigoted that alleged quote becomes.

          You’re welcome to prove me wrong though. If you show an actual, trustworthy, primary source, I will change my mind.

          • Madison420@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Biography not autobiography, big difference.

            Yours isn’t either.

            You didn’t provide a source, it’s not hard to figure out.

            They’re at the bottom boss.

            It does check again, I linked it directly it just didn’t preserve the highlight.

            • Tnaeriv
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              8 months ago

              What do you mean “not autobiography”? He literally wrote it.

              It is.

              My “Wha?” was meant to express that I have no idea what you’re talking about, as that sentence was absolutely unintelligible to me.

              Your link doesn’t work for me, but it seems like you’re linking to the very quote I gave, just in the original magazine, not in the book. Why? You’re only proving me right in that Tesla never said it was Edison.

              • Madison420@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                He literally didn’t. Read the author section, it was ghost written.

                Ed:

                Description

                My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla is a book compiled and edited by Ben Johnston detailing the work of Nikola Tesla. The content was largely drawn from a series of articles that Nikola Tesla had written for Electrical Experimenter magazine in 1919, when he was 63 years old. Tesla’s personal account is divided into six chapters covering different periods of his life.

                Notably been Johnston wasn’t born until 1927 and Tesla died in 1946 when the author was 16, they never even met.

                • Tnaeriv
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                  8 months ago

                  “Compiled and edited” doesn’t mean written. He just took Tesla’s articles and put them in a book. The words are still Tesla’s. Like, what the hell are you on? You literally linked me one of those articles, and it’s in the literal description you just quoted, so you must know that.

                  I also don’t think you know what “ghost writing” means.

                  But most importantly you’re just arguing semantics at this point. Instead of addressing any of the actual points, you choose to argue whether Tesla’s words put into a book count as autobiography. It doesn’t matter. They’re Tesla’s words, and you know it because you literally linked to the place where he wrote them. The only reason you’d do this is if you could see you’re wrong, but were too stubborn and proud to admit it, so you try to derail the discussion by changing the subject. I will not allow that. If you still want to have this discussion, bring some actual points that are relevant, if not, that’s fine by me, but I will not wrestle you in mud.

                  • Madison420@lemmy.world
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                    8 months ago

                    Compilations are ghost written to be contiguous.

                    No I did that so you’d see it was edited to be in a magazine then edited again to be in a book. Do you think many small circulation papers would be willing to slander one of the richest people in the planet at the time? No, seems unlikely right but they still left it written to be Edisons fault, the managing partner of Edison machine works was Edisons right hand man. It also includes that Edison told him he simply didn’t understand American pranks when he really had an oral contract quick is generally enforceable. Let’s also not muddy the waters but forgetting the reason I brought up the debt owed anyway, Edison was a piece of shit who said his favorite movie was birth of a nation…

                    Defend a shit person with your myopic shitty argument if you want but “I will not wrestle you” in mud.