The Dark Side of Thomas Edison

How the famous inventor lied, cheated, and scammed his way to the top

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STILLS
Inventor Thomas Edison
George Rinhart/Getty Images
Mina Edison Portrait
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Edison's electro-motograph.
Universal History Archive/Getty Images
Nikola Tesla
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T.A. Edison Reading Bronze Tablet
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Nikola Tesla sitting in his Colorado Springs laboratory
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Portrait of Edmund Morris
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Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Edison Being Honored
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Portrait of George Westinghouse
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George Westinghouse
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Vitascope.
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An Advance Machine Company Vitascope Picture Machine
Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago/Getty Images
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) American physicist and inventor experimenting with electric lamps, even on his wedding day. Engraving, Paris, 1883.
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Execution by electric chair. Kemmler, the first man executed by electric chair, Auburn Prison, USA, 6 August 1890. Alternating Current used: three surges were needed for the execution. Westinghouse apparatus used. From La Nature, Paris, 6 September 1890 .
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VIDEO
MONTAGE Telegram advertisement featuring telephone lines over a map, telegrams shimmying through metal coil, piles of telegrams with overlaying white signatures, end of frayed telephone line, and a man and woman chewing on the end of pens / United Kingdom
British Film Institute/Getty Images
1950s B/W hands holding savings US Savings bonds / United States
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1934 MS electric chair / Chicago, Illinois, United States
Archive Films/Getty Images
Color television is patented
Grinberg, Paramount, Pathe Newsreels/Getty Images
Virus, Bacterium, Cell, Flu epidemic and Novel Coronavirus, Sars, Mers, H1N1, Covid-19 nCoV spreading microscopic view , Global deadly viral infection, Corona pandemic crisis close up, Microscopic view of influenza virus
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Henry Ford and Clara Bryant Ford playing with toddler in garden, Michigan, USA
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Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, John Burroughs and others eating in tent during camping trip, USA
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A light bulb turns on and off.
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Business Challenge Competition Winner and Loser Concept. Man in Hoodie Playing Chess. Black Figures Win Checkmate.
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Decorative table lamp with a classic edison light bulb
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Typhoid Vaccine, Innoculation from Endemic, Pandemic, USA Health and Medicine
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Covid 19 Shelter In Place - Los Angeles Suburb of La Canada
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[TheNism]

You forgot killer in the description. Funny how Louise Le Prince boarded a train to debut his motion picture single lense camera in the United States and mysteriously never made it to his destination. The man who was to give the presentation that would have bankrupted Edison suddenly fell off the face of the earth while Edison took credit for pieces of his invention in the years to come.

[balu]

Robert Hooke
Louis le Prince
Nikola Tesla
Rosalind Franklin

Legendary inventors and scientists who never got their due...Never forget their contributions, and also don't forget those
wronged them

[anthonyd]

Tesla was the real visionary. Had his ideas been adapted, we could have wireless electricity, cheap high speed transportation and energy with low impact on the environment. If only..

[freshwaterhorror]

You can tell Edison was evil just by how he styled his eyebrows

[eyeseehere]

At least we can credit him with being so controlling and unlikeable that people (small business) went west just to get away from him. Including a lot of cool animation studios

[capybara_coconut]

Edison: whippety wine, your invention is MINE!

[sriv]

Louis le Prince deserved better. All I need to say.

[isabellebise]

As someone who lives in West Orange Nj her entire life and has been to the Edison DUCK YOU

[Susano]

Befor i watch this video, i already know that he is a liar and a thief

[tetrodotoxin]

This dude is not an inventor. His a businessman. Taking credits from others😅

[contentweaverz]

I read in a textbook that Edison was a great grit to great guy and was fond of performing experiments. He sat on a eggs to hatch them and got a beating. The thing about his ear was that he was beaten by a train owner because he spilled some chemicals in one of the bogies of a train. I distinctly remember being under the impression that he was from a poor background. Now that I think back it seems inauthentic and exaggerated.

[ToadsIGuess]

So we aren't gonna mention Louis Le Prince?

[JulioIsKilluminati]

Buzzfeed just exposing everybody left and right. I love it.

[viiyaxyz]

He was clever I'll give him that. Enough to fool people, win cases, and steal ideas.

[rahulsathyakumar]

It's funny how people criticise him for his crooked business tactics. By today's definition, he is an 'Entrepreneur'

[mich]

bob’s burgers really hit the nail in the head with this one

[cristoffL]

Don’t forget his employee who was experimented on with X-rays who had his arms amputated and later died of cancer. Inventors day indeed.

[EyreAffair]

In before someone tries to cite "The Oatmeal" comic and myths about how "Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla were bitter rivals / enemies, and Edison cheated Tesla". (They weren't, and were actually on more cordial terms than the Internet and Tesla fans would have you believe.) I also highly recommend reading Alex Knapp's 2012 article for Forbes, "Nikola Tesla Wasn't God, And Thomas Edison Wasn't The Devil".

[joanncaporaletti]

Thomas Edison didn’t just have a dark side….EVERY side of him was dark!

[EternaResplandiente]

Louis Le Prince was the real visionary. I believe Edison send goons to kill and disappear him.