MovieChat Forums > The Prestige (2006) Discussion > A great film and Thomas Edison deserves...

A great film and Thomas Edison deserves to be maligned

posted 8 years ago by katiekeene
4 replies | jump to latest

Kudos to the Nolan brothers for exposing the crimes of Thomas Edison. Given, he was a creative scientist, Edison was a despicable human being. He outright stole Tesla's ideas, theories, and concepts for which he took full credit.

In The Prestige the magicians thought little of killing canaries or doves for a cheap stage trick, but in real life, Thomas Edison thought nothing of killing an elephant by electrocution to demonstrate the many *uses* of his inventions (the forerunner of the *death machine,* "the electric chair.")

Edison had "the elephant experiment" filmed to record the death of the great creature's slow, plundering fall to the ground. I despise Thomas Edison.

katie keene

[–] jonathan-m-stone 8 years ago

Agree about Edison.

However, happily, I think history now recognises Tesla's greatness over Edison. The SI unit of magnetic field strength is named after Tesla. There also exists a certain aura surrounding Tesla. None about Edison.

[–] katiekeene 8 years ago

jonathan-m-stone says "However, happily, I think history now recognises Tesla's greatness over Edison. The SI unit of magnetic field strength is named after Tesla. There also exists a certain aura surrounding Tesla. None about Edison"

Excellent summation. Edison was a greedy, cruel man who stole Tesla's inventions. As far as his multiple inventions, they would have been patented shortly by other scientists who were also experimenting with electricity at the time.

Don't forget the Tesla automobile.

katie keene

[–] iamstanc 8 years ago

>Kudos to the Nolan brothers for exposing the crimes of Thomas Edison.
What crimes are you talking about? The depicted burning of Tesla's lab was completely fictional.

>He outright stole Tesla's ideas, theories, and concepts for which he took full credit.
Can you point to a single instance of this? I just did some research and cannot find one. Tesla worked for Edison for a time, but became known for power generation and distribution as well as radio transmission. Edison was known for the electric light, the phonograph and the movie projector.

>Edison had "the elephant experiment" filmed
That is not clear, but the electrocution would have happened whether Edison's employees filmed it or not (along with strangulation and poisoning). Edison had nothing to do the the decision.

Just in case you want to learn something about this, there is one article here:
http://edison.rutgers.edu/topsy.htm

[–] Isis-Ascending 8 years ago

Thanks, IamStanc for info. Will read about Topsy (name of poor electrocuted elephant). My comments were based on hearsay, rumor. Edison was not a popular man in spite of his multiple inventions.

Like I posted, many scientists were working with electricity and "his" inventions were inevitable. Edison just patented them first.
We should find out more about his life, what kind of man was he? I know he was deaf in one ear due to nearby train explosion when working a kid. I'll be open-minded (try) but can't get Topsy's execution out of my memory. Truly sad.

Thanks again for your update.