Nikola Tesla vs Thomas Edison

I was watching the movie 'The Prestige', which is a story of two magicians. The movie also involves the lives of the inventors Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. According to the movie, Tesla hides from Edison and Edison is interested in destroying Tesla's works. I surfed through the net to find out about these two men and this was what I found.


Thomas Edison is well known for his invention of Direct Current (DC). But what about Nikola Tesla? Have you ever heard of the inventor 'Tesla' or any of his inventions? The only time one might have heard of him in text books is 'Unit of Magnetic Flux Density', which is named after him.

Check through the encyclopedia and find out who discovered the following.

Who discovered Radio? Marconi?
Who discovered X-rays? Roentgen?
Who discovered Vacuum Tube Amlifier? De Forest?
Also check on who discovered the fluorescent bulb, neon lights, speedometer, the automobile ignition system, and the basics behind radar, electron microscope, and the microwave oven.

Very little would the name Tesla be mentioned in these cases, thanks to Edison.

Tesla worked as an assistant to Edison at first. Edison had just invented the electric light bulb, but he needed a system to distribute electricity to houses. He designed a DC (direct current) system, but it had many bugs in it. Edison promised Tesla lots of money in bonuses if he could get the bugs out. Tesla took the challenge and ended up saving Edison over $100,000, which was millions of dollars by today's standards. Edison later refused to keep his promise. Tesla quit not long after that, and Edison spent the rest of his life trying to discredit Tesla (which is the main reason why he is so unknown today).

But there is a huge hidden stories which you would never come across in any books. Visit this page to know more about Tesla and his discoveries.