Illuminating comic

[format 1]

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla

[airtwardo 7]

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[quade 4]

Years ago I was sort of obsessed with Tesla. His early work with collapsing magnetic fields is the basis for hundreds of devices. Every transformer, radio, picture tube, electron scanner... He is the closest thing we have in modern times to "the guy who invented the wheel."

That said, he, himself, didn't do all that much with it.

He is over-rated in his later works. People believe he held the secrets to all sorts of things, but the reality is they either just didn't work or didn't scale to the size that would have made them commercially viable.

He's wildly popular in steam-punk fiction, but again, fiction. No; he didn't invent an earthquake machine or death ray that got hushed up by the government. No; he couldn't control the weather. No; he didn't invent a teleportation device.

Do research on all the devices that stem from his work and you'll be blown away. But, let's not get carried away by the impossible things he was rumored to have invented.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[riddler 0]

And let's remember what a douchebag Thomas Edison really was No joke.

I hope Steve Jobs is eventually also remembered as a douchebag that stole other people's ideas. For the next 100 years, he'll probably be a hero.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[quade 4]

I think a lot of it has to do with the corporations, personally chosen biographers, wives and others who become the custodians of the legacy.

As long as Apple exists, they will secure the Steve Jobs legacy. John F. Kennedy's legacy wouldn't be nearly so good if it weren't for Jackie. Walt Disney. Henry Ford.

Tesla had no such custodian.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver