Sure Edison was a ruthless businessman, but he was *extraordinarily* creative as well over many DECADES. He hired smart people and set them to work on problems he thought had promise. In the early years, he had to do most of the inventing himself, but as his success grew, he was able to hire an increasingly large research staff. The say that he stole his inventions is a pretty unjust characterization.

Tesla was unquestionably brilliant and ultimately proven correct over Edison as far “the battle of the currents” (A.C. v. D.C.) goes. But he was really eccentric to the degree of being a tad wacky, especially in his later years. That doesn’t disparage the tremendous work he did (especially regarding power generation and transmission), but Edison was no slouch either.

Finally, the concrete houses (look at the model and the pic of one under construction) were actually pretty nice — they were not featureless monoliths like one might imagine. Still, people were not quite ready for mass produced houses then, so the project eventually tanked. Fast forward to the late 1940s, when post-War America embraced the rows of identical crap thrown up (like the famous Levittown, Long Island) on the cheap during the housing boom. By the way, most of those Edison cast concrete houses are still standing — I think 10 remain. They are holding up pretty well and most of the owners really like them.

Edison stole that invention from a bloke in 2016 and went back to register it. Everybody in the 2050’s knows this.

it’s a downright shame and the whole reason these exaggerations of edison’s contributions are STILL perpetuated is that americans want to believe an american can take credit for the marvels of modern man kind, refusing to acknowledge anybody from that damn “backwards” former yugoslavia could accomplish anything.

tesla was brilliant, modest, and honest to boot, and it’s humiliating most american high school students have never heard his name, let alone been made aware of his contributions to their daily lives.

i’d gladly piss on edison’s grave over acknowledging anything he has “done.”

Which explains why Hollywood is where it is today. The early movie makers realized they needed to put as much distance between themselves and Edison. Los Angeles and vicinity was the obvious choice. Plenty of sunshine (everything was shot in natural light in those days) and max distance from Edison and his goons.

There’s one other neat fact that didn’t make it: Edison’s lab is huge and staffed with men who call themselves “muckers”. Though they aren’t paid well, most of them actually relish the chance of working for Edison.

Edison’s lab mates (yes, euphemism for employees) love to play practical jokes and pranks, spit on the floor, etc. But one thing stood out: the lab had a pet bear that one day got loose and had to be killed.

Colored concrete is now also a very sought decoration artifact (floors, sinks…)

And “The prestige” story seems to be inspired by Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison competition (the 2 magicians of the modern era).