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QotD: Tesla on Edison

Arahant
@Arahant
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If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. … I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety percent of his labor. – Nikola Tesla, as quoted in The New York Times (19 October 1931)

On this day, February 1st, in 1893, Thomas A. Edison opened the very first motion picture studio, known as the Black Maria. That's a pretty nifty historical fact for the day. Perhaps not as good as when the Ottomans decided to try to cancel their hospitality to Charles XII of Sweden many years earlier on the same day of the year, but I thought I might be able to get a good quotation about this significant step in technology and the birth of a new industry. Thus, I went searching.

I did not find much directly related, but goodness knows there are a lot of Thomas Edison quotations out there. I went trolling through a list of those. A few almost tempted me. But overall, I do not like Thomas Edison. Perhaps there is a reason that one of his very good friends was Henry Ford, who was one of history's worst humans.

I kept searching and came across quotations by others about Thomas Edison. Many of these were from his friends, such as Henry Ford. But in among those quotations were a few from outside Edison's friendly circle. And there amid the haystack of quotations surrounding Edison, I found this needle. Well, it's not about the movie business, per se, but it surely gets to the heart of Edison. "Work harder and longer hours, not smarter!"

What is your favorite quotation about movie studios? Or, maybe you want to sign up for the Quote of the Day and post it on an upcoming day this month?

This post was promoted to the Main Feed at the recommendation of Ricochet's members.

Discussion (38)

  • John H.@JohnH

    Funny, I just read a biography of Rudolf Diesel, who met Edison and had almost exactly the same things to say about him that Tesla did.

    Still, Edison was my childhood hero. I always wanted to be an inventor. Though I'm not a child anymore, and I wouldn't want to be that kind of inventor.

  • The Scarecrow@TheScarecrow
    ReplyingtoJohn H.

    John H. (View Comment):

    Funny, I just read a biography of Rudolf Diesel, who met Edison and had almost exactly the same things to say about him that Tesla did.

    Still, Edison was my childhood hero. I always wanted to be an inventor. Though I’m not a child anymore, and I wouldn’t want to be that kind of inventor.

    This Diesel book is TERRIFIC! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. We talk about the light bulb and other new technology that transformed the world, but I had no idea of the unbelievable impact of the Diesel engine. And Mr. Diesel seems like the opposite of Edison and Ford - a truly good and charitable man.

    And what an ending! (Shhhh …)

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