Think Draw - Picture - Tesla's Revenge

Title: Tesla's Revenge
created on 10 Aug 18

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Comments on this picture (26):
1. chelydra wrote: The title is my attempt to salvage what started out as an attempt to portray Edison, Swan, and perhaps some other inventors as light bulbs.
2. chelydra wrote: It's a comment on the effect the Tesla Cult (of which I am a peripheral and inactive member, mostly because I used to live around the corner from Wardenclyffe)...
3. chelydra wrote: ...has had on the posthumous reputation of The Wizard of Menlo Park. From a genius on the level of Einstein, he came to be seen as a greedy scheming old businessman.
4. chelydra wrote: No one even seems sure any more which inventions can be attributed to Edison, and Tesla is increasingly credited with making electricity generally available to the masses.
5. chelydra wrote: AC vs DC â€” an epic strugggle, allegedly responsible for the cruel demise of at least one innocent old elephant at the hands of Edison!
6. AFSOUTH wrote: Inventive!
7. lexa wrote: i've always thought of Tesla as an incredible physicist. i have that photo of his lab with that huge arc of electricity. he did go a bit overboard towards the latter part of his life, and, unfortunately, was not very good at business - which is really ve
8. lexa wrote: - which is really very regrettable. Businessmen are really terrible people mostly - example - our idiot leader! He was a great inventor and researcher.
9. lexa wrote: I don't know who the pic looks like, but it is remarkable! Before i read your comment, i thought it was the portrait of Dorian Gray, but now i see the serious and dejected expression.
10. chelydra wrote: Hi Lexa, Dorian Gray is closely related to what I had in mind... only the image that had become so discombobulated and rotten is Edison's once grand and glowing reputation.
11. chelydra wrote: What my explanatory notes didn't make clear was that Edison treated his brilliant, eccentric young assistant Nicola Tesla quite badly, and their relationship remained embittered to the end.
12. chelydra wrote: Both of these great inventors were very image-conscious, and craved publicity. Both really did accomplish very great things â€” just not quite as many or quite as great as advertised.
13. chelydra wrote: Edison tended to take sole credit for collective efforts that led to working, patented new devices. Tesla tended to take credit for inventing various wild and amazing sci-fi-ish schemes when they when they often never really evolved beyond the wild idea
14. chelydra wrote: stage. And Tesla was reduced to a shadow of his previous self and died in relative obscurity, then was almost totally forgotten after his death, while Edison remained one of the biggest names in American history.
15. chelydra wrote: Then, around the time I was living around the corner from Tesla's old laboratory in Shoreham, Long Island, rumors circulated about Tesla's awesomeness and his inconceivably powerful almost-inventions.
16. chelydra wrote: Why had no one ever heard of the guy who was posthumously credited (by the Supreme Court) with inventing radio before Marconiâ€”inventing AC transmitters that made power grids possibleâ€”and a lot else?
17. chelydra wrote: The way Edison and Tesla competed in real life (with Edison winning a smashing victory over the younger upstart) meant that the battle would resume as Tesla's reputation came back to life. But this time Edison has been losing badly.
18. chelydra wrote: So that's how the dapper, handsome tireless cokehead Edison (who defied my efforts at a nice likeness) ended up looking like this picture. I decided to blame it on Tesla instead of apologizing.
19. hjjr wrote: i look at this often... perfectly fabulous use of the pieces.... for the eyes, the hair, the nose, furrows of brow, i.e., everything
20. chelydra wrote: Well gosh, comin' from youse that's quite a compelmint.I find it's important to just keep going when a picture flies off the rails, straying far from what I originally intended.
21. hjjr wrote: no rails were flown off from that i can tell. and the placement of the green cube piece on his left (to us, right side) jowl is perfect.
22. chelydra wrote: https://science.howstuffworks.com/10 -inventions-thomas-edison.htm
23. chelydra wrote: Also from google image searching for just "Edison", you find Tesla's face shows up a lot, as if he were assuming his rightful place, So the portrait I drew was of Edison turning over in his grave, or wishing he could turn away and roll back the clock.
24. chelydra wrote: ...back to the years when Tesla was safely buried in total obscurity, his ghost nowhere to be seen or felt. (biding his time in the shadows, waiting to pounce)
25. katidid wrote: Nice read...â€¦.great pic! :-)
26. evefoster wrote: Love this!!!!