Guglielmo Marconi and Nikola Tesla both contributed to the development of wireless communication. Marconi, an Italian working in Europe, and Tesla, a Serbian born immigrant to the U.S., battled for the right to hold patents for wireless communication technology of similar design. The privilege of being the name to bare mark in the history books and be called the one who brought us wireless communication was at stake. “Mr. Marconi is a donkey” said Nikola Tesla (Pickover). The patent for the fundamental technology of radio was awarded back and forth between them, and in the end, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Tesla. However, as it is with technology, patent or not, the credit owed for wireless technology we have today belongs to many.
A. Knapp from forbes.com shares in his article: ‘“It takes a thousand men to invent a telegraph, or a steam engine, or a phonograph, or a photograph, or a telephone or any other important thing—and the last man gets the credit and we forget the others. He added his little mite — that is all he did. These object lessons should teach us that ninety-nine parts of all things that proceed from the intellect are plagiarisms, pure and simple; and the lesson ought to make us modest. But nothing can do that.” – Mark Twain’ (2012).
Tesla’s name and works have become regarded with legendary status. An immense amount of credit is given to Tesla for the electronic age. It is said that he accomplished feats that even modern science cannot. A. Knapp (2012) from forbes.com, referring to the Edison bashing, Tesla praising article from The Oatmeal says “...makes the probably false claim that Tesla had developed a practical means of wirelessly transmitting power. He certainly claimed to be able to do so. But there’s no actual evidence that he did. Tesla was just as prone to self-aggrandizement as anyone else. Especially in his later years.”
Would we have had the surge of electric powered devices and the electronic
References: PBS. (n.d.). Retrieved from: http://www.pbs.org/tesla/res/index.html Pickover, C. (n.d.). Strange brains and genius. Retrieved from: http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/strange.htm Knapp, A. (2012). Nikola tesla wasn’t god and thomas edison wasn’t the devil. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/05/18/nikola-tesla-wasnt-god-and-thomas-edison-wasnt-the-devil/ Uth, R. (Director), & Geller, P. (Writer). (2000). Tesla: master of lightning [Documentary]. United States: New Voyage Communications.