"Thomas Edison Was Right About Solar Power"

[NeoGreen]

Thomas Edison Was Right About Solar Power
Tuesday, 01 September 2015 00:00
By The Daily Take Team, The Thom Hartmann Program | Op-Ed

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/32611-thomas-edison-was-right-about-solar-power

Famed inventor Thomas Edison brought us electric lights, phonographs, movies and even the first research and development laboratory.

But in 1931, he also was one of the first promoters of renewable energy - especially solar.

That year, he described our approach to energy to two industry magnates of the day: Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone.

He told them, "We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using nature's inexhaustible sources of energy - sun, wind and tide."

That was more than 80 years ago and we're still living the same way.

[brush]

1. Didn't Edison fight against Tesla who had an invention to provide free energy?

Tesla and Edison also had legendary battles over AC vs DC electricity.

Tesla proved to be right as we all use AC current now but Edison had the big money behind him and Tesla, probably an even greater genius, died broke and discredited.

Here's a link for a funny video that lays out their rivalry:

http://facedl.com/fvideo.php?f=auaoxixwawxnewx&nikola-tesla-vs-thomas-edison-epic-rap-ba

I'm also all for extending our use of not just solar but wind, wave and geothermal energy.

I live in Las Vegas now and this state has all of that but wave energy potential and I can't understand why the powers that be here can't seem to see that — it's all about casinos here while the free energy from the blazing sun/365 days a year just goes to waste.

Southern Nevada could be the energy capital of the country with just a bit of 'vision' away from gaming profits. Just as much or more profit, beneficial to everyone and the planet, could come from the energy sector.

[underpants]

2. Thanks

[Finishline42]

4. Interesting that the Utilities in Nevada are fighting solar

Interesting that the Utilities in Nevada are fighting solar considering that on average the residential rates are around $.13 kWh. That should make for a break even point well under 10 yrs.

Florida's the same way. A lot of sun and one of the smallest users of solar.

[a2liberal]

6. Tesla vs. Edison

A bit biased and off-topic, but an awesome comic that I couldn't resist sharing (warning: The Oatmeal can be off-color...):

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla
http://theoatmeal.com/blog/tesla_response

[brush]

11. Thanks for posting the Tesla links

I went through the first one all the way. Tesla did so much more than I even knew about. I knew Edison was a douche though.

The second link I saved to go through later. I briefly scanned through some of it. Haven't figured out yet whether it's pro-Edison/anti-Tesla or visa versa.

[happyslug]

16. He does not mention Tesla's "greatest" invention, the invention that paid his bills till he died

That was the automotive speedometer. Tesla moved into hydraulics in his old age and solved the problem of how to get an accurate speedometer in a motor vehicle. Bicycle had one mounted on the wheel, but that was NOT usable in a motor vehicle (Wheels to small and rotate to fast). Tesla figure out how to use the actual drive of the differential to determine how fast the vehicle was going. All modern Speedometer (except on bicycles) use his system.

http://altered-states.net/barry/tesla/

The big question is why does a man who enters a patent at least every 18 months before 1933, finally goes the last 11 years of his life without making at least one more patent? That is Tesla from 1933 till his death in 1944. He had a lab and was working in the lab daily during that time period, but NO Patents. One rumor is that when FDR became President, he arranged for Tesla to do research into electronic camouflage, i.e. the bending of light rays to hide ships from view.

Such bending of light waves is the believed to be the reason no one say the the iceberg that hit the Titanic in 1912. When that accident occurred the Titanic was going through a "front" between a warm area and a cold area. Surviving passengers report of a severe drop in temperatures just before the Iceberg hit as the ship went form one weather condition to the other. This transition is known to cause mirages at sea. It is believe that the lookouts did not see the Iceberg, for the light reflecting off the iceberg had been bent by the shift in temperatures to some place else so all the lookouts saw was open sea TILL the iceberg broke through that weather barrier, and by then it was to late.

The so call "Philadelphia Experiment" popular in the 1970s and 1980s but supposedly done during WWII is believed to have been part of the testing of the system. The System was NOT designed to transport a ship, but to hide it using electric power (In the movie the "Philadelphia Experiment" the program was to transport the ship, but I suspect that is just a story made up by someone who heard pieces of the real story and liked the story line of transportation of a ship better then a story of hiding a ship). I suspect the effect needed flat "terrain" to work properly, i.e. limited use on land, but great use on the high seas (and needed great source of electrical power, which a modern warship can provide, but much harder to provide on land).

Hiding a ship would have military advantages and the story of the crew being affected by the electrical power is probably true, but had an affect on their mental state then anything else. I also suspect the current interfered with Radar so was dropped after 1944 as the US Navy embraced Radar and thus the whole project was filed away when Tesla died in 1944. Such a program would be up Tesla's ally and I can see the US Navy giving him fund to research such a cloaking device. Such research would have been US Navy paid for and thus NOT subject to Patent, thus Tesla would NOT have patented any of his research in such devices and thus explain why Tesla made no new patents after 1933. Just speculation on my part, but it would fit in with basic Tesla research.

[navarth]

7. "Southern Nevada could be the energy capital of the country...."

but you said the magic word at the end of the sentence: PROFITS.

Greed ruins everything it touches. Especially short-sighted greed.

[SCVDem]

8. Thanks Brush

You saved me a lot of typing the same!

[Callmecrazy]

10. There's solar going on all around Vegas...

I was a 15 year member of IBEW Local 357 and I helped install the solar panels at our training center there. There's also a solar farm at Nellis AFB as well as a project going on right now out in the desert to construct a large collection farm.

[brush]

12. I knew some of it — good to hear.

Hope solar development keeps going exponentially.

[Mr.Squirreleo]

14. You have to be careful about the information on Tesla

While Tesla was a brilliant man he was also as crazy as they came. He purportedly build death rays and earthquake machines (no proof of either).

So while it is tempting to believe that Tesla had free energy invented and that the evil big business man stopped it, it is almost assured that it was another of his claims without merit.

Due to the interesting nature of his character and the fact that everyone loves the story of an underdog there has come to exist a huge cult of personality centered around Tesla. They believe most of the claims he ever made or give him credit for ideas that didn't actually get invented until many years later (Tesla idea for a death ray is somewhat correct but he never did invent one just theorize).

Here is skeptoid examining him [link:http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4345|

[brush]

15. Thanks. I checked out the link

Good info there — the man was a genius. His mind seemed to deteriorate later in life. Wonder if getting cheated out of a lot of money and credit for things contributed to that?

[happyslug]

17. Broadcast Electricity is possible, and that is Tesla's invention

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_power

Now, it is only for short distances (i.e. measured in feet not miles) but the real problem was how to charge for it, Tesla never solved that problem along with broadcasting for more then a few feet from the transmitter. Broadcast electricity is the basis for the claim Tesla invented "Free electricity" for that was the main attack on the concept of Broadcast electricity, it could not pay for itself for the electrical power would end up being free to any users who could use the electrical power and not have it cut off if he failed to pay for it (and if the access to electrical power can NOT be cut off, then why pay for something that is Free?)

Just a comment that "Free Electricity" was an attack on Broadcast Electricity by Tesla's distractors more then anything else.

[Hydra]

3. Edison was an exploiter for profit

But I think everyone sane agrees that we should be doing things that are renewable and clean. The only arguments presented against that is "We can't! Nothing will work as well!" and "Think of the money the dirty energy companies will lose!"

I'm so tired of the religion of profit. Profit does not always involve $$$, but in this case clean and renewable energy would.

[Finishline42]

5. Solar will do to Utilities what the internet has done to newspapers

Solar will do to Utilities what the internet has done to newspapers.

More people work in solar than in coal mining by a factor of 4 already.

People installing solar on the roofs of their houses creates an entire new industry so it doesn't destroy profit it just changes how it's generated and who gets a piece.

[gregcrawford]

9. Ah, but...

... taking money out of Old King Coal's pocket will get you killed. Coal is, hands down and going away, the most homicidal industry in the country. Just look at Matewan, Ludlow, etc., right up to the present day.

And the rest ain't much better. Oil companies are notoriously litigious, and our government is nothing but a wholly owned subsidiary of Exxon-Mobil. As Dubya once remarked with admiration, "Nobody tells those guys what to do!" Just ask Dr. Charles Monnett, or any one of hundreds of other scientists whose research revealed findings that were not to the liking of government officials. And it's still going on under Obama.

The political revolution to which Senator Sanders refers is going to require a groundswell of outrage from ordinary citizens before any of this will start to change. The corporatists will show their true colors under duress, and they will be exposed for the unspeakably evil sociopaths they really are, though there will always be malicious fools who think the Sun shines out of Trump's nether portal. We can't do much about that, but we can isolate them and blunt their influence.

SO WHO'S WITH ME?!!?

Anybody?

(SFX: Crickets chirping)

[brush]

13. Hope it keeps going full on

I just wonder what the fossil fuel industry will try to stop solar development though.

I always wondered why the oil companies didn't go into green energy themselves and corner the markets?

Guess they figures they had to much invested in infrastructure. That's short-sighted IMO as the planet's/mankind's survival will depend on us moving away from destroying the atmosphere by continuing to burn oil and coal.