Thomas Edison

"One of the outstanding geniuses in the history of technology, Thomas Edison earned patents for more than a thousand inventions, including the incandescent electric lamp, the phonograph, the carbon telephone transmitter, and the motion-picture projector. In addition, he created the world's first industrial research laboratory."

http://www.invent.org/book/book-text/38.html

Edison does not deserve the title 'genius'. Anyone who tries to solve creating a filament by trying thousands of random items, including the Red Hair of a Scotsmans Beard (true) cannot really be called a genius IMHO. Most nefarious, he was so opposed to AC power distribution he lectured with a supply of dogs that he would attach to a generator and electrocute. He would them proclaim "that's what AC power does".

His treatment of NikolaTesla was equally heinous while in his employ, which is why Westinghouse was able to hire him and build the Niagra Falls AC generators. If Edison had his way, we'd have DC power systems with generating stations every block and foot-thick cables on poles, I understand a few relics of this paradigm still exist in Greenwich Village; GE's home -- JonGroff

This is controversial. According to some accounts, he created the laboratory and then claimed credit for things which his workers achieved.

What an amazing co-incidence that so many other brilliant inventors worked for him, then.

See also LightBulb.

>>Well then, I guess Henry Ford was just as controversial. Are you suggesting Thomas Alva Edison does NOT belong on the World Genius list? I think he fits in 'reasonably well' with others on the list. -- DaveSteffe

Perhaps, but that list is badly broken. Edison was no genius.

There is a genius in realizing that EvenBadIdeasShouldBeKept, and that trying an experiment that fails teaches us something, if only that BadIdeasDontWorkVeryWell. For those who work flawlessly and with immense talent, perhaps failure never occurs, but for the common man, failure is a recurring event. When such commoners stumble upon success, the question asked is: Why ItWorks?, whereas the Genius upon success says: I knew It would work, and I know Why ItWorks. The common man exposes his failures as well as his successes and teaches others by them. The genius has no peers to teach and her/his ideas may very well die with him/her. A good idea unexposed has no lasting value, a bad idea exposed and lasting has value in that it teaches us something. Rare is the genius who feels an obligation, or takes the time, to teach us mere mortals the best things that work. The mortal must be satisfied in a search which discovers and succeeds by many trying things over and over again. For amongst the bad ideas lies the occasional gem. Discovery occurs without this benefit of Genius, and perhaps in spite of it. -- DonaldNoyes