Did Thomas Edison rip off Nikola Tesla ?
In one historical account by Tesla, as referenced below, Edison refused the promised large payment to Tesla for successfully completing a project he was requested to do while an employee. It seems that Thomas Edison was an extraordinarily industrious inventor, but not necessarily a nice employer which was about par for the time. Tesla quit and eventually went with Westinghouse where he/they further developed the alternating current power distribution system in successful competition against Edison’s basically inferrior DC system which Tesla had previously improved for him. An interesting story about Edison is how he built the very first electric chair for a state prison execution which was a horrific mess. He had purposely furnished it with the AC of rival Westinghouse so he could then claim how dangerous it was. As it turns out, it really is more dangerous, but the negative advertising ploy is interesting. During those days many inventors spent as much in the patent and civil courts a
