A man named Elbert Hubbard published a book in 1910 called "A Little Journey to the Homes of the Great." The book is a series of interviews with the intellectual giants of that time, and one of the people he interviewed was Thomas Edison. At some point, he got Edison talking about electricity and energy, and here is a part of what the great man had to say:
Some day some fellow will invent a way of concentrating and storing up sunshine to use instead of this old, absurd Prometheus scheme of fire. I'll do the trick myself if some one else doesn't get at it. Why, that is all there is about my work in electricity--you know, I never claimed to have invented electricity--that is a campaign lie--nail it!"
"Sunshine is spread out thin and so is electricity. Perhaps they are the same, but we will take that up later. Now the trick was, you see, to concentrate the juice and liberate it as you needed it. The old-fashioned way inaugurated by Jove, of letting it off in a clap of thunder, is dangerous, disconcerting and wasteful. It doesn't fetch up anywhere. My task was to subdivide the current and use it in a great number of little lights, and to do this I had to store it. And we haven't really found out how to store it yet and let it off real easy-like and cheap. Why, we have just begun to commence to get ready to find out about electricity. This scheme of combustion to get power makes me sick to think of--it is so wasteful. It is just the old, foolish Prometheus idea, and the father of Prometheus was a baboon."
"When we learn how to store electricity, we will cease being apes ourselves; until then we are tailless orangutans. You see, we should utilize natural forces and thus get all of our power. Sunshine is a form of energy, and the winds and the tides are manifestations of energy."
"Do we use them? Oh, no! We burn up wood and coal, as renters burn up the front fence for fuel. We live like squatters, not as if we owned the property.
(I thought it was interesting that he didn't mention oil along with wood and coal.)
"There must surely come a time when heat and power will be stored in unlimited quantities in every community, all gathered by natural forces. Electricity ought to be as cheap as oxygen, for it can not be destroyed.
Oh, how I wish this guy were alive today to help us come up with a sane energy policy!
rate
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 32
What a visionary! He was so on.
The moneyed powers probably figured out there was more dough to be made raping the land for fuel. This consciousness continues today with the off-shore drilling initiative and ANWAR, rejection of the Kyoto protocol, and you know the list, it goes on and on.
We finally need to roll up our sleeves and get with the alternative energy solutions mentioned by Edison, while we still have some oil to use as we make the transition.
Edison campaigned to promote the use of DC while attempting to demonstrate that AC was too dangerous. He did so by publicly electrocuting animals and spreading false information about AC.
Edison was guilty of many nefarious deeds.
He was a great inventor...he was also an asshole.
I guess he needed a huge ego to even contemplate doing the things that he did, and that led him to some nefarious deeds.
Jim...right, Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie...all ruthless, people who did good things. Maybe they were trying to compensate...or atone for their sins.
I think I could overlook a lot of asshole for some great intellect and creativity.
I thank Micheal too for his addition to this.
Maybe if he would get off the global warming hoaxter stump and start explaining the need for America to be energy independent he would be taken seriously. He's reduced himself to a snake oil salesman.
Corporate business as usual ... and "they" even write the history for us ...
http://speedstream.netro.ca/netrostream113/npcc.wmv
You obviously have not heard or read his latest speech. It is ALL about energy independence. Global warming is mentioned only in passing.
Here is a link to the video.
TJ...You are so right about ethanol from corn. A really, really dumb idea. The only people it benefits are the agribusiness corporations.
Jerry...Tesla was a really mysterious character...part charlatan, part (maybe) victim of some shady conspiracy. Nobody really knows, but there have been as many conspiracy theories about him as there were about JFK's assassination.
I have read quite a bit on Tesla, and I am fairly well versed (at least far more so than the average person) in the energy concepts he was dealing in, and I am also not fooled by the lies of orthodox "history" ... preferring to eventually see a more honest rewriting of it all ... and I am optimistic that the day is coming when such truths will become known ...
I do think we could make better use of natural gas until the geniuses come up with a better plan.
I've long held that we need a Manhattan project style effort to develop alternative energies but I believe the the ten year idea is not achievable. He is calling for total change over in that time and many people will be unable to accomplish that unless Al helps with the financing.
Also, they still haven't developed batteries capable of doing what is needed for general transportation. They are great for local travel but they won't go 400 miles in a day and charge up from 110 volt source overnight. This is one of the technologies that could be worked on.
To be realistic, I think if we have most of the fleet changed over to hybrids in 10 years, that will be almost a miracle.
When the time is right for them, the switch-over will take place ... meanwhile, there are ample scientists working in the alternate energy technology field associated with Zero Point Energy, but they are being locked out of the patent and start-up funding processes by the existing mentioned controlling interests.
Business as usual is taken very seriously by the managers tasked for the long range successes of it. There is literally nothing that they will not do to insure the fruition of their plans.
I also somehow think that if Obama wins the election there is going to be a huge spot for Gore in the government again where he can use his intelligence to get some good things going. If he can put aside that over-inflated ego of his, he just may do even better when the call comes. As for "the Global Warning hoax" that so many people refuse to fall for, don't tell those dying Polar Bears that it just may be real okay.
As for men that had some evil intentions but also did much good, I would rather have 10000 of them than 1 or 2 that have evil intentions and do no good at all. You know like GWB and Dickie boy!
Great article and lets hope that we all take heed before it is too late and find a way to produce energy that does not depend on the ever dwindling supply of fossil fuels and also does not destroy the one and only Earth that we all have to live in.
While you and I often see things the same, I have to disagree on the technology being already developed to the extent necessary. It just doesn't make sense. It's like the 200 mile per gallon carburetor that the auto companies bout out to prevent its marketing. In actuality, every auto company would pay big bucks for such an invention because it would make them a leader in the market.
The oil companies will make their money regardless how much they actually sell. If they sell less, they'll lay off people and close facilities while raising the price and profit on their products. Besides, if alternatives were developed and marketed, the oil supplies the companies are setting on would be preserved longer and ultimately sell at a higher price.
The technology has probably been developed but like most technologies, the original product is nowhere near ready for mass marketing. The biggest thing I see on electric cars is the battery limitation. I'd like to think the technology is close to mass marketing stage. Another matter is the ridiculous price electrics will sell for. That must be reduced to affordable rates. An electric car should retail for under 10,000 dollars if they are to quickly dominate the market.
They want to put a wind farm in in Idaho and it is being fought tooth and nail by the people in the area. This is another problem they need to overcome, as it will be repeated everywhere such an installation is proposed.
I have one question, if the technology is being held in secret, how do you know it exists? Lousy secrecy sounds like to me and if it can get out to you, it would make it to half the bloggers in the nation.
And I agree with you about people who accomplish much but have a few warts. Geniuses have flaws like everyone else...but they can still contribute a lot.
James...As you say, the battery is the technological sticking point with electric cars...and also the reason that they cost so much. We desperately need a durable, inexpensive battery made from abundant materials. Lithium is not a good solution. If we start using lithium in the quantities that would be needed for a mass-produced car, there would be a worldwide lithium shortage in a hurry. Zinc is the best alternative right now, but zinc-air batteries have a short recharge-cycle life. If we spent a fraction of what the Iraq War is costing on the development of a good battery, the problem would be solved...but of course, there are some major economic forces in this country who are not anxious for that to happen...
I realize that is very difficult to be seen by "normal" people as something worth trusting. Normal people without the trust I have in the Spiritual realm, will surely reject much of what I have to say ... but say it I must, in the hope that some seed will sprout and grow which will help humanity in the long run at least.
You ask how I know that there are secrets ... a valid question. I ONLY know INtuitively. But that comes from a willingness to allow the possibility enough to read and dig deeply into the potentials of that. I have done so, and I have come up with ample information that supports that possibility and likelihood ... the information does exist, but only for those willing to seek. Something those who rely completely on the orthodox media presentations will never "fall for" in their smug prideful know-it-all minds, those that "buy into" the line presented to society as a whole by those that I believe I know of and speak of ...
But bottom line, it is all about free choice, and even withIN the concept of the BET (+=-) there will always be at least two differing opinions ... but they can be worked out with Spirit as (=) ... where with the void (/) in duality (+/-) they will be fought over.
(+=-)>(+/-)
Thus, to each their own, even into eternity because we really do greatly affect our own realities based upon the way we think, believe and act.
I very much prefer a better one than that which we seem to be experiencing here lately, I believe that we must all wake up to the way this has been set up by the extremely wealthy, that we need to recognise the truth of it in order to change it, I recommend that folks come out from their "boxes" that too many hide in from fears that might affect their "comfort zones" of fooling themselves ...
I could go on and on, I often do, but it is sure difficult to express the subjective things I think are important to objective oriented folks ... never the less, I keep on trying.
We are thinking quite alike on what you have written. Thanks for the response.
And that tendency carries over ever more so as my spiritual responsibility now. Thus when I claim the things that I do, I believe them to be ever more true ... and most assuredly NOT from an ego perspective.
But all should keep in mind that I always write more for a potentially larger audience using the words of others to expand upon more for that that reason than personal criticism.
I couldn't agree more! That is, indeed, what we need!