Gadgeteer: List of Real-life Historical Gadgeteers

[starslayer]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Wasn't his problem that he was ahead of his time, and no one could build the machine to his specs? Being ahead of your time sounds like a gadgeteer.

And Babbage Engines are one thing that almost universally show up in steampunk settings, so he fits the possible-founder-of-an-alternate-tech-path criterion.

To my recollection he found a guy to build his machine- and then proceeded to sour the waters with him by insisting on undeliverable production dates and at the same time bickering over price. Had he not been a douche we could possibly be having this very conversation on an electro-mechanical computer right now.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by starslayer

To my recollection he found a guy to build his machine- and then proceeded to sour the waters with him by insisting on undeliverable production dates and at the same time bickering over price. Had he not been a douche we could possibly be having this very conversation on an electro-mechanical computer right now.

Sounds like Gadgeteer with disadvantage- Douche (what's that, OPH: Generally unfriendly? Quirk: Impatient + Miser?)

I was reading a high school physics text book yesterday about the spat between Edison and Tesla. Edison offered Tesla $20,000 (in the 1920s?) to build a prototype 3-phase AC generator, which Tesla soon accomplished. Instead of paying him for his work, Edison said he had been joking about the money (!?) and refused to pay. Tesla set off to found his own AC manufacturer, but Edison set out to ruin the competition by demonstrating the dangers of AC current, by electrocuting dozens of live animals at fairs and exhibitions. This led to the invention of the electric chair.

[dcarson]

The Tesla vs Edison battle really makes Girl Genius seem accurate for how sparks act.

Tesla like Babbage does make you wonder what things would be like if they had had more people skills. One of those guesses is IW timeline Tesla which is a fun one.

[starslayer]

Originally Posted by dcarson

The Tesla vs Edison battle really makes Girl Genius seem accurate for how sparks act.

Tesla like Babbage does make you wonder what things would be like if they had had more people skills. One of those guesses is IW timeline Tesla which is a fun one.

Tesla was actually ok with people, but Edison was better and went out of his way to ruin Tesla (right down to sending goons to torch his lab multiple times- at least, if you believe Tesla about why several of his labs burned down). Couple the financial and reliability problems of loosing a few labs with the fact that many of his ideas were 'pie in the sky' (IE- REALLY ambitious), and it makes it hard to get a patron.

One event I remember pretty clearly is that Tesla invented a rather impressive refrigerator, but due to Edison's meddling was denied the patent for it because it 'couldn't work' (So the patent office was basically calling his prototype a scam to his face); Edison wanted to buy the plan from him, and Tesla put 2 and 2 together and trashed them out of spite. (I believe it was eventually revealed that he had discovered the electron tunneling peltier effect)