# Edison Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 22, 2013, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edison-question/666902 "2013-08-22T19:35:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2013, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edison-question/666902/21 "2013-08-23T17:54:36Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > Many people agree that an immense amount of credit must go to all the scientists and engineers that made the moon landings possible, but it’s ridiculous to take that so far as to say being an astronaut wasn’t an extremely hard job at the time. Could be that it was a hard job, but there are a lot of hard jobs. Doing a hard job doesn’t mean that you’ve accomplished some sort of major achievement. > [@](#): > > To be an astronaut required an immense degree of intelligence, fitness, poise etc. The Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts represented a unique merging of extreme pilot skills, physical ability, and mental aptitude. I believe to even be eligible to be considered for these programs you had to have a college degree, and most of them had degrees in aeronautics or various engineering disciplines. That might be true, but that doesn’t mean that all those things were really needed to be astronauts. Just that they provided some marginal advantage, so if the program had a choice of people with or without these skills they would take the ones with them. > [@](#): > > One can praise the scientists and engineers who made the moon landings possible–and should, without being ridiculous and saying the astronauts were basically nothing special at all. You could also do it with saying that, and I’m choosing Option B. Though I should qualify that “nothing special at all” is a relative term - see below. > [@](#): > > Read the CVs of guys like Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, they most likely did more in their lives than most people will do in two of theirs even if you cut out their entire involvement in the space program. That actually ties in to my point. because if you saw everything else these guys did it would be impressive when compared to your random guy in the street. And no doubt these guys were a cut above - or several cuts above - your random guy in the street. I’m not denying that. But these guys are not being accorded hero status based on the types of accomplishments that you are praising here. They were accorded hero status based on the notion that their space missions in particular were unique accomplishments. And this is where I disagree. Their space missons in particular were big accomplishments by other people. These people were not the true heroes of these missions. So where does that leave them? It leaves them as people who had college degrees, were succesfull pilots and in good physical and mental condition, and willing to brave a potentially dangerous mission. Pretty good, but not anything uniquely great. But the public dosn’t see things that way, I understand. The public also gives full credit to singers for great songs that were composed by others, and so on. So it goes. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2013, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edison-question/666902/22 "2013-08-23T19:28:36Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > OK, but that does not explain why most Americans these days seem to believe that Glenn, not Shepard, was the first American in space, despite the claims made at the time of Shepard’s mission. It would seem to be a fairly objective issue that does not depend on how likeable people may have found one or the other. It’s not like Shepard’s flight wasn’t publicized at the time it happened. If people remember Glenn’s flight more years later it’s due to things like whose personality stuck in their mind. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2013, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edison-question/666902/23 "2013-08-23T19:35:05Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > You could also do it with saying that, and I’m choosing Option B. Though I should qualify that “nothing special at all” is a relative term - see below.That actually ties in to my point. Then that just convinces me I have no reason to waste time reading your posts on this matter. ---
**Author:** ![UncleFred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f0a364/32.png) [@UncleFred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleFred)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2013, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edison-question/666902/24 "2013-08-23T20:05:46Z")
Getting back to the OP, I was going to comment that what Edison really invented first was the whole, money making, electrical system with generation, distribution, and billing. However a little research shows Charles Brush had such an operation going in numerous locations several years before Edison. And, per Wikipedia; “The San Francisco system was the first case of a utility selling electricity from a central plant to multiple customers via transmission lines.[” Still, Edison often gets credit for inventing the system. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2013, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edison-question/666902/25 "2013-08-23T20:33:37Z")
Thomas Edison is best thought of as the Henry Ford of Industrial R&D and electricity in general. That’s where it should start and stop, and that’s actually both _more important_ and probably less “interesting” to most people than “inventor of the phonograph, potentially the light bulb and etc etc.” ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2013, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edison-question/666902/26 "2013-08-23T21:49:38Z")
Edison invented the standard (screw) socket for electric bulbs, many switch designs (some in use to this day), and the first practical underground electric cables (a copper conductor in an iron pipe, insulated with asphalt). He also invented the first metering device for charging customers for their power use, and the first practical electric generators. Yes, he was dead wrong about AC, but he did invent all of the stuff that made electric power to the home feasible. So even though his DC power system was a dead end, he did pioneer most of what made widespread electrification possible. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2013, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edison-question/666902/27 "2013-08-24T01:26:00Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > OK, but that does not explain why most Americans these days seem to believe that Glenn, not Shepard, was the first American in space, despite the claims made at the time of Shepard’s mission. It would seem to be a fairly objective issue that does not depend on how likeable people may have found one or the other. But neither of them can [throw a punch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wptn5RE2I-k) like Buzz Aldrin! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edison-question/666902.md?page=1)