There are many theories as to why Thomas Edison was more popular that other inventors of his generation. There is an overwhelming abundance of conspiracy theories on the internet claiming that Edison cheated his contemporary inventor Nikola Tesla out of fame and fortune. Some of the wild stories would have you believe that Edison was the devil. As far as any conspiracy of why Edison is more popular than Tesla, it doesn't take a genius to figure it out.

Nikola Tesla was fascinated with AC power (alternating current), he is most famous for working with George Westinghouse in the development of AC power distribution. For much of his life Tesla worked alone in laboratories on experiments with alternating current. Edison was popular in the media of his day, and he introduced the world to devices that played music and movies.

Thomas Edison rock star

Thomas Edison was an entertainer who promoted cool toys that entertained the world. In a world long before the internet and television existed, Edison brought us music and movies. At a time when the world was changing rapidly as the industrial age was introducing new technology to everyday life Edison created the image of the mythical inventor. Edison wasn't working in some cold boring laboratory, he used his image as the great American folk hero to tell people he was creating an invention factory.

One of the first things created in his invention factory that would make Edison the rock star of the late 19th century would be the phonograph. The first invention of the phonograph was in 1877 while Edison was hoping to create a machine that would transcribe telegraphic messages through indentations on paper tape, which could later be sent over the telegraph repeatedly. Edison made a name for himself as the inventor of the phonograph giving demonstrations of his famous talking machine to the president and the US Congress. Becoming a legendary larger than life folk hero of the 19th century, Edison was dubbed the Wizard of Menlo Park.

The old proverb necessity is the mother of invention is illustrated in the ideas of Internet and World Wide Web visionaries J.C.R. Licklider and Vannevar Bush. The difficult scenario that was the catalyst of their visionary ideas was surviving a war.

Vannevar Bush looks beyond World War II

Vannevar Bush was looking at the aftermath of World War II and looking at ways to make sure all the scientific data and lessons learned were not lost when he published an Atlantic Monthly article in 1945 titled "As We May Think." The article describes his theoretical machine called a "memex" that would be able to make links between documents. Many people point to "As We May Think" as the earliest published vision of the concept of hypertext.

Bush worked hard during entire life to strengthen the relationship between government, business, and the scientific community. In the 1930s, as the president of the Carnegie Institution Bush informally advised the government on scientific matters. In 1938 Vannevar Bush was appointed to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. In 1940 Bush felt the country needed a new organization to conduct military research and proposed his plan to President Roosevelt. The National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) was created with Bush as the chairman. Vannevar Bush represented the overall scientific community as the first presidential science adviser. In 1941 the newly created Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) absorbed the NDRC. As director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, Bush oversaw much of the United States’ wartime scientific research including the Manhattan Project and the development of the atomic bomb.

Although Bush is most remembered for "As We May Think," another Bush article from 1945 entitled, "Science-The Endless Frontier" was equally influential. Bush outlined the importance of federally funded scientific research and called for a national research foundation. The National Science Foundation (NSF) was created in 1950 to support fundamental research and education in science and engineering.