My impression of both, having read multiple biographies, etc - is that they were both very much "men of their times". I'm not sure how to describe it better, b

My impression of both, having read multiple biographies, etc - is that they were both very much "men of their times". I'm not sure how to describe it better, but I do most sincerely wish that they had cooperated, rather than competed; I think the two together would have been an awesome powerhouse of invention and ideas, with Tesla's formal education and knowledge tempering and informing Edison's "independent inventor's" can-do attitude. I believe had they, we likely would have had an electronic amplifier much sooner (given Edison's discovery of the "Edison effect" which led to the vacuum tube much later), plus radio, possibly even advancing the ideas and such of Hollerith (then again, I am surprised that a relay computer wasn't created much earlier, as Babbage knew of Boole and undoubtedly boolean algebra, and likely had knowledge on electrical telegraph circuits and early relays). Then again, maybe it's better that it didn't happen, given the later horrors of WW1 (although, maybe that wouldn't have happened - perhaps the economy would have improved, or something else - no way of knowing, of course).