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many of his inventions because he didn’t believe they would be of
use to people, or that people would want them.
One of his biggest mistakes was to underestimate the
attraction of cinema and radio. After inventing the motion picture
camera, he abandoned film making because he believed movies
should be used for education and not entertainment. And, although
he was the first person to record sound, he failed to develop that
technology because he didn’t think people would want radios. His
reasoning was that the public would not allow into their homes a
source of entertainment they couldn’t control.
Despite these occasional errors of judgement, Edison
produced a steady supply of useful inventions throughout his life.
At the time of his death at the age of 84, he had patented over
1,100 inventions, many of which are still helping to shape our
word.

Text 5
Edison in a Poor Light

Biopic of rival inventor Nikola Tesla depicts “father of
electricity” as a ruthless sadist.
The family of Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb,
has attacked a new film by Ken Russell that portrays him as a
ruthless sadist intent on destroying his closest rival.
Mr. Russell’s new film biography of Nikola Tesla, who was
one of Edison’s greatest adversaries, will also undermine the
scientist’s claim to be the father of electricity and provide a very
different picture of one of America’s revered heroes.
His relatives are, in particular, angry that the film will show
Edison presiding over the first public electrocution of a prisoner,
for commercial gain.
Mr. Russell’s film, “Tesla and Katherine”, is the story of
romance between the inventor and the wife of Robert Johnson, a
poet who was one of Tesla’s closest friends. It will, however,
make great play of Tesla’s very public feud with Edison. Tesla
may be almost unknown nom but in the 1890s his battles with
Edison over their rival inventions turned him into a household
name.
The pair, who had once worked together, developed rival

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