James Burke : Connections, Episode 9, "Countdown", 4 of 5 (CC)

[612Tiberius]

And the piano-player just keeps going right along amid all the flying bullets! LOL!! At least he had the minimal sense to duck... a little. I've seen that countless times in old TV shows and movies; cracks me up every time. Probably no basis in reality, but still (or maybe because of it) very funny. Sometimes they'll even change suddenly to a dramatic, soap-opera like long chord, like a musical parallel to the moment of public tension in the saloon. Too funny!

[llleogrimm]

I love you ur vids are amazing

[nguyenduclen1]

pretty cool! definitely gna subscribe.

[ChorltonBrook]

Oh dear ... I found an old snooker ball buried in my garden (I live in a Victorian house). It's surface is all cracked & gone tan coloured. I left it in a tin and when I last looked at it the air inside smelled of sort of Acetone but different. Could be dangerous?

[ryoushii]

A couple of those train crashes were from staged train crashes done at the Minnesota State Fair.  From the 1890's into the 1920's, at least one train crash was staged in front of the grandstand (still standing and used) for the thrill of fair goers during the Fair. It was stopped partly be the Great Depression (too expensive) and because people started to get worried about all that flying junk (yes people were sometimes hit by debris)

[Indrius]

1:27 hehehehehe

[adrastea99]

Edison simply improved on a previous invention

Yes, these ideas don't pop up in a persons head... But other people draw from a variety of other inventions and methods to make one new thing, what Edison did was draw on ONE invention, which is called plagiarism

[KevinByrne2]

Burke neglects the inventions of the zoetrope and the praxinoscope -- which provided moving images before movies. 

[Tananjoh]

Anyone who knows what march is plaiyng at 02:28?

[KevinByrne2]

@Tananjoh -- At 2:28 the march is "Under the Double Eagle" by Austrian composer Josef F. Wagner. 

[er10b]

@KevinByrne2 Reminds you of Conrad Poohs and his dancing teeth?

[vulpecula999]

Cragside in Northumberland, England (home of Lord Armstrong) was the first house in the world to be lit by electric light bulbs, invented by - not Edison - but by Joseph Swan from nearby Sunderland, in 1880

[PhilJonesIII]

After reading about Tesla and the frequent run-ins he had with Edison I'm inclined to agree that Edison was a much better self-promoter than scientist. He certainly put a lot of effort in to discrediting Tesla.

[TOUSNESP]

Nicely made but full of untruth. Edison did not invent anything at all in connection with the Kinetograph and the Kinetoscope. Celluloid also stems from Parkesine after the Birmingham professor Alexander Parkes whos patent was simply bought by the Hyatt. Eastman again didn't invent anything either, it was hired Henry Reichenbach. Then there was also John H. Stevens involved with Celluloid manufacture. Sorry, James, things were not as has been told over and over. Forget Edison.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

I think you're reading too much into this episode. I suggest you watch TDTUC episode 9 (part 2) and Connections episode 9 (parts 4 and 5) to see that, in Mr. Burke's opinion Edison didn't invent *anything*. Perhaps he cited those you mentioned are cited, and his take on Hyatt was not that of "inventor" but rather "printer" who found a use for gun-cotton as an ivory substitute.

Many others are mentioned in those programs that aren't here. For instance Zworykin, Döbler, Muybridge, etc...

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Woops, my bad. This is C1 E09. Well, anyway... still worth looking at TDTUC E02, and part 5 of this.

[TOUSNESP]

Yes. Why haven't you mentioned the competition. The Hyatt brothers wouldn't have entered a saloon just like that with some new billard balls to surprise some sleepy players. Yes. Eastman is mentioned without the remark that he and his associates have stolen film from Goodwin. There was a trial. Yes. William Dickson is not mentioned, the engineer who devised the Kinetograph and the Kinetoscope. No word about Louis Le Prince. No Donisthorpe. No Carbutt. No Demeny. No Carpentier.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

I am not James Burke by the way. So you're addressing the wrong individual.

The competition is mentioned (I know because I painstakingly typed in the captions for all of these episodes). Why no mention of this or that, him or her, or any number of the hundreds of events and people that go into making an "invention"? I dunno. It's his program and he chose the ones he chose.

Mr. Burke is quite explicit, right from episode 1 that no single person "invents" anything in some light bulb flash. - JBW

[JamesBurkeWeb]

I guess I note that it's not really true that Mr. Burke credits Edison with *zero* inventions. He does make the claim that Edison "invented inventing". That is, the false notion that there's some class of individuals that "invent" things, and so, should take credit for those inventions.

Of course Edison was quick to name the sole inventor for literally hundreds of inventions he had little or nothing to do with, namely himself.

- JBW

[TOUSNESP]

Please don't get me wrong. I aim at Edison, Eastman, and their fellows who literally built a castle out of a swindle web. There is one newsreel, talkie, that shows the two E together at a Mitchell camera, I suspect it was around Edison's 80th birthday, and they put it as if one had invented film and the other the cinematic machinery. I only want that litter not to prevail and continue. Thank you anyway for replying.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

But we all do. Edison, however, seemed to be more interested in his ego than anything else. Sure, he probably had some interest in science and it's applications but for the most part he seems to be one of those people that are far more interested in being credited (and rewarded of course) for things that can only be stolen (or borrowed if you like) from others.

.... cont....

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Watch re-connections. Burke talks about the stirrup thing which he found in someone's writing and asked if he could use it. The other author said he stole the idea himself!

"You don't think we're born with ideas do you?" he said to Mr. Burke apparently.

- JBW

[pbanta62]

The bartender at 2:00 looks suspiciously like Benny Hill ;)