Edison vs. Tesla: The Battle over Their Last Invention

by Joel Martin, William J. Birnes

Thomas Edison closely following the alternative physics work of Albert Einstein and Max Planck, convincing him that there was an entire reality unseen by the human eye. This led to the last and least-known of all Edison’s inventions, the spirit phone. His former associate, now bitter rival, Nikola Tesla, was also developing at the same time a similar mysterious device. Edison vs. Tesla examines their quest to talk to the dead. It ’s little-known near-death experience formed his theory that animate life forms don’t die, but rather change the nature of their composition. It is this foundational belief that drove him to proceed with the spirit phone.Tesla monitored Edison’s paranormal work, with both men racing to create a device that picked up the frequencies of discarnate spirits, what today is called EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon).Both men were way ahead of their time, delving into artificial intelligence and robotics.Although mystery and lore surround the details of the last decade of Edison’s life, many skeptics have denied the existence of the mysterious spirit phone. The authors have researched both Edison’s and Tesla’s journals, as well as contemporary articles and interviews with the inventors to confirm that tests were actually done with this device. They also have the full cooperation of the Charles Edison fund, affording them access to rare photos and graphics to support their text. Edison vs. Tesla sheds light on this weird invention and demonstrates the rivalry that drove both men to new discoveries.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography

290 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 3, 2017

About the author

Librarian Note: this page contains works by multiple authors with the same name.

Reviews

[Evelina | AvalinahsBooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss

This is one strange book. Judging by the title, you'd think it's about both Edison and Tesla. However... The first chunk of the book is just Edison, interspersed with info about one of his odder projects, a spirit phone to talk to the dead (I know, right?) Just about the time you're starting to give up on it, at around 40% there's finally a short bio on Tesla and a little bit about his work and his and Edison's rivalry. Except then it unexpectedly strays away from it again, and goes into the dangers of AI and how the Navy repeatedly blew up some commercial planes by accident. That stuff was pretty interesting, but I couldn't help stopping to think what this book I'm reading was actually about.

Then it comes back to Edison again for like 5 pages, and then finally goes into mediumship and how scientists are starting to believe in the paranormal, because this and that experiment has produced interesting results. All this, of course, because of the spirit phone again - or did you forget?

And then we cycle back to Edison. That's it. Tesla was talked about for like ten pages of the book, yet he's on the title. Huh.

Everything's somehow connected to the spirit phone, in the end. That was a little funny, to be honest. Because the whole book reads like a university essay about the spirit phone, with the author drawing links and conclusions all to the benefit of this, uh, enigmatic device.

So yeah. Odd book for sure. Completely mis-titled - it feels like someone who hasn't even read the manuscript sat down and got to pick the name of the book. But easy to read and it has interesting trivia - like the history of the spiritualist movement, or even the inspiration of The Force from Star Wars (those are related!) or why action movies are sometimes called 'action flicks' (those are not related..) Then again... There's also stuff on mediumship and the Roswell aliens. So...

So it's a curious, yet engaging read. That's if you're willing to accept that you're not sure what you just read, though. Cause I am indeed not sure. Not sure at all.

I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.

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[Jerry Dalinka · Rating 1 out of 5]

Trash.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 to 3.5 stars, but I'm rounding to 4, in an attempt to boost its current 2.7 average rating, which I don't understand. This book is informative, and Edison's last attempted invention of a "spirit phone" to detect and communicate with the spirits of the deceased (spiritual entities), was unorthodox. That surely has strongly rubbed some readers the wrong way. Edison vs. Tesla: The Battle Over Their Last Invention covers what the title states. This book isn't meant to be a bio of these two inventor and cerebral Giants. I feel I learned a lot about Thomas Edison, and the era of his and Tesla's, considering I've not yet read a bio on Edison. As a side note, In 2014, I read "Tesla: The Life and Times of an Electric Messiah". That was decent, so I rated it 3 stars, but I found it a bit underwhelming. I'd suggest that book as a mere launching pad to learn about Nikola Tesla.

I'll admit that I've developed a pet peeve on GR when I see one word or one sentence (positive or negative) "reviews." To me, those aren't reviews; they're opinions, and poorly backed ones, at that. I'm not sure why another reader left a one star, one word "opinion" that this book is, "Trash." It seems some readers' expectations are too high. What are we expecting?? What is reasonable for us to expect? For me, this was a worthwhile, educational read. It wasn't trash, and I never felt seized with furor to throw it out a window or into the garbage. I'd feel guilty throwing out the few books in my lifetime I've not liked, as it would disgrace all the work that went into creating the paper (thank you, trees), binding, and ink.

If someone takes issue with subjects they're reading about, such as the paranormal, I can see why they'd leave biased, inadequate opinions on books. It isn't objective, though, if you don't agree, or simply are incapable of holding some things in your mind as possibilities. In this book, I found it interesting personally that the authors referenced some info in a couple other books I've read: Reading The Enemy's Mind by Paul H. Smith, and Fringe-ology by Steve Volk (they reference quantum consciousness research by Sir Roger Penrose, some of whose material is covered in Volk's fascinating book).

[Jacob Beaumont · Rating 2 out of 5]

Respectfully, the book at some points sounded like it was written by a middle schooler. Also Tesla was hardly talked about in the whole book. Thought it was gonna be about electricity, but it was about the “spirit phone”. Guess that was my mistake. It was slightly redeemed for me by the random trivia throughout the book.

[Carol Arce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most people know about the battle between Edison and Tesla over DC and AC generation of electricity. But most people are unfamiliar with Edison's last invention, "the spirit phone", and for good reason: Edison's family and colleagues had his records about it redacted lest he be thought to be senile in his old age. So I was interested to read about this battle between Edison and Tesla over their little known, last invention. The book is a disappointment in that regard, as there really was no battle over the spirit phone, which was a flop anyway. The book is largely a history of Edison's inventions with the rationale for his spirit phone repeated and repeated (and repeated, again!) through out.

[Jackiesmith]

This was not the best book I've ever read. There was a lot of information about Edison but I felt Tesla should not have even been in the title.

The authors should have given equal time to Tesla, who now that I've read the book, seems a much more interesting character and one I would like to know more about.

Martin makes the claim that the pages in Edison's journal related to his "spirit phone" were removed but how does he know? I was left wondering how he knew that and if he had access to them why didn't he publish those? That would have been really interesting!

I'll give this book to my local library. Maybe someone else will find it enjoyable. To me it read like a PhD dissertation. Was it? Will we ever know?

[Josh · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book stinks. It’s written by a couple of true pseudoscientists, and reads like a (bad) college paper (“our theory is that Edison tried to make a ghost phone... [insert 250 pgs, doublespace]... In conclusion, Edison tried to make a ghost phone. The End?”). The only primary source i could spot was Edison’s journal. The rest of the citations, - used intermittently to distract from the times when they conspicuously cite nothing - are mostly from stuff like UFO Magazine. And there’s very little about Tesla at all. This was an excuse to sneak in pseudoscience, hypotheticals, and conspiracy theory into a generally interesting topic. The book is mercifully short, and mostly an Edison biography. Highly skippable. Watch for the authors on Ancient Aliens. They are apparently regulars.

[Matthew Werner · Rating 1 out of 5]

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME!
This is poorly written and wanders back and forth with no true path. It is mostly derived by sloppy piecing together of other works and then interjects the authors’ observations and opinions filed as facts. I’m not sure why Tesla is in title because this was really a book about Edison.

I’m only giving it one star so it is clear I rated it and didn’t just forget.

I finished as I was traveling in a car. I was tempted to throw it out window while crossing a river but my wife stopped me. Plus I realized the aquatic life deserved better then having a crappy book dropped into their environment and polluting it with such foul rubbish.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating if extremely eccentric read. The main focus is about the competition between Edison & Tesla to make contact with the afterlife. But the book wanders through so many tangents (biographies, technological overviews, future predictions), the end result is that the original intent is pushed off to the margins. The most frustrating thing about these tangents is that they're all interesting, and deserve focuses all their own. As it stands, all of it squished together in a single volume makes for some dizzy literary pinball.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll be honest, I was looking for a book about Tesla and couldn't get a hold of the one I wanted so browsed around and found this one. Even for a book about Edison, it just focused way too much on his "spirit phone" for me. It was pretty well written and informative, just not the information I was craving. On the other hand, it really reinforced my desire to learn more about Tesla.

[Shannon Stoner · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was well written. The authors seem to focus much more on Edison than Tesla. Only the final couple chapters of the book dealt with their Spirit Phone. Overall, an easy, entertaining read.

[Richard Derus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Real Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Thomas Edison closely following the alternative physics work of Albert Einstein and Max Planck, convincing him that there was an entire reality unseen by the human eye. This led to the last and least-known of all Edison’s inventions, the spirit phone. His former associate, now bitter rival, Nikola Tesla, was also developing at the same time a similar mysterious device. Edison vs. Tesla examines their quest to talk to the dead.

Edison’s little-known near-death experience formed his theory that animate life forms don’t die, but rather change the nature of their composition. It is this foundational belief that drove him to proceed with the spirit phone.

Tesla monitored Edison’s paranormal work, with both men racing to create a device that picked up the frequencies of discarnate spirits, what today is called EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon). Both men were way ahead of their time, delving into artificial intelligence and robotics.

Although mystery and lore surround the details of the last decade of Edison’s life, many skeptics have denied the existence of the mysterious spirit phone. The authors have researched both Edison’s and Tesla’s journals, as well as contemporary articles and interviews with the inventors to confirm that tests were actually done with this device. They also have the full cooperation of the Charles Edison fund, affording them access to rare photos and graphics to support their text. Edison vs. Tesla sheds light on this weird invention and demonstrates the rivalry that drove both men to new discoveries.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Many thoughts about this read. I took time to think them through before opening my "mouth."

Pseudoscience is a curse on the communication of solid, evidence-based old-fashioned science on multiple axes. It dazzles and fascinates almost all of us some of the time. When disproved, it reduces trust in and willingness to listen to the real stuff among the credulous. OTOH, it prevents real scientists from investigating "out there" stuff that could possibly result in real advances of human knowledge.

I read this book waiting for something about Edison and Tesla's rivalry to enter the chat, specifically about Edison's factual and swept under the rug "spirit phone" experiment. Barely got Tesla at all, though his appearances always fit the premise. I felt, however, that the stretch from the spirit telephone to discussing AI's existential threats was waaay over the top, and in any case, is outdated in its parameters...things are a lot worse than they thought.

I *did* learn interesting trivia about The Force and Spiritualism as they interrelate.

Skyhorse Publishing offers hardcover copies for $9.99 and Kindle editions for $16.99, Use The Force to divine which one they want you to buy.

[Victoria McCormick · Rating 1 out of 5]

I should've realized the low potential for this book when I saw that both authors were experts in the paranormal, and not in science.

Edison vs. Tesla reels you in with a premise that you think will rival the feud that Edison and Tesla had over A.C. vs. D.C., but instead leads you on a trail of a poorly written, disorganized, and repetitive wreck. There's an overwhelmingly clear bias towards the inventions of Thomas Edison, which really had *nothing* to do with the spirit phone, yet the authors lead you to believe that they did (because of a singular one-off line about his motion picture invention that had a weak relation to the spirit phone, which was only talked about in the last fifty pages of the book).

If you wanted a biography about Thomas Edison that vaguely talks about his last invention and "The Second Industrial Revolution and the Science of Spiritualism" (I swear they repeated it twenty times) then this book is for you! But if you are like me and interested in learning about another feud between Edison and Tesla or learning more about the mind of Tesla after the AC vs. DC spat, you'd be better off elsewhere.

It's worth mentioning that the writing style during most of this book is barely respectable. There are random lines that totally ruin the professional style that this book attempts, and there are -- in my opinion -- far too many references to the reader and to the modern age that are wholly unnecessary. This book solidifies itself in 2017 despite the desperate need for it to plant itself inside of the early 20th century so that the story of Edison (and barely Tesla) can remain timeless.

There's definitely a correct way to write a series of seemingly non-connected events that eventually come together to relate to the main topic of the book (in my mind is currently the Beatles biography by Bob Spitz). But this book completely misses the mark on that and becomes something confusing and barely readable.

I don't like to give one-star reviews, but I don't think there's anything redeemable about this. The title is a lie. The book is a lie. I shouldn't have spent $6.95 on it. Justice for Tesla!

[Jennifer Nanek · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is essentially a conspiracy theory book.

This is a fascinating dive into the world of conspiracy theories and the intriguing lives of two of history's most renowned inventors. While the book offers a captivating narrative, its focus on speculative claims and repetition may leave some readers feeling unsatisfied.

The authors, known for their work in the paranormal and UFO fields, present the concept of Edison's supposed "spirit phone" as a central theme. While the book provides a solid overview of Edison and Tesla's lives and their complex relationship, it leans heavily into the realm of the fantastical.

There is more Edison in the book than Tesla. But then again we have more information on Edison than Tesla.

The book's greatest flaw lies in its repetitiveness. Certain sentences and ideas are repeated ad nauseum, making it a frustrating read for those seeking a concise and engaging exploration of the topic.

Additionally, the inclusion of conspiracy theories like the TWA 800 incident, while intriguing, may alienate readers who prefer a more grounded approach.

However, the book does offer some redeeming qualities. The authors' discussion of inspiration and the nature of genius is thought-provoking and offers a glimpse into the creative minds of these extraordinary individuals. Moreover, their exploration of Edison's beliefs about the afterlife is both fascinating and entertaining, drawing parallels to popular culture references like *Ghostbusters* and *Inside Out*.

The book's predictions about the rise of AI, made several years ago, are particularly noteworthy. While the concept of AI was not entirely new at the time, Edison and Tesla's foresight in anticipating its rapid development is impressive.

Overall, Edison Vs Tesla is a mixed bag. While it offers a unique perspective on the lives of two iconic inventors, its reliance on conspiracy theories and repetitive writing may deter some readers. Those with an interest in the paranormal or a fascination with the lives of Edison and Tesla may find the book worth exploring.

[MaryL · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tells about Edison's and Tesla's separate inventions of a device that can prove existence of spirits. Edison worked on a device called a "spirit phone" which wasn't a phone at all. Edison's device was a transmitter that sent a narrow, highly focused beam of light to a photocell receiver that had an electric current meter measuring how much current the light induced in the receiver. If anything crossed the beam of light and interrupted it, the current meter would immediately decrease so that an observer could note the interruption. Tesla's idea for finding spirits involved a sensitive sound meter that could pick up variations in sounds and amplify them. Much more space in the book was given to Edison, and I found it to be highly repetitive as the authors pointed out frequently how Edison had "invented the twentieth century." When the authors discussed both inventors ideas and how they related to quantum physics today, I found it to be a stretch to say that Edison's ideas of "life units" which sound rather primitive can be considered to be a forerunner to today's quantum physics and string theory. I like to hope that I learned something from this book, but the reading of it was tedious.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

The two words “spirit phone” appear over and over in the book but the actual attempt is amazingly simple and, perhaps, predictably does not work.

After reading the book, I looked over the bios of the authors again. I wondered if, given their backgrounds, they were trying to show that two smart and inventive scientists were really on the side of spiritualists, mediums, UFO hunters and the like so they have hard-won legitimacy. The second author says he has a PhD but does not say in what or from where. I’m guessing in parapsychology from a mail-order degree mill.

Most of the book wanders around saying “spirit phone” over and over but not really getting to the point. By the time the authors do, the drama is over in flash. Not all that interesting. The writing is rather unprofessional, almost what a high school freshman would write. There is a major boo-boo near the end of the book when it talks about the detection of gravity waves and tries to inexplicably tie that into talking to spirits. But, they say the waves came from about 1.5 billion miles away. That is not out of our solar system. They meant light years — oops!

Since Tesla’s picture is on the front cover, I have to wonder why he received so little coverage?

[Viveca · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first half of the book was interesting. I had no idea about Edison’s early life so I kept reading. Tesla, who is a far more interesting person, was little more than a side note in this book. The title was a bit misleading in this respect. It felt more like reading a series of blog posts that repeated the same information many times while sprinkling in disjointed bits of information about everything from nazi conspiracy theories to the film industry. I can’t recommend this book.

[Berk Ram · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kitap ağırlıklı olarak Edison'a değiniyor. Ama Edison veya Tesla dışında, yapay zekadan ruhçuluğa, soğuk savaştan evrime kadar farklı alanlara da değiniyor. Okunmaya değer bir kitap. Bir kitapta onlarca farklı alanlardan çeşit çeşit bilgiler alıyorsunuz. Okuması da çok keyifli, hayaletler falan diyor, uzaylılar falan diyor. Bu yazarlar tutar.

[Alysia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn’t get through it. In fairness I’m sure it contains a lot of facts so I gave it one extra star.

It read like it was as a class assignment for an English class and you had to take the side of Edison.

[Patrick]

I have no clue what that was. It was supposed to be Edison versus Tesla, but it wasn’t.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decently written but poorly titled biography of Edison. I think Birnes would have done better to drop Telsa from the title, spent even less time on him in the book than he already does (right now, it's just a slightly long winded tangent), and focused more on the spiritualist aspect to the spirt phone (as that's what it seemed like he really wanted to write about anyway.)