Because Edison was a Jobs-like narcissist who used people to elevate his status and promote himself. Tesla was too busy working in the lab to revel in fame and build a populist legacy.
The short list:
1877. The phonograph.
Edison and Bell both began in at a time even almost no one believed that reproducing the human voice across vast distances of time and space would ever be possible.
Distributing Music Over Telephone Lines [1909]
The Carbon Microphone. [1877-78]
No more need to shout into the phone. First Long Distance calls. New York to Chicago, 1892.
Then an inventor named Michael I. Pupin invented (and patented) the loading coil, a device made of electromagnets that could strengthen an electronic signal; with enough loading coils wired into a circuit, and wired properly, the signal could reach 1,500 miles---from New York to Denver---before degrading so far as to be unfathomable.
Calling a country far, far away
The Incandescent Light Bulb (1879)
The Edison lamp could be wired in parallel, making it easy to service and drawing down relatively little power. It was reasonanly long lived. affordable, bright, without being blinding ---- of the twenty or so previous examples the geek has likely read about, all would fail on one or more counts.
Edison was both a system builder and an entrepreneur.
Residential lighting demanded a whole new way of thinking about electricity. On-site generation wasn't likely to be practical. You needed switches safe enough for a child to use. Wiring standards.
Things like fuses. cords, plugs and sockets ---
all designed for users who had never in their lives seen a fire ignited by a man-made electrical spark or over-heated wire, never experienced anything more dangerous than a mild static shock.
That makes you both the advocate and the educator. You use every resource the 19th Century has to offer to demonstrate what you have to offer and how to use it safely. You banish the candle and put up Christmas tree lights. You illuminate theaters, department stores, fairs and expositions.
Not enough electricians around to wire every home?
You recruit and train them yourself.
