Some feuds make — and change!—history . The Hatfields and McCoys . Edison versus Tesla . Coke and Pepsi . Here are eight tales of piddling jealousy and downright spite that were made for the history books . ( And we ’ve determined the winner ! )
1. Hate Mail // Mark Twain vs. the Postal Service
Mark Twain hat fundamentally everything to do with the post bureau . mold ? “ When England in 1848 invented stamps , my opinion were by all odds anti - English . ” The cost of sending chain armour overseas ? “ Downright robbery . ” The necessary to write a full name and address on gasbag ? “ [ W]ordsutterly wasted ; and , mind you , when a man is pay by the word … this sort of thing hurts . ”
Twain ’s hatred was long - running play . When he was young , he lived in Nevada and hold a job require a clerk for Senator William Stewart . He hadthis to saywhen a element wrote asking the government to progress a fresh post office : “ What the roguishness do … you require with a post office ? … If any letters came there , you could n’t understand them . … No , do n’t rile about a post post … What you require is a gracious jail . ”
When , in 1879 , the private secretaire to the Postmaster General tried to react to some of Twain ’s criticism , the novelistshot back : “ You are not the Post Office Department , but only an irresponsible , inexpensive , and unnecessary appendage to it . ”
The post office responded by just doing its line of work — sometimes under unsufferable fortune . One clip , when Twain forgot the address of a friend , hewroteon the envelope : “ To MR . C.M. UNDERHILL , who is in the coal business in one of those streets there , and is very respectably connected , both by wedding & ecumenical downslope , and is a tall man & quondam but without any gray hair & used to be bighearted . BUFFALO N.Y. from MARK TWAIN P.S. A little bald on the top of his head . ”
The post office successfully deliver the letter .
achiever : All the couriers swiftly completing their constitute rounds .
2. Vulturegate // John James Audubon vs. Charles Waterton
In the 1820s , John James Audubon — the American ornithologist and future author of the public ’s most expensive Holy Writ , The Birds of America — was obsessed with vultures . He was peculiarly fascinated by the doll ’s feeding habits : Audubon believed the scavenger did n’t find rotting meals with their sense of smell , as commonly consider , but rather used their eyesight .
When Audubonlecturedon his theory in 1826 , he made the British conservationist , Charles Waterton , deep upset . Waterton had written extensively about the joker vulture ’s seemingly excellent good sense of smell in one of hisbooksand was so go against by the new theory that he suggested that Audubon “ ought to be whipped . ” Waterton ’s pro - smell cronies encamped in a group yell “ Nosarians ” and attempt to smear Audubon ’s credibility , makingpointed attacksat his ability as a author : “ Its grammar is bad ; its authorship poor ; and its instruction are so unsatisfactory . ” accord to zoologist Lucy Cooke in her bookThe Truth About Animals , Waterton keep at his campaign for years :
Experiments would later substantiate Audubon ’s posture , and today , it ’s generally check that all vulture habituate tidy sum . But in the sixties , Modern inquiry find Meleagris gallopavo marauder do in reality practice smell [ PDF ] . So while Audubon was right aboutmostvultures , he was wrong to call out joker vultures for not being able-bodied to smack ( he likelyconfusedthem with the non - redolent smuggled vultures ) . Nowadays even theAudubon Societysays the joker marauder “ has a well - evolve sense of smell . ” That ’s get to sting .
succeeder : Charles Waterton and Republic of Turkey vulture .
3. The Race to the North Pole // Frederick A. Cook vs. Robert E. Peary
In 1908 , Frederick A. Cook and Robert E. Peary were in a bitter race to the top of the populace . Cook would insist he had reach the pole first , but an act of possiblesabotagewould damage his claim .
On his rejoinder trip , Cook had stopped in Annoatok , Greenland , and ran into an American hunter mention Harry Whitney . Looking to unlade some system of weights for the next ramification of his journey , Cook entrusted Whitney with his supplies — include his navigational record and sextant — under the feeling that Whitney would safely take them to New York City . They would meet by and by .
Seventy - nine years later , in 1988 , the newspaper would issue acorrection . It remains unclear if either man actually reached the terminal .
Winner : The touristry federal agency in Annoatok , Greenland .
4. Gravity Grievances // Robert Hooke vs. Isaac Newton
In 1665 , Robert Hooke appear through a microscope at a piece of bobber and was right away reminded of a monastery . Believing the latticework of minor structures he saw resemble a Thelonious Sphere Monk ’s chamber , he decide to give them a conversant name : Cellula , orcells .
The discovery of the electric cell is just one ofRobert Hooke’smany accomplishments . He did “ pioneering work in optics , gravitational attraction , paleontology , architecture , and more,”according toAlasdair Wilkins at io9 . He was also aninfluenceon Isaac Newton ’s theory of gravity — hewroteto Newton about the idea around 1680 — and was convinced that Newton would have never cooked up with theory without his help . So why is n’t Hooke a household name ?
Newton might be at fault . For years , the two scientist quibbled over credit for a plenty of discoveries , and it irked Newton . In oneletter , Newton compose to Hooke , “ If I have see further it is by standing on the berm of hulk . ” As Wilkins explain , this may not have been a compliment . Hooke was scant and hunchbacked , and it ’s possible that Newton was taking a swipe at the scientist : Your influence is as pocket-size as your stature . When Hooke pass away and Newton became the chair of the Royal Society , Newton ’s acolytes wrote off Hooke as a footer . In fact , under Newton ’s leading , the only house painting of Hooke in existence went omit . Some argue , without evidence , that Newton had it burn .
Winner : Isaac Newton , conspiracy theorists , fans of mitochondria .
5. The Bone Wars // Othniel Charles Marsh vs. Edward Drinker Cope
Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope would discover around 130 dinosaur species in the mid- to late-19th century , introducing the Earth to big names such asTriceratopsandStegosaurus . You ’d reckon that these two heavyweight paleontologists , with all of their shared interests , would have worked well together , right ?
At first , they did . But in 1868 , everything changed . For age , Cope had been classifying fogey chance upon in the marl stone pit near Haddonfield , New Jersey . When Marsh visited Cope to take a enlistment of the pits , he secretly made an agreement with the prey owner stipulating that he was entitled to the fogy they found . Cope was furious . afterward , Marsh discover that Cope had reconstruct one of his dinosaur underframe backward , mistaking the animal ’s fundament for its neck . The info went public and deeply abashed Cope . A toxic rivalry was deport .
For the next three decades , the two men spread toxic smears as they raced to collect the most fossils — what is now have a go at it as the Bone Wars . consort tothe Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University , “ Cope ’s rushed work was plagued by careless errors . Marsh often resort to graft and bullying in the pursuit of specimen . ” The remorseless feud would translate both men into legends of paleontology — and would head them tofinancial ruination .
achiever : Michael Crichton ’s bank account .
6. The Astor Riots // William Macready vs. Edwin Forrest
If you think the Oscar competitiveness for “ Best Actor ” is fraught today , it was much worse in 1849 . Back then , the race for thebest Shakespearean actorfell to two men : William Macready , a British critical darling , and Edwin Forrest , one of America ’s first great homegrown champion . For years , the British and American military press contend who was the better role player , and the two men attracted a fast — and occasionally war-ridden — following . ( Once , Forrest die to one of Macready ’s performances andhissedfrom the seats . )
But the rivalry became more symbolic in the 1840s , as America ’s opinion for the British soured . ( An influx of Irish immigrants , who disdain all things British , amped up the vitriol . ) So , in May 1849 , when Macready appeared in the role ofMacbethat the Astor Opera House in New York City , he was greeted with Bronx cheer and volleys of refuse .
Macready continued his performances at the urging of the New York literati , move political opportunist at Tammany Hall to paste posters across the cityaskingWORKING MEN , SHALL AMERICA OR ENGLAND RULE IN THIS CITY?Soon , the question of who was the better actor take on a with child meeting . Thousands of protestors congregate outside the theater , the reserves was call in , and ariotbroke out . At least 22 multitude died , make it , according toJSTOR Daily , “ the deadliest civic insurrection in American history up to that clock time . ”
Winner : Nobody .
7. Life After Death // Arthur Conan Doyle vs. Harry Houdini
Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini were fascinated byspiritualism , albeit for different reason . Houdini was a professional illusionist who made a living cod the great unwashed . Before he was a household name , he gain a small income by hosting séances and pretend to speak to the dead . As naughtily as he want to believe in the hereafter , he was unbelieving of anybody who take to have the force to pass on with the other side .
Houdini’sfriendArthur Conan Doyle , however , sincerely yours believed that he could get at the afterlife . In fact , his wife Jean moonlighted as a mass medium . One Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , she take tosummonHoudini ’s dead female parent and received a 15 - page subject matter from beyond the tomb . There was one trouble : The ghost write in faultless English . Houdini ’s female parent was Hungarian , andspokealmost no English at all .
For Houdini , it was a breaking head . The two men never reconciled their differences . Houdini would go on to draw medium as “ human sponge , ” mountebank who exploited people ’s grief , and would consecrate neat vigor toexposingfraudulent mediums . His crusade to debunk these con artists was so great that some have suppose that Houdini may have been poisoned byangry psychic .
victor : Rationalism and sucker punches to the gut .
8. A Puzzling Philosophical Problem // Dr. Karl Popper vs. Ludwig Wittgenstein
At Cambridge University , it was tradition to hold a weekly give-and-take for the university ’s philosophers and their students . On one such eventide , in 1946 , the guest was Dr. Karl Popper with Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein in attending . It would be the first — and last — clock time all three philosopher were in the same room together .
Popper present a paper called “ Are There Philosophical problem ? ” , a jab at Wittgenstein , who debate there were no such problems — only lingual puzzles . Wittgenstein produce so impassioned as he argued with Popper that he picked up ared red-hot open fireplace pokerand began waving it around for emphasis . When Russell demanded that Wittgenstein put the fire hook down , Wittgenstein ramp out of the room .
At least , that’sone versionof events . Some say Wittgenstein was physically threatening Popper . Others intimate Popper was ready to take a literal thrust at Wittgenstein himself . Whatever the case , it ’s meet that nobody has been able-bodied to swan what , exactly , come about : Popper ’s most far-famed contribution to doctrine was , after all , a review article ofverificationism .
WINNER : Uncertainty .
