Which great inventor was the best businessman?

Having the idea is one job. Owning it, pricing it and keeping the factory open is another, and these sixteen were wildly uneven at the second one.

1. 1
   Nikola Tesla

   Tore up his AC royalty contract with Westinghouse and died owing money to a New York hotel.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Thomas Edison

   Built a research lab as a business, held 1,093 US patents and founded the company that became General Electric.
   898pts
3. 3
   Henry Ford

   Did not invent the car; invented the moving assembly line and the price point that put America on wheels.
   898pts
4. 4
   Isaac Singer

   Did not invent the sewing machine but invented hire purchase to sell it.
   659pts
5. 5
   John Deere

   A blacksmith whose self-scouring steel plough turned into a company still farming the Midwest.
   659pts
6. 6
   Alfred Nobel

   Ran a dynamite empire across twenty countries and spent the proceeds on a prize.
   571pts
7. 7
   George Westinghouse

   Made his first fortune from the railway air brake, then bet it all on alternating current.
   467pts
8. 8
   King C. Gillette

   Worked out that the money was in the blades, not the razor.
   467pts
9. 9
   Samuel Colt

   Built interchangeable-parts manufacturing and one of the first global arms brands.
   467pts
10. 10
    Cyrus McCormick

    Sold his mechanical reaper on credit to farmers who had none, and built International Harvester.
    467pts
11. 11
    Elisha Otis

    Demonstrated his safety brake by cutting the rope himself, and sold the vertical city.
    467pts
12. 12
    Guglielmo Marconi

    Turned radio into a shipping and naval service business before anyone else saw the market.
    343pts
13. 13
    George Eastman

    Sold cameras cheap and film dear, and invented the consumer photography business in the process.
    343pts
14. 14
    Charles Goodyear

    Discovered vulcanised rubber and died about $200,000 in debt.
    343pts
15. 15
    Werner von Siemens

    Founded an electrical firm in a Berlin backyard that is still a global industrial giant.
    343pts
16. 16
    Alexander Graham Bell

    His 1876 telephone patent became the foundation of the largest company in the world.
    190pts