Thomas Edison never born

My guess is that other people would step up and make many of the same inventions in his absence. Tesla, for instance, would most likely be seen as the dominant inventor and inspiration behind a lot of electric inventions, without Edison there to suck the air out of the room. Now, one that did strike me as very unique was the Stencil Pen, which would later be adopted by tattoo artists. Although something similar is likely to be invented eventually, it could well be years further down the road. If it takes a bit longer, I wonder if this would lead to less tattoos during the World Wars; if they are seen as less a part of military culture, they may never be adopted by the biker culture in the years after the Second World War. This, in turn, might limit their popularity a bit in the second half of the 20th century. Although I am in no way very knowledgeable in the history of tattoos.
 
Without Edison, Hollywood would never come to be (Or at least, not in LA) due to the fact it was the only location many filmmakers could go to escape Edison's clout. Without the boost of being the film capital of the US, it's entirely possible for the city to lose the California Water Wars and then have the 1930s Longshoremen Strikes kill it off almost entirely. ATL 2016 would see a small Los Angeles focused around being a port with some residue industry, while California at large is divided culturally between San Diego-dominated SoCal and San Francisco-dominated Northern California.
 
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