Thomas A. Edison earned his reputation as one of America's greatest inventors
and heroes. Full of innovation, ingenuity, and enterprise, Edison "embodie[d]
much of what Americans have felt was positive about the national experience.
" Edison can put claim to 1093 US patents in addition to thousands more
international patents. His works include such major contributions as
advancements in telegraphy, the phonograph, a perfected nickel-iron-alkaline
battery, and the first commercially successful incandescent lighting system. As
shown by his many patents, Edison not only contributed innovative technologies
to society, but he was also a successful entrepreneur. Edison's success with the
incandescent light was not only one of his greatest achievements, but also one
of man's greatest achievements. Edison began tinkering with the notion of
incandescence in 1876 up to 1878, when he dedicated his efforts to produce an
economical electric light. He combined both his stunning intellect with his
spirit for hard work to produce some of the world's greatest inventions. Finally
in 1879, after nearly four years of tedious work, Edison's first success came
about with the use of a carbonized cotton thread. History of Thomas A. Edison
Born on February 11, 1847 to Samuel and Nancy Edison, Thomas spent the first
seven years of his life in Milan, Ohio, his place of birth. In 1854, opportunity
took the Edison family to Port Huron, Michigan, a city twice the size of Milan.
Edison's formal education ended after only three months of private schooling; he
"responded poorly to the regimented atmosphere of the school," which
caused some to see Edison as a "problem child. " However, Edison's
mother, a former school teacher, began educating Thomas at home. Edison credits
some of his creativity to his non-formal education, claiming that formal
education, "cast 'the brain into a mould' and '[did] not encourage original
thought or reasoning,' laying 'more stress on memory than on observation.'
". Early on, Nancy provided Edison with physical science and chemistry
books, from which he would experiment. This set in motion Edison's interest and
fascination with the scientific and inventive processes. At the age of twelve,
Edison began his work as a railroad concessionist, selling newspapers and snacks
on trains. During his breaks, Edison would experiment in the baggage cars, one
of which he later set on fire. Edison's shift in career to telegraphy was a
fortunate event for him. "One day he saved a boy's life and in gratitude
the father taught Edison how to become a telegraph operator. " Later,
Edison migrated to New York and found himself in a high paying job for having
repaired a broken stock ticker machine during a financial crisis. In 1869,
Edison swore to move from being a simple operator to a scientific inventor, and
later, he sold an improved stock ticker, which allowed him to open a workshop in
New Jersey to become a full-time inventor. "The laboratory was a forerunner
of today's modern research facility, and itself was a great invention. "
Here, Edison improved the typewriter, making it possible for the first time to
type faster than could be written by hand. And in 1876, Edison moved to the
famous Menlo Park in New Jersey, where one of his first inventions included an
improved telephone with a carbon transmitter so people would no longer need to
shout into the phone. Over the next six years, Edison and the Menlo Park team
produced more than 400 patents. One such major invention includes the
phonograph, Edison's personal favorite and "one of the most original
inventions ever devised ", which he again later improved for commercial
use. He was trying to find a way to record telegraph messages automatically with
the application of a paraffin-coated paper tape, embossed by a stylus with dots
and dashes. The tape made a similar sound to human speach, and so Edison
attempted to connect a telephone diaphragm to the embossing needle. In his first
demonstration, Edison recited "Mary Had A Little Lamb," which the
phonograph was perfectly able to reproduce. With the ability to record, the
phonograph led to the development of the music industry today. This invention
earned Edison the nickname, "The Wizard of Menlo Park". While the
Wizard's earliest hopes for the phonograph focused on education and business,
Edison envisioned the phonograph as a "way to record books for blind
people, to teach elocution, to record lectures, to preserve the voices of
historically important people, to perform office dictation, to log telephone
messages, and finally to record music. " He even imagined the application
of the phonograph towards talking dolls and other toys. Also at this time,
Edison began his work with the development of the incandescent electric light.
Although he did not invent the electric light or incandescent lamp, Edison was
the first to construct an economically viable model. His entrepreneurial skills
allowed him to realize what people needed, which resulted in his many
improvements of existing technology. Earlier in his life while still a telegraph
operator, Edison had invented an electric vote-counting machine, his first
perfected invention. Edison spoke to a Congressional committee about this, but
was refused because the machine was too fast for the processes of that time. It
was from this incident that Edison vowed "'…never to invent anything that
nobody wanted.' " Edison neither invented the electric light nor
incandescent lamp, but he was the first to produce an economically viable model.
He foresaw electricity as a great means for the future and desired a substitute
for gas as a means of lighting the home. From his experience and background,
Edison realized that the key would be finding the proper filament, some
carbonized thread that did not contain air unlike the wires and rods applied by
his peers. October 19, 1879 marked his first success with the application of a
carbonized cotton thread which some say burned for forty hours, while others say
fifteen. Nonetheless, this success was a major milestone. Later, Edison made
lamps suitable for commercial use with bamboo filaments. In September of 1882,
Edison opened the first commercial central station in New York with 400 lamps
wired to his own dynamos (electric generators). After only five years at Menlo
Park, Edison and his team abandoned this facility. "Only a few years after
its occupancy, the team deserted the building and left it to crumble. " Did
Edison fail? No, success not failure was the reason for this. Menlo Park served
its occupants by isolating them and reducing the noise experienced in a big
city. In 1887, Edison moved to a larger laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey,
where he dedicated much of his time to perfecting his previous inventions. It
was here that Edison developed the kinetoscope, a forerunner to the motion
picture camera. Later when "George Eastman developed celluloid-based
photographic film…flexible enough to thread through a wheel, " Edison
created the first movie studio in West Orange by connecting the phonograph and
the camera to make talking pictures. However, the machine was flawed and Edison
put it aside to allow others to correct its faults. Some of his later inventions
and improvements include the storage battery, cement mixer, and his last
invention, synthetic rubber from goldenrod plants. Edison died on October 18,
1931. Henry Ford, already an Edison fanatic and later a great inventor himself,
moved the Menlo Park laboratory to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. His
efforts helped to preserve the tremendous legacy of Edison. History of Light
Conquering darkness has always been one of man's perpetual goals. With the
invention of fire in prehistoric times, man was able to conquer darkness so long
as he had fuel (wood) to burn. This was later adapted to the torch with pitch,
resin, or fat to extend the burning time. Soon the Egyptians developed a well
shaped oil lamp, which remained unchanged for a long time. For thousands of
years, people applied the dim flickering oil lamps, until physicist Aime Argand
noticed his younger brother at play with a bottle and an oil lamp. Then glass
cylinders for lamps came into use and increased the brightness of lighting. Pine
torches, however, still filled the larger rooms of temples and palaces as they
gave out more than ten or twenty times as much light as a lamp. By the end of
the second century A.D., the Romans began to soak flax strings in tallow or
beeswax, but candles held a high price. Until the nineteenth century, many
improvements were made upon the wax candle, but even then, many rooms were still
dimly lit. The next big innovation was the development of the gas lamp by
William Murdock. One night, Murdock filled a pig's bladder with gas, stuck one
end of his pipe into it, and lit the gas on the other end. Luckily no air had
mixed with the gas, or else Murdock would have been killed. In any case, with
the help of Samuel Clegg, Murdock developed gas lighting after several years of
work. Now Clegg needed to convince city officials to employ their gas lighting
system, which he did very unusually. "Samuel Clegg invited the whole
borough council, together with their expert advisor, to breakfast and afterward
showed the gentlemen the site of the gasworks. When they entered the building
housing the gas holder Clegg…seized a pickax, struck a hole in the gas holder,
and set light to the jet of gas that poured out. " Clegg had carefully
locked the door, so the officials could not escape. Once they observed that they
had survived the trial, the officials supported the institution of gas as a
citywide lighting system. Once people realized that gas lighting was not
dangerous, it became highly widespread, reaching Paris in 1817, Berlin in 1826,
Vienna in 1833, and London in 1819. Then, the discovery of electricity provided
another potential power source. People knew that electric signals could be sent
along wires, but they also realized that electric current could be used to
generate heat. With the appropriate resistance, intense heat could be generated
to produce light. The first to know and demonstrate this discovery was Sir
Humphry Davy in 1808. By connecting two charcoal rods to the two terminals of
the battery and moving these rods close to one another, "a dazzlingly
brilliant ray of light formed between them. " The evolution of cheaper
power sources and materials increased the feasibility of this arc lighting
system. Several advancements were made with the arc lighting, however all were
too powerful for domestic use. This changed in 1848, when Heinrich Goebel
produced a perpetually burning incandescent bulb, using eau-de-Cologne bottles
for his vacuum and carbonized bamboo from his cane. From then on, the goal of
inventors was not the basic idea of electric lighting but a practical
application of these ideas. Here, Edison stepped into the electric light scene.
"The name Thomas Alva Edison would have gone down in the history of
inventions if he had created nothing else than the incandescent bulb, but he
achieved a great deal more. " In addition to developments with the electric
light bulb, major advancements were occurring in the field of electricity.
French scientist Jean Benard Leon Foucault began the movement towards large,
inexpensive power sources by instituting dynamo engines in place of galvanized
batteries. Soon, Edison would also enter the field of power and electricity.
Edison's process of experimenting with the light bulb was a highly systematic
form of trial and error. Edison's search was highly focused because he had
realized the need for the proper filament early in his experimenting; and Edison
was no stranger to trial and error experimenting. Although later successful,
Edison's work with the storage battery is a clear example of this. His tests
included nearly 10,000 experiments, all failed, yet Edison concluded,
"'…I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
'" Clearly, Edison was not only brilliant as a scientist but also hard
working. Finally, after thousands of trials and failures with thousands of
various filaments, the Menlo Park team had its greatest success in 1879 with a
carbonized cotton thread. Edison was able to reduce the rapid burn-up of the
filament by hermetically sealing the bulb with improved vacuum pumps. These
major breakthroughs led to more interest and more experimentation, which led to
the application of better filaments such as bamboo, osmium, and today's
tungsten. Edison would later make his own improvements upon the vacuum pump. The
discoveries of luminous tubes and mercury vapor luminescence further reduced the
costs and increased the quality of electric lighting. In addition to the
development of better filaments, Edison needed to devise a generator capable of
powering buildings, ships, and even cities. This he called the dynamo, which
also led to the development of the jumbo dynamo. Several of these jumbo dynamos
were capable of powering city districts. Edison amazed crowds but still had far
to go before producing a commercial setting for his light. After several years
of additional work and experimenting in every aspect of electric lighting from
power to resistance, Edison's incandescent light bulb began to catch more public
interest. In 1882, the Pearl Street Station operated to power nearly 1300 lamps
and a year later 10,300 lamps in New York City. Electricity began to replace gas
as the main power source for homes, despite defaming efforts by many gas
companies. "The success of the Pearl Street Station marked the beginning of
the electrical power era. " The Inventive Process The cornerstone of
Edison's scientific approach was his patience for trial and error
experimentation. Although known as a weak method, one which can fundamentally be
applied to any type of problem, the process of trial and error served as the
foundation of all Edison's inventions. In many cases, he would notice a problem
or a lack with a present device; from this, Edison would test various methods to
eliminate this problem or fill the need. His inventions of the improved
telegraphing methods, stock tickers, electric light bulbs, batteries, and many
more demonstrate this. Edison summed up his own personal feelings about thinking
and creativity when he said, "genius is 1% inspiration and 99%
perspiration. " This is truly a work ethic he followed as demonstrated by
his hard work and dedication to inventing. Even still, many of Edison's
assistants refuted this statement with their own lack of intuitiveness,
ingenuity, and invention. Edison was not bothered by the particulars of
organization in his thoughts. He kept extensive records of his thoughts and
findings, over four million pages of writing. Due to his constant observations
and ideas, historians began to equate Edison and Leonardo da Vinci in the field
of invention and ingenuity. In addition to his many patented inventions, Edison
dabbled with many other ideas. One example would be his thoughts on human flight
nearly three decades before the Wright Brothers' historic flight. Between
inventive flurries, Edison's mind would wander even into calligraphy or poetry,
which he recorded with his notes. To limit distractions and noise from big
cities, Edison conceived the idea of "invention factories." By keeping
a well-stocked laboratory, Edison was able to provide the proper work
environment for his employees and assistants. By having a chemistry lab, machine
shop, and brilliant group under one roof, Edison was able to produce hundreds of
inventions at his laboratory. Edison's core group of handpicked assistants
included "university-educated men specially chosen because of their
expertise in fields in which Edison felt himself to be deficient. " From
his work, Edison formed intimate relationships with Charles Batchelor, his chief
assistant, and John Kruesi, head of his machine shop. Edison saw these bonds as
essential for Menlo Park's success and would suspend work in the absence of
Batchelor. "Francis Upton, a newer member of the group, remarked that
Edison, Bachelor, and Kruesi made and ideal combination, since 'Mr. Edison with
his wonderful ideas…always thinks in three dimensions. Mr. Kruesi…would
distribute work so as to get it done with marvelous quickness and great
accuracy. Mr. Batchelor was always ready for any special fine experimenting or
observation…' " Upton himself later became a vital part of the Menlo team
as chief scientific assistant during the electric lighting project, Edison's and
Menlo Park's greatest success. Batchelor provided Edison with his expertise of
mathematics, while Upton brought highly developed skills in physics. Arthur
Kennelly, Edison's chief electrical engineer, became yet another important
member of the Menlo team. Finally, although not directly involved with the
inventing, Grosvenor Lowrey advised Edison on all his financial and political
matters. This compiled effort allowed Edison to focus more on the problem at
hand, inventing. Because he had received little in terms of formal schooling,
Edison's knowledge is a product only of his readings and self-experience.
However, he had a wide background of careers, which provided him with a great
deal of experience. To solve this problem with the incandescent light, Edison
relied on his background in electromagnetism, relay mechanics, and circuitry
laws from his work in telegraphy. In addition his work with the phonograph
expanded his knowledge of conductivity. Edison's work with batteries provided
him with a background in electrochemistry. While working on the battery, Edison
attended classes at Cooper Union to learn the necessary chemistry. He later
applied this knowledge to his work with generators and dynamos as power sources.
This broad background allowed Edison to realize the importance of not just
electric lighting for the future, but also electricity in general (he was
encouraged by friends to develop electric lighting). The problem with
contemporary electric lights was that the filaments would burn up too quickly,
unless they were made of heavy (and costly) copper wire or the like. Once Edison
realized this problem, he began to concentrate his efforts to determining the
proper incandescent filament to prevent quick burn-up. Thus Edison realized that
a regulator would prevent melting, initially experimenting with spiral shaped
filaments. As stated earlier, Edison's foresight carried to more than just
electric lighting, but also creating a sufficient commercial power supply in
order for light to become a marketable. Thus Edison's work also included
dedicated research towards developing inexpensive power sources. The development
of all related areas of electric lighting were necessary steps towards
incandescence. This included not only the discovery of the filament, but also
creating the proper vacuum and providing the proper power supply. He had
experimented with carbon paper filaments in 1876 and 1877, but he began a
systematic assault on the electric light bulb and it complementary system in
1878. " In October of 1878, work on finding the proper regulator governed
the Park activities. At the same time, the Menlo Park team devoted attention
towards the electromagnetic generator. In December of this year, work on the
lamp ceased as generator experiments were intensified. To fulfill his quest for
incandescence, Edison drew heavily on his experience with telegraphy to
visualize the system of relays and circuit breakers. Although the broad concepts
of the research were his own, Edison relied on his staff and assistants to carry
out important functions where he may have been lacking. Again in 1879, the Menlo
team turned research back to developing the light itself. The application of
Sprengel's mercury pump aided the creation of a vacuum, but in failing to obtain
a complete vacuum, "tests were conducted at Menlo Park to produce new
vacuum techniques. " Later in March, Edison submitted his patent
application for his vacuum techniques and high resistance lamps. Edison's
knowledge allowed him to see that high currents would require thick and
expensive copper wire to transfer energy, and as an alternative, Edison saw that
high-resistance lamps required no more energy than low-resistance ones, which
led him to experiment with spiraled platinum filaments. However, following
events would soon change this. In October of 1879, Carbon replaced platinum as
the primary filament material, and a practical light bulb became a reality.
"Edison had experimented with carbon early in his research. He had tested
carbonized paper as early as 1877, but it burned up almost immediately. He
eventually turned to platinum because of its high melting point. " Now this
return to carbonized materials combined with Edison's practice of trial and
error, may seem impractical, however the new vacuum pump made it possible to
burn carbon much less quickly than in the atmosphere. In addition, Edison may
have compared his situation to that of Joseph Swan who successfully applied
carbon cylinders in low-resistance lamps. Another analogous situation may have
been Edison's own success with carbon transmitters in the telephone. In any
case, on October 21 and 22, the team had abandoned the spiraled carbonized
thread, which led to a major development. While Edison recalls this experiment
as the culmination of their research, his staff viewed the success as just a
promising new direction. Soon, Upton's parlor, Edison's house, and the Menlo
Park boarding house for staff were lit up for public display. On a New Year's
Eve demonstration, "forty bulbs were lit simultaneously, and they were
switched on and off…this was an amazing feat. " Even with the success of
the cotton thread, Edison continued to seek better filaments for his lamp. He
captured public attention by sending his men to various locations all over the
world, testing bamboo from Japan and exotic plants from the Amazon and Sumatra.
In the end, Edison had tested over 6,000 types of vegetation. Thomas Edison
created inventions for two reasons: 1) more efficient technology and 2) profit.
In order for the lamps to succeed, they needed to be placed in a commercially
viable setting. The first public testing occurred on the SS Columbia, a
steamship for the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. These lamps burned for
over 415 hours, which proved to be a successful field test. As experimenting
continued, Edison began developed additional equipment towards commercial use by
including lamp sockets and safety fuses. Now that the problem of the filament
had been solved, Edison shifted his concerns towards developing power
generation, distribution, and efficient and sustained illumination in addition
to cost and utility. He aspired to produce an energy system for broad
application. Much of Edison's inventing now became based upon their need towards
commercializing the electric light. Such examples are junction boxes, switches,
and meters. After the development of the necessary commercial technology, Edison
set out to lay the distribution cables and underground mains. He realized that
although overhead wiring was cheaper, underground distribution was much more
reliable. Edison applied his own personal experience with the gas companies to
know how efficient underground mains were. Edison's choice was a wise one
because in 1888, thousands of overhead wires were destroyed by an enormous
blizzard. The operation of this Pearl Street Station demonstrated the viability
of the central station concept for electrical power distribution. Pearl was
never an experimental situation; it was a "consumer-based, urban oriented,
site-specific commercial enterprise. " To simply put it, the Pearl Street
Station was the "real deal." From now on, all components of the system
had to be evaluated in terms of cost, especially lamp filaments and copper
wiring. The benchmark was the cost of gas lighting; in order to be competitive
with gas, the cost of electricity needed to be equal to or less than that of
gas. Cost factors had strongly affected technical and business decisions from
the onset of the research, but now with success so close, every aspect needed to
be considered. For example, the decision for high-resistance filaments was
driven by cost rather than feasibility. Durable low resistance filaments would
have worked, but the cost of the copper wiring would have prevented
commercialization. Edison, with the help of Lowrey, formed several companies to
keep manufacturing in the inventors hands. "The Edison Electric
Illuminating Company of New York, incorporated in December 1880, was the
operating company that built the Pearl Street Station. The Edison Machine Works
(1881) built Dynamos; Edison Electric Tube Company (1881) fabricated underground
conductors; Edison Lamp Works (1880) manufactured incandescent lamps. " The
many other problems facing Edison besides costs factors were competition from
gas companies and arc-lighting companies. In addition, public safety and a
discrimination between business customers and residential customers were crucial
towards city implementation. Initially lamps cost $1.40 each to manufacture,
however they were sold at $0.40 to establish a market. This consumer price
remained constant while the manufacturer's cost dropped to $0.22, however the
average life a bulb increased from its original 400 hours, increasing their
value. Metering schemes were devised to provide a legitimate determinacy of the
cost of service. Much of Edison's inventing, especially with the electric light
included means-ends analysis. For all inventing, inventors envision their
desired product, or at least they envision the purpose of the product. Thomas
Edison was no different; in fact, Edison's success may be dependent upon his
great ability to envision his final creations. Through this, Edison would
propose a broad range of connections in order to test not just for any
successful method but for the optimal one. But more than that, Edison's success
as an inventor can be attributed to his attitudes, work habits, and methods of
reasoning. Perseverance and patience built the foundation of Edison's ability,
as demonstrated by his quotes concerning genius and his 10,000 failed
experiments. "[Edison] saw every failure as a success, because it channeled
his thinking in a more fruitful direction. " Edison may have inherited this
attitude form his father who was not afraid to take risks and never crumbled
when a business venture failed. "On [one] occasion, unprotected chemical
were damaged by sunlight. Instead of bemoaning the losses, Edison put aside all
other projects to catalogue changes in the properties of the bottled substances.
" This clearly demonstrates Edison's optimism in spite of seemingly
apparent disaster. Although described as a workaholic, Edison's curiosity can be
described as childlike and fun loving. Edison's process of generate and test was
highly organized by his definitions of his goals, however his method of
inventing was highly disorganized. While his own conceptualizations directed his
trial experiments, "Edison would often go back and review his earlier
sketches to see if, in light of the new knowledge he had acquired, abandoned
ideas could be resurrected. " Analogy, another weak method, was also to key
to many of Edison's inventions. He applied knowledge gained from his own
inventions and experiments to his current projects. His "distinctive
repertoire of forms, models and design solutions, " applied to invention
after invention, sometimes referred to as Edison's "themes and
variations." Such a case can be seen when one compares his first drawings
of the kinetoscope with his wax-cylinder phonograph. Edison himself noted the
similarity between the two when he stated, "'I am experimenting upon an
instrument which does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear.' "
Further description paralleled the spiral images of film and the spiral grooves
on records. This distant analogy can also be seen when Edison applied his
success with carbon transmitters in telephones to his research on the
incandescent filament. Thomas Edison was a problem solver in both the creation
and commercialization of his inventions. He developed his inventions by
repeatedly trying his experiments in increasingly complex settings until he
could duplicate the item's performance. Edison's ability to reason by analogy
and to learn from failure proved to be his greatest assets towards his inventing
the electric light. Edison's work in the mechanical, electrical, and chemical
fields contributed a great deal of knowledge related to incandescence. Often
times Edison's work employed a trial and error approach but by working through
variations on a theme. Edison's process followed a direction led by, as Upton
put it, "guesses of marvelous accuracy. " Edison could envision the
general nature of a result long before it be reached by mathematical induction.
And Edison himself stated, "'I do not regard myself as a pure scientist as
many people insist I am…I am only a professional inventor, " which he
demonstrated with his methods of inventing. His purpose for inventing was solely
for the object of commercial utility. Thomas Edison did not invent the
incandescent light, but Thomas Edison did invent the practical incandescent
light and the urban-based energy system. By combining the processes of
invention, engineering, and production, Edison produced a complete and
commercially viable electrical lighting system. With his abilities and
innovations, Edison institutionalized inventing. Edison worked himself from
being an inventor and entrepreneur to being an industrialist and businessman.
While some may refer to the period of technology.

Bibliography
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Edison and the Menlo Park Experience. Dearborn, Michigan; Henry Ford Museum and
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Edison. http://americanhistory.about.com/education/americanhistory/library/weekly/aa120197