Ever since visiting Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MIchigan years ago, I have wondered how a genius like Edison changed America forever. After visiting Edison's transplanted replica laboratory, I wondered in visiting the facilities how many experiments Edison must have conducted to find the right filament. Later, I found out he achieved 1,093 patents. He showed America you never give up as an inventor and scientist. Edison could work up to 18 hours a day.
It is more than time to consider his contributions to America and his battles with Tesla. Can you imagine we even have a boardgame on Edison and Tesla and a game just on Edison'? Companies like Edison and Ford created an America that came into the 19th and 20th Century. Electricity was the key, and Edison knew what the people wanted.
As I remember, Edison started working his experiments out on the railroads. He, eventually, built his own laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. We will, however, approach Edison who was willing to build on the work of others. Certainly, he was the developer of the phonograph, the modifier of the telegraph, unified stock ticker, the miner's safety lamp, world's first motion picture studio, and the refiner of motion picture cameras, I also remember him as the possible inventor of the dictating machine. We do need to ask ourselves: should Edison receive credit for all these inventions? How much did Thomas Alva Edison build on the work of others? Our core book will read like a modern day novel about the life of a genius. Did you realize Thomas was deaf from the age of 12 and could not even hear a bird sing?
Did Edison invent the electric chair? Why was it necessary for the prison system to have such an instrument? Why did the public tend to accept alternating current of Tesla instead of Edison's direct current? Why was there such a feud between the two men? How did Edison intend to light entire parts of New York City (First District of lower Manhattan)? It was no doubt that Edison lived in controversial times.
Edison is also known for his adventures into science fiction. He was supposed to have speculated we would find a lost race of Mongolians when Antarctic is sufficiently explored. Thomas Alva Edison even experimented with manmade rubber (including goldenrod) and working with Harvey Firestone. Edison's mind went everywhere for the ultimate value to mankind. William Sumner, an early biographer of Edison, in expressing our debt to Edison talked about Darwin: If Thomas Edison had not existed, Charles Darwin would have had to invent him. The Wizard of Menlo Park will be remembered every time we flick the light switch. Edison would have phrased his contribution somewhat differently in defining invention: To invent all you need is imagination and a pile of junk.
Session 1. Edison's Childhood and His Remarkable Growth. The Value of Self-Tinkering.
Session 2. Developing the Menlo Park Laboratory.
Session 3. Improving the Phonograph and People's Utterances. Happy Edison Couple
Session 4. Wishful Thinking and Failed Markets. Return to Menlo Park.
Session 5. Invention of Incandescent Lighting. Technical Difficulties. Advent of Francis Upton. Financial Wizard,.
Session 6. Edison Electric Light Company Testing the Electric Light at Menlo Park. Move to Company Offices at 65 Fifth Avenue.
Session 7. First Centralized Power Plant in Lower Manhattan. Edison Machine Works. Lighting J. P. Morgan Home.
Session 8. Death of First Wife. Expositions. First Chatauqua Speaking. Vivacious Mina Edison. Launching New Laboratory. Commercial Value of Phonograph.
Session 9. Yielding to General Electric. Tesla and Sprague in Edison Labs. Westinghouse Offering Alternating Current. Lethal Potential of Electricity. Experiments with small animals. Safety of Alternating Current. Disappearance of Edison in G.E. Management.
Session 10. Mining and Magnetic Processing of Iron Ore. Two Children Born. Selling G.E. Shares. Reception at Paris Exposition. Development of KInetoscope. Early Movies with Boxing. Inception of Vitascope.
Session 11. Reorganizing Edison Companies. Concern about Edison companies and Edison Chemical Company, Centerpiece of Home Entertainment System and Competition with Victor Victrola. Starting over after Major Fire.
Session 12. Friendship of Ford and Edison. Electric Batteries and Electric Car Ideas. Edison Helping with Non-Cigarette Campaign to Help Ford Workers. Tom, Jr. Tinkering and Acceptance of Ford Car. Depression of Tom, Jr. Losing Patience with Edison battery. Edison and Ford Lecturing about the Jews.
Session 13, Benefits to the World. Edison Scholarship. Charles Edison and Apprentice at Boston Edison. Charles Completing Programs to Assist Thomas A. Edison, Inc. Employees. Edison Entrance Exam and Criticism. Edison Starting New Career industrial Botany. Theodore and Charles Edison Producing Radios.
Session 14. Adherence to Milk for Thomas's Diet. Credit: Making Life Worth LIving. Hoover Asking for All Lights Dimmed. All Four Sons Joining Careers in Invention Business. $12 M Estate, Edison General Electric with "Edison" Dropped. Iconic Site for American Ingenuity; Menlo Park. Working More Hours Than Anyone Else. Half Century of Fame.
Core Book
Stross, Randall E. The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World. New York; Three Rivers Press, 2007.
Morris, Edmund. Edison.: Voluntary Paperback Core Resource. New York; Random House, 2019, 2020.
Further Bibliographic References
Baldwin, Neil. Edison: Inventing the Century. New York: Hyperion, 1995.
Benge, Janet and Jeff. Thomas Edison: Inspiration and Hard Work. Lynnwood, Washington: Emerald Books, 2007.
Israel, Paul. Edison: A Life of Invention. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998.
Simmons, Michael W. Thomas Edison; Amertcan Inventor. Las Vegas, Nevada: Make Profits Easy LLC, , 2016.
Wikipedia on Thomas Edison