Industrial research laboratory Perspiration Inventions Employees Inventing Commentary

Thomas Edison philosophy of science

Industrial research laboratory

• Thomas Edison sold his quadruplex telegraph
• to Western Union and used the money
• to build the first industrial research laboratory
• in Menlo Park, New Jersey, and to hire a large team
• of engineers, physicists, craftsmen, and accountants
• to conduct research and development under his direction.

Perspiration

• “Genius is one percent inspiration,
• ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
• —Thomas A. Edison, Harper’s Monthly, September 1932.

Inventions

• Edison or his employees invented
• the printing telegraph,
• the stencil-pen and the perforating pen,
• the quadruplex telegraph,
• the carbon microphone,
• the phonomotor
• (a motor driven by sound),
• the phonograph, the phonograph recorder,
• and the phonograph reproducer,
• the kinetoscope,
• the dictaphone,
• the autographic printer,
• the magnetic ore-separator,
• the printer working by repeated impacts of a stylus,
• the electric fuse,
• and the talking doll.
• They improved the zinc-copper acid battery,
• the incandescent light bulb,
• the ticker-tape machine,
• the fluoroscope,
• and the telephone.

Employees

• Edward Hibberd Johnson hired the young Edison at the Automatic Telegraph Company
• and later worked as Edison’s executive and partner;
• Charles Batchelor, Edison’s chief experimental assistant,
• worked on projects in telegraphy, telephony, the phonograph, and electric lighting
• and became general manager of General Electric Company;
• John Kruesi, a clockmaker, became Edison’s head machinist
• and built prototypes for Edison’s inventions;
• Francis Robbins Upton, physicist and mathematician,
• worked with Edison on the light bulb, the watt-hour meter, and power distribution,
• and invented the first fire alarm sensor;
• Francis Jehl was one of Edison’s laboratory assistants
• and helped develop the incandescent light bulb;
• William Joseph Hammer helped develop the light bulb
• invented the first electric advertising sign
• and became an expert in power distribution;
• Samuel Insull built power stations for Edison
• and was one of the founders of Edison General Electric;
• Frank J. Sprague introduced mathematical methods
• at Edison’s laboratory in Menlo Park
• and corrected Edison’s electric distibution systems;
• after leaving Edison, Sprague introducted regenerative braking;
• he became known as the father of electric traction;
• Nikola Tesla worked briefly for Edison
• but soon went out on his own
• invented the AC induction motor
• and sold it to Edison’s rival George Westinghouse;
• Edison hired Lewis Howard Latimer as a draftsman,
• but Latimer had already invented
• an improved toilet system for railroad cars
• and a method for producing carbon filaments for light bulbs;
• Arthur E. Kennelly and Harold P. Brown
• invented the electric chair;
• Hermann Lemp worked with Edison on his first electric locomotives
• and later invented the controller for the first diesel-electric locomotive.
• William Kennedy Dickson developed Edison’s kinetoscope
• and invented motion picture film,
• Eugene Augustin Lauste, Dickson’s assistant,
• invented the Latham loop and the first sound on film;
• Clarence Madison Dally, a glassblower, worked with his brother, Charles,
• on Edison’s X-ray focus tube, developing a better fluoroscope,
• and volunteered to test the equipment,
• subsequently becoming the first victim of radiation dermatitis;
• Edwin S. Porter created and directed over 250 films
• for Edison Pictures and invented the fade-in.
• Miller Reese Hutchison worked as Edison’s chief engineer,
• and invented the hearing aid, the electric Klaxon horn,
• and an electric tachometer for steam ships.

Inventing

• Many people could advise if you need help
• sitting before a blank piece of paper,
• a threatening, accusatory blank piece of paper.
• Necessity can also be threatening and accusatory,
• but maybe your necessity is warm and comforting;
• maybe your blank piece of paper is an inviting doorway.
• Think of it that way, and when any little rascal
• shows its little head in your doorway,
• don’t let it escape, don’t wait for any other,
• but get its statement and measurements,
• and never never think that you must make it
• anything other than it really is.