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.
In 1809, Humphry Davy invented the first electric light, a
platinum strip connected to the Royal Institute’s powerful
voltaic battery. Humphry Davy and Michael Faraday collaborated on
electrolysis experiments in the laboratory of the Royal Institute,
making it an important precident for the modern industrial
research laboratory.
In 1809, Humphry Davy invented the first electric light, a platinum strip connected to the Royal Institute’s powerful voltaic battery. Humphry Davy and Michael Faraday collaborated on electrolysis experiments in the laboratory of the Royal Institute, making it an important precident for the modern industrial research laboratory.
See also in The book of science:
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