Description
Book SynopsisFrom the preeminent Edison scholar . . . The definitive life of the inventor of the modern age
The conventional story is so familiar and reassuring that it has come to read more like American myth than history: With only three months of formal education, a curious and hardworking young man beats the odds and becomes one of the greatest inventors in history. Not only does he invent the phonograph and the first successful electric light bulb, but he also establishes the first electrical power distribution company and lays the technological groundwork for today''s movies, telephones, and sound recording industry. Through relentless tinkering, by trial and error, the story goes, Thomas Alva Edison perseveres-and changes the world.
In the revelatory Edison: A Life of Invention, author Paul Israel exposes and enriches this one-dimensional view of the solitary Wizard of Menlo Park, expertly situating his subject within a thoroughly realized portrait of a burgeoning country o
Table of ContentsChildhood and Education.
Itinerant Telegrapher.
From Operator to Inventor.
A Leading Electromechanician.
Competing Interests.
From Shop to Laboratory.
New Directions.
The Invention Factory.
The Wizard of Menlo Park.
Inventing a System.
From Research to Development.
Inventing an Industry.
Family Matters.
A New Laboratory.
Inventing Entertainment.
Industrial Research.
Competition and Consolidation.
Innovation and Enthusiasm.
A Modern Legend.
Fame in the Family.
The Business of Innovation.
Edison Incorporated.
Inventor-Philosopher.
Epilogue.
Notes.
Index.
