Young Tom Edison-about 12

He is the world’s greatest inventor-proclaimed Man of the Millennium in 1996 by Life magazine. Economists believe because of his incredible lifetime accomplishments, one fourth of all the jobs on the planet today can be traced back to him.

Yes, it is Thomas Edison, the home-schooled boy born in the Midwest in 1847 who develops an indomitable spirit of never giving up and learning from failure.

His early fascination with telegraphy leads to many new inventions including vastly improved telegraphy, a more practical telephone, the stock ticker, and an electric pen-the harbinger of copying machines.

As he matures he rocks the world with the electric light bulb/and the demonstration of the central electric power generation system, the phonograph and movies… three mainstays of our modern world. Another major innovation is the “invention factory”, a system for producing rapid prototypes of new inventions, later to be re-named the R&D lab-arguably his greatest contribution to economic growth.

The Invention Factory

Edison with the First Electronic Patent-a Hybrid Light Bulb Prototype Vacuum Tube

Today, his inventions and accomplishments make up about 10% of the annual American economy…85 years after his death!

On and on the litany of his inventions go-the first electronic patent, leading to vacuum tubes; radio transmission; alkaline storage batteries; loudspeakers; improved cement; fluoroscopy; talking dolls; fluorescent lights. It is a rich and powerful engine of innovation he fashions.

We think it is cool today to have electric vehicles in our garages, charging up overnight. We can thank Edison for this as well, for he pioneered such a thing in 1905-1908. Edison, the visionary, was busy years ago changing our world in yet another way. Oh yes, Edison was a big solar energy enthusiast way back in 1910!

Edison Holding his Famous Nickel-Iron Storage Battery for Electric Vehicles

At his legendary West Orange, NJ labs, known today as the Thomas Edison National Historical Park [NPS], visitors can experience Edison in many displays; and listen to experts discuss the man’s successes and failures.

The Park is the site of the world’s most complete technological museum, the mother ship of our nation’s technological glory, where everything Edison is carefully and lovingly cared for so generations of Americans can experience the birth of our technological prowess. All his original inventions and related 5 million written documents and laboratory notebooks are all there.

About 40,00 students and teachers a year visit the site as part of their STEM classroom experience … for Thomas Edison and what he did at West Orange is the very taproot of STEM learning.

Young Students Visiting the Park and Taking their Junior Ranger Oath

Thomas Edison said, “I have more respect for the fellow with a single idea who gets there than for the fellow with a thousand ideas who does nothing.”

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Are you one of those people who hear the clock ticking, relentlessly squeezing your productive time? Thomas Edison sure did. He had a keen sense of how fast time was moving; knowing that with each tick of the clock, competition was edging closer.

“The thing with which I lose patience most is the clock. Its hands move too fast”

Edison’s time card would often register 90+ hours a week of work time!

His incredible legacy of team-based invention, which led to the invention factory concept, later to be popularly known as commercial R&D labs, has two great advantages….first, it codifies new product development into a repeatable sequence of steps-thereby extending indefinitely the industrial revolution of the late 1880s, right on up to current times. Second, it allows an incredibly fertile mind like Edison to multiplex his interests and skills across many project teams-which in Edison’s case usually kept 30-40 teams continuously busy with new inventions. In a way, the invention factory was a way to cheat that relentless clock he heard so clearly.

“The only time I become discouraged is when I think of all the things I like to do and the little time I have in which to do them”

Even in his home library, the mind of the great inventor was ever engaged.

Edison embodied this preoccupation with time with a stretch goal for his teams-often challenging them to come up with a minor invention every ten days and a major one every 3-6 months. Every night in the quiet of his home library, Edison would develop new ideas to be prototyped in his labs. His children would help him find important information from his many technical books, looking through the books and placing bits of paper where Papa could find what he was looking for.

“I would like to live about three hundred years. I think I have id

Yes he was, a baseball fan. No big surprise here that he would love this beloved American sport. Here he is below throwing out a baseball, kicking off a long-ago match between teams … boys on a summer day.

At his legendary West Orange Labs, with his many employees, probably 10,000 or more, it was only natural for many healthy young men to engage in sports, what would later become known as industrial leagues. Tom supported his different sports teams. Here in the photo below, he is surrounded by one of those baseball teams, circa 1920s.

Down at his winter home in Ft. Myers Florida, Edison enjoyed watching the boys tune-up their Spring training for the up-coming season. His attraction to the Philadelphia Athletics [later to become the Kansas City Athletics and later the Oakland A’s] was enshrined in this circa 1925 photo of Tom with (l. to r.) Ty Cobb and Connie Mack. He befriended legendary team manager Connie Mack, often socializing with him and other members of the team, and even occasionally hosting them at his estate. Edison remained a loyal fan, attending Athletics’ spring training and regular season games.

There was another fascinating connection Edison had with baseball. His Portland Cement (about 68,000 bags of it) was used to build the world’s most iconic ballpark-Yankee Stadium.

Play Ball!

Check these sites out:

• http://edison.rutgers.edu/baseball.htm
• https://www.edisonmuckers.org/the-house-that-babe-ruth%e2%80%a6-and-edison-built/

“I find out what the world needs. Then I go ahead and try to invent it.”

Time® is a registered trademark of Time Inc.

“Because of him, the millennium will end in a wash of brilliant light rather than in torchlight darkness as it began.” -Life Magazine

Edison in his beloved chemistry lab

In today’s highly charged political environment, folks like to talk about creating jobs and who is best able to do this. Thomas Edison moved to West Orange, NJ in 1886, to live and create what would become his great invention and manufacturing facility-his legendary West Orange Labs. Nothing but farmland in 1887 when construction begins, by 1905, there are over 14,000 people working there-with a full complement of buildings on 25 acres of land.

Here is the real magic of Edison, who teaches the world a powerful economic lesson-the incredible value of R&D in new product development. By 1905, there are about 250 people working in Edison’s invention factory [photo below], where 30-40 project teams are busy creating and building new products.

Edison’s heavy machine shop-where invention prototypes take shape

As Edison himself approves these prototypes for production, the other 14,000 employees then make, market, and sell the new products. That is a manpower leverage of almost 60 to 1. An R&D job is capable of creating about 60 more manufacturing jobs. This is the essence of a technology driven economy and what we have generally come to call “progress”. Last year, the U.S. spent almost $500 billion on R&D, across all economic sectors.

Edison enjoying a meal with fellow inventors, his “Muckers”

In 2012, the Voice of America proclaimed Thomas Edison was probably responsible for one-fourth of all the jobs on the planet. Something he achieved in his labs or patented, or an industry he created, resulted in significant jobs and economies that have come down to us today.

“Among life’s many conveniences we can take for granted, thanks in part to him [Edison]: copiers, radio, movies, TV, phones (he improved Bell’s).” –Life Magazine

Following this up, the Edison Innovation Foundation commissioned in 2015 its own economic analysis of Edison’s impact on our economy. Examining the productivity ripple effect of Edison’s major accomplishments, approximately 10% of the annual national economy, about $1.6 trillion, is directly attributable to the great inventor’s work. At an international level, this translates to about $6-7 trillion per year.

The best way to sum up Edison’s impact is to quote Life Magazine, which proclaimed Edison the “Man of the Millennium!”

Thomas Edison said, “If we all did the things we are really capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves …”

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