Inventors of Everyday Technology by Morrison Heather S.;

Author:Morrison, Heather S.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cavendish Square Publishing LLC

The Impact of the Solution on Society

Much of Edison’s time was devoted to developing three ideas: electric light and power, sound recording, and movies. However, he still found time to explore other ideas. In the 1880s and 1890s, he developed large electric batteries. He originally designed these to help his friend Henry Ford (1863–1947), the automobile pioneer, who wanted to use electricity in his cars. Edison and Ford dreamed of using batteries to make an electric-powered car, but their creations never succeeded in rivaling the gasoline engine. In 1910, Edison demonstrated a way of making a home from poured concrete, receiving great acclaim.

During World War I, when a journalist asked Edison how the United States could win wars, he suggested that the US government “should maintain a great research laboratory” like his own. In 1915, the government asked Edison to head the Naval Consulting Board, a body that would advise the navy on using the latest technology. During this period, Edison made many discoveries helpful to the military, including a new way of launching torpedoes and a method of manufacturing synthetic rubber (to avoid being dependent on imports of natural rubber during the war). In 1923, Edison’s work led Congress to set up the Naval Research Laboratory, which has remained one of the world’s most important centers of military innovation.

Edison remained active well into his seventies, and his pace of work slowed only when his health began to fail. When he resigned as president of his company in 1926, his son Charles took over. Edison filed his last patent application on January 6, 1931, and died in West Orange nine months later on October 18. Just before his death, he woke briefly from a coma and uttered his last words to his wife: “It is very beautiful over there.” A few days later, every electric light in the country—including the one that powered the torch in the Statue of Liberty—was turned off for one minute in tribute.

Edison’s inventions had a huge impact on people’s lives. More than any other individual, he helped to usher in the modern age of electric power, convenience, and entertainment. His filament light demonstrated the usefulness of electricity, opened the door to electric power, and encouraged others to develop more electrical appliances. While Edison’s electricity changed homes and businesses, his work on sound recording and the movies improved people’s social lives, and his telegraph and telephone improvements brought advances in communication.

Although Edison’s inventions were often technical, he was more of a hands-on experimenter than a scientist or theoretician. He made no secret of this: “I try an experiment and reason out the result, somehow, by methods which I could not explain.” Driven by the old saying that “necessity is the mother of invention,” he always ensured that his inventions met people’s needs, and he continued to perfect his inventions long after they had been launched. All this required immense perseverance, a trait he acquired during the early years when his mother had encouraged him to overcome his hearing disability with hard work.

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