Edison

4 ideas

1. Edison's goldenrod hunt for domestic rubber

   In his last years, with backing from Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone, Edison ran the Edison Botanic Research Corporation in Fort Myers. Its goal was a rubber source that could be grown in the United States, so the country would not depend on foreign plantations. The team screened thousands of plant species and settled on a bred strain of goldenrod, but the project never became commercial before his death in 1931. It shows him, even in old age, turning an industrial problem into a mass chemical screening effort.

2. Hearing music by biting the phonograph

   Edison was severely deaf from youth. He evaluated recordings and pianos by clamping his teeth into the wooden cabinet so vibrations reached him through bone conduction. He then imposed his own taste on what his company recorded, disliking vibrato and favoring plain tones. He also claimed his deafness helped him by shutting out chatter and letting him concentrate.

3. Edison was a chemist before an electrician

   Morris argues that Edison's core method was chemical and material experimentation rather than electrical theory. Many of his breakthroughs came from exhaustively varying substances until one behaved.

4. Failed iron-ore mill reborn as cement

   In the 1890s Edison sank much of his fortune into a giant magnetic ore-separation works at Ogdensburg, New Jersey. The mill failed commercially when rich Mesabi Range ore made low-grade eastern ore uneconomic. He then reused its rock-crushing and kiln technology to enter the Portland cement business. A ruinous venture's machinery became the basis of the next one.

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