4. First case study – the subdivision of the light - HM Treasury

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F05 Ch4 Subdivision of the light.doc 05/04/2006 19:34:00 Technological roulette – a multi-disciplinary study of the dynamics of innovation in electrical, electronic and communications engineering. 4. First case study – the subdivision of the light October 1889 United Edison Manufacturing Company succeeds Edison United Manufacturing Company October 1889 US Circuit Court decides that Edison is the inventor of the electric light filament 6 August 1890 William Kemmler electrocuted for murder in Auburn Spring 1892 Formation of General Electric by merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston April 1894 Introduction of kinetoscope August 1894 Edison forces North American Phonograph Co. into bankruptcy, later founds National Phonograph Co. March 1896 Edison builds fluoroscope, experiments with X-rays 1899 Edison starts developing alkaline battery for electric automobiles Summer 1900 Final abandonment of magnetic ore-milling project 1902 Edison initiates work on electric vehicles July 1902 Portland cement plant goes into operation December 1909 Edison initiates work on disk phonograph January 1912 Edison agrees to design self-starter for Model T Winter 1913 Edison attempt to introduce talking motion pictures fails February 1918 Closing of motion-picture studio October 1928 Edison receives special Congressional medal December 1930 End of phonograph production 105
F05 Ch4 Subdivision of the light.doc 05/04/2006 19:34:00 Technological roulette – a multi-disciplinary study of the dynamics of innovation in electrical, electronic and communications engineering. 4. First case study – the subdivision of the light 4.7.4.2 Early life and inventions Thomas Alva Edison was born on 11 February 1847 in a small town, a few miles from the southern shore of Lake Erie. At the age of twelve. he took a job as newsboy on the train from Port Huron to Detroit. The time-tabling meant that he had a fourteen-hour day, leaving at 7.00 in the morning and not arriving back until 9.30 at night. However, although as newsboy he could earn only the profits on paper sales, he also sold refreshments to the passengers and was able to take advantage of the six hours’ stop-over in Detroit to study in the reading room of the Young Men’s Association. He quickly expanded these business activities by hiring other boys and was soon making a profit of twenty dollars a week. One of Edison’s main problems was to estimate accurately his newspaper sales on the return run as he had to bear the cost of those which remained unsold. He attempted to reduce the risk by persuading a compositor on the Detroit Free Press to tell him in advance what the day’s main news story would be, so that he could gauge demand. On one occasion, in April 1862, the news broke of a huge and bloody battle in the American Civil War at Shiloh near Corinth, Tennessee. The Confederate General Albert S. Johnston had been killed and, although the battle was still in progress, the dead and wounded already numbered twenty-five thousand. “I grasped the situation at once. Here was a chance for enormous sales, if only the people along the line could know what had happened. If only they could see the proof slip I was then reading! Suddenly an idea occurred to me.” First he made for the telegraph operator on the Detroit station. Would he, Edison asked, telegraph to each of the main stations down the line and suggest that the station master should chalk up the news of the battle on the boards usually carrying the train times. In return Edison offered to supply the man with Harper’s Weekly, Harper’s Monthly. and an evening paper for the next six months. That bargain struck, he went to the Free Press offices and asked for 1,500 copies on credit. On being refused he talked his way into the office of the editor, Wilbur F. Storey, who listened to his request in silence. Then he handed the boy a slip of paper, saying: “Take that downstairs and you will get what you want.” “I took my fifteen hundred papers, got three boys to help me fold them, and mounted the train, all agog to find out whether the telegraph operator had kept his word. At the town where our first stop was made I usually sold two papers. As the train swung into that station, I looked ahead, and thought there must be a riot going on. A big crowd filled the platform, and as the train drew up I began to realize that they wanted my papers. Before we left I had sold a hundred or two at five cents a piece. At the next station the place was fairly black with people. I raised the ante, and sold three hundred papers at ten cents each. So it went on until Port Huron was reached. Then I transferred my remaining stock to the wagon which always waited for me there, hired a small boy to sit on the pile of papers in the back of the wagon, so as to discount any pilfering, and sold out every paper I had at a quarter of a dollar or more per copy. I remember I passed a church full of worshippers and stopped to yell out my news. In ten 106
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4. First case study – the subdivision of the light - HM Treasury

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