Edison

How much do we really know about Thomas Edison, the man who considered deriving rubber from a goldenrod plant as opposed to the genius who gave us electric light? This text gives a complex portrait of the inventor and an account of the intellectual climate of the country he worked in and changed.

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The genius of Thomas Edison is widely acknowledged, and Edison himself has become an almost mythical figure. But how much do we really know about the man who considered deriving rubber from a goldenrod plant as opposed to the genius who gave us electric light? In this text, Neil Baldwin gives a complex portrait of the inventor - both myth and man - and an account of the intellectual climate of the country he worked in and irrevocably changed.