Thomas Edison's Eerie 'Invention' Has Been Leaving People Spooked For Decades
You likely know "America's greatest inventor" Thomas Edison for his revolutionary creations, some of which we still use every single day, like the light bulb. But we'd bet you know nothing of his unscrutinized lemon inventions, like the electric pen and the tinfoil phonograph. He created a few duds over his lifetime, but few stand out more than the "monstrosity" he created that nearly tarnished his career.
A Determined Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison was relentless in his pursuit of new ideas. "Many of life’s failures," he once said, "are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." He followed every idea through to its very end, and this worked out well for him. But not always.
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Patents on Patents
Over 84 years, Thomas Edison filed for 1,093 patents. He had a lot of ideas and played some part in creating lamps, telephones, alkaline batteries, and cameras that could be used to make films. For as smart as he was, however, Edison had one glaring blind spot in his genius.
No Marketing Genius
“Fundamentally, I don’t think Edison understood consumer markets all that well,” explained Paul Israel, the author of 1998's Edison: A Life of Invention. “He was much better at producing technology marketed by either others or for other producers.” This is why those 1,093 patents filed also contained some oddities.
Experimental vs. Commercial Failures
“From his experimental failures Edison sees ways to learn, to gain knowledge,” Paul Israel said. “But commercial failures, of which the toy doll was clearly one, sometimes they don’t really go anywhere. One doesn’t get the sense that Edison, other than for a brief period, comes away from that venture thinking, ‘Why did this fail? Marketing? Economics?’ He just never pursues those kinds of investigations.”
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