Sparks Commentary: A review of PBS's “Edison: The Father of Invention” (American Experience)

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”

– Thomas Alva Edison

The great “geek” questions: “Edison or Tesla?”

I have heard that one of the big “geek” questions is “Edison or Tesla?” I suppose that science geeks and engineering geeks are the ones most likely to ask this question, but business geeks like me (and history geeks like me) do as well, since they were both massive figures in the history of business. Edison founded a company called “Edison General Electric,” which later merged with the “Thomson-Houston Electric Company” to form “General Electric.” The latter company is still around today in its merged form. There are also a number of other companies that bear his name today, such as “Southern California Edison” – part of a larger company called “Edison International.” General Electric alone would be a major business legacy for any man, since it is one of the biggest companies in the country today. (In 2018, it was the 18th-largest firm in the United States by gross revenue.) But Edison was first and foremost a great inventor, and that is how he is best remembered today.

Edison invented much more than just the electric light bulb …

People remember Edison as “the man who invented the light bulb.” But as this documentary shows, the invention of the incandescent light bulb was a team effort, since Edison was among the first to apply principles of organized science and teamwork to the process of invention. Moreover, the electric light bulb was far from the only invention to be registered in Edison’s name. There were 1,093 patents registered under Edison’s name during his lifetime, and they included other famous inventions besides the light bulb. For example, he helped to invent a motion picture camera, which was instrumental in the creation of the movie industry. He also invented the phonograph, which was one of the first devices to reproduce the human voice (and other kinds of sound). Others had recorded sound in musical notation on paper – for example, clefs and notes for sheet music. But none of these other inventions could actually reproduce the sound, in the way that a phonograph recording could. One of this documentary’s real treats for me was a recorded demonstration of this invention by Edison himself. Edison recorded himself saying: “Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow/And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.” When he played the recording back for various onlookers, they were amazed that it could actually reproduce the sound of his voice. Nothing like this had ever been heard before, and it was a demonstration that he would conduct time and time again. It was good publicity, and Edison knew the value of such publicity for his business. Thus, he patiently repeated the demonstration for one crowd after another.

Thomas Edison giving his “Mary had a little lamb” demonstration of the recording of his voice

Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory, reconstructed at Greenfield Village at Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan

Edison was a brilliant businessman, as well as a great inventor …

Edison owed much to the financial backing of the banker John Pierpont Morgan, who saw the massive potential of Edison’s inventions to make money for his investors. Mr. Morgan is covered in the History Channel documentary “The Men Who Built America.” It was he who later suggested that “Edison General Electric” merge with “Thomson-Houston Electric Company” to form “General Electric.” Unlike some other businessmen, Morgan was someone who was born into great wealth; but he grew his inherited wealth into a much greater fortune by the time that he died. Mr. Morgan had been raised to avoid risky investments, and his father thus disapproved of the risky backing of Thomas Edison’s company. But J. P. Morgan’s instincts were that Edison could indeed make money, and his instincts proved correct on this. The Edison inventions did indeed bring him a considerable financial return. They also allowed him to build an enormous power grid that would bring electricity to American homes. This was where the real money in the electric light bulb industry was actually found – not in the actual production of the lightbulbs themselves, but in providing the power to make them work, for one neighborhood after another. I have written in another blog post about the value of those temporary monopolies granted by patent laws, and their ability to reward innovations in the invention of new technologies. In a similar way, a temporary monopoly over the use of infrastructure may be a good reward for utility companies who have undertaken to build it. Otherwise, there will not be much incentive to help society by building this infrastructure for them to use. Edison’s monopolies over the electrical infrastucture, and over the products covered by his patents, were one of the enormous drivers of his success. He certainly deserved them, and worked very hard at his business.

John Pierpont Morgan, Edison’s financial backer

Some brief comments on Edison’s personal life, and his marriages and children

But his family life tended to suffer as a result. As they cover in this documentary, he was not at home much to raise his six children. They barely ever saw him, except on Sundays. His first wife died of natural causes, possibly from accidental morphine overdose. (Doctors often prescribed morphine at that time for certain kinds of illnesses.) Thus, after he had mourned the loss of his first wife, he was married a second time, and stayed married to his second wife until his death in 1931. Edison had the personality of a workaholic, and could block out other areas of his life for the sake of his work. He lived for those moments when he was in his laboratory, and bringing a new invention to the American public.

Thomas Edison himself

Edison’s complicated relationship with his protégé Nikola Tesla, who later became his enemy

This documentary also covers his complicated relationship with Nikola Tesla, who is covered in two other PBS documentaries – both of which are focused entirely on Mr. Tesla. One is an hour-long American Experience film called “Tesla,” directed by David Grubin (one of my favorite filmmakers). The other was an hour-and-a-half-long film called “Tesla: Master of Lightning,” narrated by Stacy Keach. Since the latter film was longer, this is the one that I decided to watch to learn about Tesla. Even the 90-minute film about Tesla felt painfully short, and was only able to scratch the surface of Tesla’s life. One felt that they were going very quickly through certain parts of his life, and the brevity was almost painful. Nonetheless, “Tesla: Master of Lightning” was quite good, and taught me a lot about the brilliant (if somewhat impractical) inventor. This Edison documentary, by contrast, is two hours long, and somewhat more in-depth. Edison may not have been as brilliant a scientist or an inventor as Tesla, but Edison was more practical in both his inventions and his business skills. Tesla had once worked for Edison, and seems to have been cheated by the older Edison. This may have been part of why Tesla broke with his former boss, and started his own rival company. The company was called “Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing.” But it soon went out of business, taking his patents and their profits with it. Tesla was now penniless, and had lost at the game of business. Nonetheless, Tesla survived the painful defeat, and continued to fight against Edison for much of the rest of his life. There’s a reason that Edison and Tesla are often portrayed as rivals. Even though one of them had previously worked for the other, they spent much of their careers as enemies, and remained such until their deaths.

Conclusion: This is an excellent introduction to Edison’s life

This biography about Edison is not always sympathetic, but it seems like they give a fair portrayal of the man in their two hours of runtime. They show both his successes and his failures, and seem to portray them in the right proportions (Edison is a generally sympathetic figure). I wouldn’t have objected to something even longer than this, but you can still do a lot in two hours. It’s better than some books (partly because of its visuals), and it’s certainly better than a Wikipedia article. (Although the Wikipedia article on Edison is still quite good.) It’s certainly entertaining, and has the dramatic power that one expects from PBS. Although I am a big fan of biographies about statesmen as well, I am glad that PBS’s “American Experience” series doesn’t just focus on politicians, military leaders, and social issues (which all have to do with the public sector). I am glad that they sometimes cover the private sector, and talk about influential businessmen like Mr. Edison.