Edison Miracle of Light – Jonathan Asfour

I found the movie “Edison: Miracle of Light,” a very interesting and well presented movie. I learned many things and enjoyed the way they presented all the information. The way that Edison was so confident amused me. He stated that he was going to change the world in six weeks with the invention of a practical light bulb. I also found it quite comical the way that they took Edison’s word as if it were the word of “God.” When I thought about it, I think  that I would’ve reacted the same way during that time. To make light from electricity when fire was the only means of light before must have been amazing.

Another thing that intrigued me was the way Edison seemed to not care about money. He cared more about inventing for the sake of inventions then inventing for the sake of money. I think one of the reasons he did so well was that he loved what he was doing. This was definately the explorer and artist aspect about Edisons personality. I learned many other things from the video, such as Edison created the world’s first research laboratory in Menlo Park. Another thing that was nice about the video was that it visually portrayed many things that I only saw drawn out, such as the arc light and the whole system behind a simple light bulb. Something that made me think was when one man in the video stated that Edison was not capable of performing the mathematics behind alternating current. It seemed quite ridiculous to say a statement like that because Edison was not formally schooled, when Edison invented so many inventions.

When Edison fought to discredit alternating current, he showed his judge and warrior side. He evaluated the method and did not like it so he fought against it and pursued his idea of direct current. I think that this movie was very well done and extremely informative on both the light bulb and electricity, and Edison’s life.