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.

The movie “Edison Miracle of Light” has taught me a lot about inventions and innovation. Before viewing the film I did not know the many things that were related to inventing something completely new. The film taught me that Edison was not the sole creator of the light bulb, he had help of many great scientists of the time, but he was the guy who organized it and made it all happen. Edison was the creator of not only the light bulb but also everything that comes along with it. Even though there was a competing type of current the AC(alternating current), Edison still pushed for his way DC(direct current), and made all of the parts that were needed to operate the light bulb.

Another part of the whole invention and innovation process that I have never thought about is the money involved. To be able to invent such new technologies great expenses were involved. The laboratory had to be built, the scientists had to be hired, resources to experiment with and so on. Without the help of JP Morgan the light bulb and electricity may not have spread as fast as it did or it may not have spread at all.

The hat the represents Edison the most is the hat of an explorer. Edison came out of a poor and underprivileged family and still managed to learn many things that led to him to his inventions. Edison explored new ideas that almost none had thought of and attempted before. Edison was also an artists and a judge. He was an artist because he had to come up the design of the research lab, the research and development of the light bulb, and he was able to convince JP Morgan that the idea of the light bulb was worth pursuing. He was a judge because he had to make critical decisions that would make his inventions a success. He did not quit even after two years of failure attempts because he judged that they would find a right way to make a light bulb. I think that Edison was less of a Warrior because he did not like change. He did not want to adjust to change and stray from his direct current to the standard alternating current. If he had switched to the alternating current I am sure he could have found many ways of improving what was already made and inventing things. He could have used the alternating current to his advantage, but he did not.

The Movie “Edison Miracle of Light” taught me alot about the type of person Edison was and about his countless contibutions to our society. Its hard to believe that a poor, self-taught; half-deaf man could overcome so much in his lifetime.

One of the things that really interested me about him was the fact that he put his work before anything else, this was most likely the reason why he was able to accomplish so much. He had alot of self-motivation and determination. Even when everyone told him that an incandescent light bulb was impossible, he wouldn’t listen, not because he was deaf, but because once he set his mind to do something the only person’s opinion that mattered to him was his own and if he thought he could do something he normally did. Although Edison’s stubborn attitude helped him to accomplish so much, it also back fired on him heavily when he decided on DC power versus AC. Although the benefits of AC over DC were obvious, Edison still insisted that was not the case but Westinghouse was able to prove him wrong and this ultimatley became the downfall of Edison.

Because of Edison’s brilliant mind and endless determination I would say that he wheres the explorer and warrior hats.

Edison, in my opinion, was more of an artist than any of the other characters. It was said that it was impossible to create a light a whole houe with the lightbulbs and electric current. People told Edison and viewers that it has already been tried and every attempt was failed. Edsion thought beyond the impossible. Edison was determine to prove to himself and the world that he invent such a tremendous device. Even in his lost in the general electric company he still went and invented ither impossible devices. It was not the rules or old notes that lead to the solution a nd discover of his newest invention. It was simpily an incident that occure din his factory with one of his workers. Edisons teammate was sitting around playing with a sort of material/ substance that lead to the break of the biggest invention in the world to this day.

Ediosn contradictd himself in this particular hat. “Change is inevitable,”in the beginning of his career Edison believed in this statement. He believed in making the impossible possible. But whn other inventors, competitiors, rvials found new and better ways to improve Edison’s work, he wanted nothng to do with their ideas. Edison felt as though electricity was his field of work and that he was the godfather of direct current. He believe so deeply in his system he could ot see beyond what he thinks h ehas prefected. His rivals Thesla and Westinghouse both came up with the idea of using alternate current to send electricity in farther distances. Edison abhorred alternate current so much that he was willing to sell alternating current as a product to those who wanted to use an electric chair as a means of a death penalty. Edison also use d alternating current to kill animals just so he could prve that it was not good for the world.

I enjoyed the documentary on Edison. It seemed to go over his life as an inventor quite well, and gave me a better idea of the role he played in the electrification of the United States. I was impressed by his dedication – he had the idea of electrifying all of the US, and he stuck with it, even when his progress was severely delayed or when no one else was willing to back him. Few people would be willing to take such huge risks, and in this case the payoff was clearly worth the risk.

Edison wore all four hats while inventing. However, the hat he wore the least was that of the judge. He refused to consider AC to be a viable solution, and this decision ultimately caused him to lose the war between AC and DC for the electrification of the US. AC was clearly the better system, but his own ego prevented him from accepting this fact.

The material in the video was well presented, however, I would have liked it to be more technical, like stating how many volts the original system ran on so I could compare it with today’s modern electrical system. Other than that, I enjoyed the video and it sets a good stage for learning more about Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and everyone else that was involved in the electrification of the US.

I believe that the information was well presented.  There was a little more bias for Edison then I would have liked, but it was done pretty well.  The way that the movie portrayed Edison, he came across as an explorer with strong almost anti-warrior tendencies.  He would considered an explorer because the movie portrayed him as an inventor first and for most.  While the anti-warrior tendencies would be based around the fact that he stubbornly resisted change, thereby going against the philosophy behind the warrior.

I really learned a lot of things about Edison through this video. A new side that people never knew about was portrayed through this documentary. Edison really was an amazing inventing a light bulb and trying to change the nation from using gaslights to electric lights. What he achieved is something I do not think anyone else has achieved. He changed the entire way the world worked. Despite all his achievements, I was very shocked to know about his dark side. I felt very disappointed when I found how he tried to prove Westinghouse’s AC power as the executioner. Killing dogs and then killing the criminal through the means of electrocution was terrible. And he did not do it for justice but just to beat down this competitor.

 I think out of the four hats, I believe Edison kind of fits in each of them. First he is an inventor for that you need to be an explorer and an artist. He was very imaginative in the things he used and invented. He used many data’s to come to the right one. Then he became a businessman after his invention. He portrays himself as both a judge and a warrior during this time. During his inventions, he used his judge characteristics a lot. He didn’t fool around with time. When he knew, he could make something he did it. His warrior characteristic showed during his businessman era. He fought through till the very end for what he believed in and to accomplish his dreams till the end. Even though his dreams were accomplished, he had to let go of his invention in the end to improve it.

What I learned from watching the film was more about Edisons personally than his life acheivements.  I think that a lot of people can list off most of Edison’s greatest inventions and acheivements, but I am not quite sure as many people could deeply describe Edison as a human being.  Edison was very hard headed, and stood strong in his beliefs.  He was the person that defended his opinions and choices to the fullest extent and would argue for ages that he was correct.  This is seen in the popular AC versus DC eletrical war.  Westinghouse manufacured AC devices and could acheive stronger effects than Edison.  But Edison would argue that his DC running devices are far safer.  In the end we all know that AC turned out to be the current for the future, but Edison would keep his position his entire life.

Thomas Edison not only stood strong in his opinions, but also knew how to keep his team in a positive spirit.  Edison was a master of moral.  He knew early on the best way to keep his team working harder and longer was to keep there spirits high.  He would let his men talk about how great they were doing, even if the work was not working as it was suppossed too.  He would stop and sing songs with his men at the organ.  The are examples of how Edison made sure that even though his team was highly worked, they did it out of pleasure.

Lastly to touch on Edison and the hats.  I believe that Edison was truely a master of all four hats.  This is why he is the greatest inventor in all of history.  But if there is one hat that really stood out to me, its the artist.  Edison manipulated and tweaked his inventions thousands upon thousands of times to finally come up with the solution he was looking for.  His patience was incredible, and his minds eye could see all the posiblilities for solutions with amazing precision.  Edison knew how to adapt in certain situations, and he knew how to be creative.  To me, Edison might be one of the most creative thinkers we have known in our history to date.

I felt that the video itself was very informative and told a lot about Edison’s life and all the success he had as an inventor. The documentary taught me many little interesting facts about Edison, including the fact the he was starting to lose his hearing at the age of 12 and also the fact the he learned to translate the code from a telegraph. This are just some one of many that are interesting to me. The documentary itself I thought was really well organized starting at one point of his life, from his childhood, till after the war of electrity and after. But I felt that the film was kind of childish and could of been presented in a better way.

From the film, someone can crearly see that Edison has many traits that has made him into the best inventor of in history. I think that the best hat that fits Edison was the artistic hat. Edison really needed to be really imaginative to think of all of his inventions, not only that he took inventions already made and made them better like the lightbulb for example. I also think that the warrior hat fits Edison cause he was always pushing his ideas to the public. The direct current is what i felt he was pushing the most, never giving till the end, that his form of current was safer and better for the people than that of Westinghouse’s alternating current.

Even though “The Miracle of Light” was a documentary it was still very interesting, I learned a good deal of information about Edison and his inventions.  I learned he was a man that was set out to change the world and he accomplished it in his lifetime.  If it were not for Edison our lives would be drastically different.  Edison was a visionary mastermind of his day and to think he was all self-taught is just mind boggling.  Edison was very dedicated to his work to the point that his wives barely saw him because he was in his lab working on an invention.

Edison was not only an inventor he was also a business man as well.  In order to get his light bulb to be commercially use he would have to invent the whole infrastructure of the electric system in every city.  He knew this and he also knew he would be a very wealthy man from all the sales of the generators.  Even though he was way passed his deadline of originally three weeks he still got the light bulb invented and then Edison became a household name from his invention.

Out of the four hats Edison was most of all a warrior because he was very stubborn.  He would not admit that AC was better than DC which was his invention.  He did not want to say his current was defeated by another current invented by someone else.  He did have the other hats come into play in his life but warrior was the one that played the main lead most of his life.