Edison, the Man – Alexander Skinner

Watching this film on Thomas Edison was actually entertaining, because of the comedic side that was presented to us of Edison.  Edison was presented as a shy man to the reporters, but a very sharp and outgoing men to those he knew well.  Edison was also portrayed as a extremely discipline man regarding to his work.  He would work for many days away from home with just a few cat naps to keep him going.  And another interesting side of Edison was his charming side.  He charmed his future wife and gained her love.  But then he neglected her once he was married and working hard with kids.  Also, Edison was portrayed as a good father, which from Jill Jonnes book, Empires of Light, we see a different father that neglected his kids just like his wife.

Edison’s work ethic in this movie was shown to be that of a man that loved his work so much more than anything else in life nothing else could even compare.  His love for his own family seemed to not even come close to that of inventing the things that revolutionized the world.  Edison was shown to work 18-22 hour days frequently and always push his workers to do the same.  But, he knew how to push his works so that they would work long and hard.  Edison would stop every now and then to play on the organ and sing with his workers.  Or maybe every now and then they would all ride the train togther for fun.  Edison gave positive encouragement to all of his men and that is what kept them all going so long and so efficiently.

Lastly I think that this movie might have over done the drama side of Edison’s life.  As far as the having a woman drop a coin on the ground to pay for his dinner and that sort of thing, that seemed over done to me.  I appreciated some of it for the movies sake, but it really seemed to be all for the entertainment side of things and not really for the reality side of things.

Edison, The Man – Rafael R.

Just as in the time when there was no written documentation, stories that were spoken orally would be slightly altered from the original and people would change the stories depending on the point they want to make to their listeners. In Empires of Light by Jill Jonnes, the author expects the readers to want to learn facts about Edison and keeps her book as factual and realistic as possible. On the other hand, the 1940s movie, “Edison, the Man” starring Spencer Tracy, is looking to satisfy viewer that are looking for entertainment, more than exact details. In the movie, Edison is portrayed as a very happy and outgoing individual. He is always making jokes and is very social. Also he is very romantic with his wife and a good father to his kids. His process of discovery is way different from Jill Jonnes’ description. He happens to make alot of his discoveries by trying things that people say won’t work. When he is carbonizing the string and his assistant tells him it’ll never work and they’ve already tried it. Edison persists on doing what everybody thinks is wrong and it happens to be right. From the movie we see that the qualities that make him successful are hard-work and his optimistic character. He was loved by everybody and his workers weren’t just people that worked for his invention factory, they were loyal friends. Jill Jonnes would agree that Edison was romantic sometimes, but he loved his work more than his wife, and we never hear about him being a good father, at all. We don’t know how he really acted as a person or if he really liked to be as humorous as he is in the movie. His discoveries were results of his hard work in which he tried everything and anything to make perfect. The way Edison is portrayed seems to differ by who the expected audience is going to be.

Edison The Man – Stephen Iero

Edison was a man that never let a man down.  He always tried to help whenever he was able too.  I think Edison saw a bit of himself when Jimmy came to Menlo Park because Edison was in the same position as Jimmy when he was young.  He also wanted the very best for his workers at the park, he made sure that they had a full pay out before he let them go.  The only people that were left out was his family because he was completely dedicated to the invention of the light bulb.  Once Edison had an idea he followed through with that idea to its full extent and that was a success for most of the time.  I never knew that Edison was such people person with the media and his colleagues.    There are a few differences from the book to the movie but they are not huge.  Edison did discover most of his invention by accident but then he used science and the scientific process to perfect his invention.  The movie told the story of how he had to make inventions to stall and save time.

Edison, The Man-Nicole O.

The film of Edison as a young man highlighted certain points, summarized and showed his inventions in a timeline,  showed his career and personal life experiences. Thorughout the film, Edison was portrayed as a man with much determination to become an inventor. Edison was passionately, almost obssesively in love with his work and creative ideas. For example his frequent visits to western union.  The film also depict how blessed Edison was to be able to use his craftsmenship and enginuity to land him a work area.  The people with worked with were generous, humble and sincere craftsmen men also. His wife seemed to be able to tolerate Edison lack of being a good husband and father. According to other sources Edison was not at all a good father but in the movie he seemed to be a good father, he spent most of his time in the laboratory. For the most part she acted very supportive of Edison dream even after he said that inventing would always be his first love.

Jill Jonnes talks more so on the competition, which is unlike the movie. Jill Jonnes also  goes more in depth with his works. The movie talks about the beginnings of his success and fast fowards to a moment in  his older years. In the movie  Edison makes smaller inventions to by him some time on his bigger inventions.

Edison – Michael B

Edison’s knowledge of Ohm’s law (E=IR) aided in his developement of the electric lighting system.  By using this knowledge, he determined that by using a high resistance filament and relativly low voltage he would end up with a very low amperage.  With low amperage, he could use thiner wires, thereby saving money on expensive copper wires.

Edison/Ohm’s Law–posting evaluation

In class on Sept 17th you will read your fellow classmates postings and then leave comments on the postings you consider:  1) the most technically accomplished and complete; 2) the most understandable for non-specialist readers; and 3) the best mix of the two. 

Make sure to give your reasons and note any sentences or phrases you have difficulty understanding.  Also note specific points you think might be inncorrect or need clarification technically.  We will add up the votes in each category and look at the winners.

Edison – Robert S

“How did Edison’s understanding of Ohm’s law help effect the design of the electric light?”

Edison’s understanding of Ohm’s law greatly helped him in his design of the electric light. Edison knew that a low-resistance filament would draw more current than a high-resistance filament, thus putting a greater strain on the electric network. This strain would require thicker copper wires to fix, and Edison wanted to spend as little possible on copper wire due to it’s high cost.

Without Edison’s understanding, his electrical system would have been far more costly and required even greater advancements in technology to make his system a reality. By understanding that a highly resistant light bulb would use the least amount of current and still produce light, Edison was able to create the first “practical” light bulb suitable for mass consumption.

Edison-Nicole

Edison is not afraid of thinking outside the box nor is he afraid to think logically. Using the knowledge and wisdom that he had gain through previous inventions like the incandescent light bulb, Edison thought of away to improve the light bulb and save money.  Before Edison’s attempts to create a light bulb using a low resistance filament, there were others who tried and failed. This is when Edison discovers the use of a formula, which he hypothesized that using a high resistance filament and just applying a small amount of current. It was called the ohm’s law, I=v/r,  ”I” stands for current, the “v” stands for electromotive force in volts, and the “r” stands for resistance. Edison also used parallel circuits, so that one light bulb goes out the rest of the light bulbs remain lit. Edison found out that if he used thin piece of copper wire, which has low sales value but has a higher resistance, he could improve as well as save more money.

Two Inventions Besides the Light Bulb – Jonathan A

Edison’s first invention in Menlo Park was the tin foil phonograph. He was actually trying to improve the efficiency of a telegraph transmitter. While he was working, he noticed that the machine gave off a noise resembling actual words when he played it at a high speed. He then began experimenting by attaching a needle to it and said that the needle could prick paper tape to record what was being said. Finally, he tried a stylus on a tinfoil cylinder, which played back his message, “Mary had a Little Lamb.” It was a fairly simple but amazing machine during that time period. When you spoke into the cylinder, the sound vibrations of your voice would be indented into the cylinder by the needle and therefore played the recorded sound. This invention brought Edison international fame and was the first of its kind. Edison began to compete with many companies over using a disc phonograph, or Edison’s cylinder phonograph. Finally, Eldridge Johnson began improving the quality of the disc phonograph and began mass producing the disc phonographs a year before Edison. These disc’s were easier to produce but could not have been made without the development of Edison’s cylinder phonograph first. Edison also was interested in the technological superiority of the sound and not the content. So, being this, obviously Eldridge did much better by producing a more cost efficient phonograph with better content recordings. One of the main reasons this was such an important invention was because of the fame and money it brought to Edison. Edison received $10,000 for the manufacturing and sales rights and 20% of the profits. Without these funds and this newly made reputation, Edison could not have received the funding he got form his investors in order to invent extremely important inventions such as the light bulb.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bledison.htm

In March of 1878, Edison improved Bell’s telephone that could only operate from a distance of 3 to 5 km to almost unlimited distances with extreme clarity. In that March, he connected New York City to Philidelphia, a distance of 172km.

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761563582_2/Thomas_Alva_Edison.html

Edison and Ohm’s Law – Andrew G.

Previous attempts to make a light bulb used a low resistance filament.  This didn’t work as well as planned because very large amounts of current were required to run these bulbs.  Edison had a separate idea from everyone else.  He decided to try and use a very high resistance filament but with just a little bit of current.  This idea agrees with Ohm’s law, which states that Voltage= Current X Resistance.  The Voltage output is the same with a low resistance and high current.  The lower current allowed him to use thinner copper wire.  This helped out with the total cost of Edison’s lighting system, not only was he able to use less copper wire but the amount of current was less as well.  The next problem for him to get rid of was if one light went out all the lights would go out.  To fix this problem he used parallel circuits instead of just series. This also allowed people in houses to turn on just one light instead of having to turn on all the lights in the house.