A few weeks ago I posted about how several of the most successful people in history were actually honed by their failures. Thomas Edison was one example, and my mention of him led to an email from Arcadia Publishing asking that I review a new book called Thomas Edison in West Orange. It is the first time I have gotten such a request via this blog, and I was happy to oblige.
Overall, Thomas Edison in West Orange was a pleasant read. It is actually mainly a book of historic pictures, with thorough captions, which captures his mid-to-late years focused on inventing and manufacturing in West Orange, New Jersey. Unlike a 400-page biography that would bog down into details that only obsessed historians could value, this book gives the reader a chance to understand the basics of the man and visually experience life in his time.
There are two main "key learnings" that I will takeaway from Thomas Edison in West Orange. First, I was intrigued how the story of Edison and his companies mirrored what we see at Google today. Like Google, Edison enjoyed fat profits from early inventions like the phonograph, but plowed the return into investments in new lab space and the search for further inventions. He created mushrooming complexes of buildings and threw people at difficult problems. Employees enjoyed free meals, and formed sports teams and social clubs. Many left to launch their own inventions and companies over time. And like Google is seeing now as it struggles to earn profits on anything other than search ads, Edison was never able to turn his later inventions into much more than modest successes.
The second interesting story comes from Edison's work to corner the market on motion pictures. In 1908, Edison helped form The Motion Picture Patents Company, an organization meant to pool diverse patents on movie production in order to freeze out competitors and maximize profits. The group failed, first because filmmakers escaped to Hollywood to avoid lawsuits, and, later, as the Supreme Court outlawed the group in 1915 on anti-trust charges. In a way, one could argue that Edison's heavy-handed patent pressure led to improvement as the industry focused itself in Hollywood. This concentration of filmmakers, producers and actors helped the industry get its start, and the rest is history. Once again, challenge led to improvement.
So thanks to Arcadia Publishing for the chance to learn something new that contributes directly to this blog's mission.
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