The Laboratory That Invented Inventing

Name: The Laboratory That Invented Inventing
Genre: Documentary

At Menlo Park, Edison turns invention from a solitary pursuit into an organized system of experiments, specialists, and production.

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Transcript

The Menlo Park facility was described as the first research-and-development laboratory of its kind.
It was sometimes considered Edison’s greatest invention.
Edison earned $40,000 from an improved stock ticker.
In 1871, he used that money to establish a Newark laboratory and manufacturing facility.
Edison applied mass production and large-scale teamwork to invention. Around him, hands return to work.
In 1876, Edison sold his Newark concerns and moved his family and assistants to Menlo Park.
Inside, assistants tested ideas together, making invention a coordinated process.
This changed invention from a solitary pursuit into coordinated experiments, specialists, and production.
The first major invention developed there was the tin-foil phonograph, announced in 1877.
It became the first machine to record and reproduce sound, bringing Edison international fame.
That model would later scale far beyond Menlo Park, into factories, records, power, and motion pictures.
Edison spent ten years developing an iron-ore mining process that never became commercially practical. The room settles into shadow.
Later, Edison described his personal rule this way. I never quit until I get what I'm after. The room falls quiet.

Then, inside the Menlo Park laboratory, a fragile strip of tin foil returned a human voice—and the system behind Edison suddenly had a star.

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