Edison as I know him, by Henry Ford, in collaboration with Samuel Crowther.

EDISON As I KNOW HIM

A considerable portion of his work during a
part of his life was in making practical commercial products out of inventions-such as the typewriter-that were brought to him. He founded
something in the nature of a new school of applied science and, by reason of this, his own developments, after he had carried them a certain
distance or put them into practice, could be taken
up by oth6rs and developed in detail.
Edison never stopped until he had made a commercial product. Then his interest ceased, for,
although he has been a most distinguished manufacturer, he does not like to bother with business
details. This could not be better illustrated than
with the incandescent lamp. He did not stop
with the lamp. He took it as the start of a whole
new system which had to comprehend a great
number of points. These he once set down in a
memorandum which is as follows:
"First-To conceive a broad and fundamentally correct method of distributing the current,
satisfactorily in a scientific sense and practical
commercially in its efficiency and economy. This
meant a comprehensive plan, analogous to illumi42