Curiosity Counts

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Duckworth ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Motion Pictures ◽  
Storage Battery ◽  
Light Bulb ◽  
Human Race ◽  
Character Strength ◽  
Electric Light ◽  
Electric Light Bulb

Exactly 140 years ago today, The New York Graphic ran a story about Thomas Edison with this headline: “Edison Invents a Machine That Will Feed the Human Race.” Did he? Did Thomas Edison invent such a device? You might pause to consider the possibility. After all, Thomas Edison is arguably the most prolific inventor in history. He invented the phonograph, the first reliable electric light bulb, the first practical storage battery, and the first operable electrical plant. Without Edison, we wouldn't have motion pictures: It was Edison who figured out how to present photographs in quick succession by perforating specially designed celluloid film and moving the images with sprockets behind a shutter. And he had a thousand more inventions—with the patents to prove it. Edison is celebrated for his grit. “The trouble with other inventors,” he once observed, “is that they try a few things and quit. I never quit until I get what I want.” But Edison was also a paragon of curiosity. It is easy to forget that curiosity is part of character. Curiosity—wanting to learn—is as elemental to a fulfilling life as any other character strength.

5. Thomas Edison’s organizational genius

2018 ◽  
pp. 75-108
Author(s):  
Mark Dodgson ◽  
David Gann
Keyword(s):  
Motion Picture ◽  
Power Distribution ◽  
Electrical Power ◽  
Light Bulb ◽  
General Electric ◽  
Future Income ◽  
Electric Light ◽  
Electric Light Bulb

‘Thomas Edison’s organizational genius’ uses examples of Thomas Edison’s work to show how he pioneered a highly structured way of organizing innovation. He developed the phonograph, electric light bulb, and electrical power distribution, and improved the telephone, telegraph, and motion picture technology, as well as founding numerous companies, including General Electric. He always pursued several lines of research, wishing to keep options open until the strongest contender emerged. By working on numerous projects simultaneously, Edison hedged his bets so future income streams did not depend upon one development. Further examples of other businesses using Edison’s ideas on workplace, structures, people, creativity, and technology include IDEO, Toyota, 3M, Google, and Amazon.

William Robert Bousfield 1854-1943

1944 ◽  
Vol 4 (13) ◽  
pp. 570-576
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Light Bulb ◽  
Professional Career ◽  
Water Tube ◽  
Modern School ◽  
Private House ◽  
University College ◽  
Electric Light ◽  
The Law ◽  
Electric Light Bulb

William Robert Bousfield, barrister and man of science, was born at Bedford in 1854 and died near Ottery St Mary on 16 July 1943. His father, E. T. Bousfield, was Manager and Engineer at Howard’s Works, Bedford, and also practised as a consultant, with a workshop and drawing office in his private house. At the age of sixty he was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple, and thereafter did a certain amount of advisory legal work on technical matters. He made many inventions, for instance an early water-tube boiler and an incandescent electric light bulb—both before their time and commercially unsuccessful. But doubtless the father’s activities led the son, by environment as well as by heredity, to a scientific and legal career. W. R. Bousfield went to Bedford Modern School, where he won many prizes, and was a School Monitor and ‘Head Boy’ in 1870. He served an apprenticeship as an engineer, and then entered Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, winning both a College Scholarship and a Whitworth Scholarship in 1873, and taking his degree as sixteenth Wrangler in 1876. While an undergraduate, he sought recreation in rowing and rifle shooting; in after life he turned to golf and lawn tennis. Leaving Cambridge, he was for a time in Whitworth’s Engineering Works and then Lecturer in Mathematics and Engineering at University College, Bristol, where he developed farther his interest in other sciences. But his main professional career was to be the Law; he was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1880, and became a Queen’s Counsel in 1891. Naturally, with his scientific knowledge, he came to the front as a Patent Lawyer; in that branch he won an outstanding position, appearing in many of the most important cases for a long series of years.

The Hopkins Rod-Lens System

2007 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 272-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Bodies ◽  
X Rays ◽  
Lens System ◽  
Light Bulb ◽  
Transurethral Prostatectomy ◽  
Electric Light ◽  
Electric Light Bulb ◽  
Rigid Instruments

Surgeons have always been ready to adapt advances in technology into their practice. The discovery by Wilhelm Roentgen of X-rays in 1885 was applied within weeks of its publication to the diagnosis of fractures and the location of foreign bodies. The development of the electric light bulb by Edison enabled Max Nitze, Professor of Urology in Berlin, to develop the electrically illuminated cystoscope, which he patented in 1877. By 1911, Hugh Young used a cystoscope with a punch device to perform transurethral prostatectomy. Rapidly other electrically lit ‘scopes’ were introduced – the gastroscope, bronchoscope, thoracoscope and so on. All had two problems: they were rigid instruments and lacked really brilliant illumination.

Uses for a Broken Electric Light Bulb.

1925 ◽  
Vol 17 (11) ◽  
pp. 1201-1201
Author(s):  
Ralph F. Tefft ◽  
D. J. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Light Bulb ◽  
Electric Light ◽  
Electric Light Bulb

117 Development of Robot to Replace Electric Light Bulb in High Place

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012.61 (0) ◽  
pp. _117-1_-_117-2_
Author(s):  
Yasuaki TAKAI ◽  
Kento NISHIBORI ◽  
Kenji NISHIBORI
Keyword(s):  
Light Bulb ◽  
Electric Light ◽  
Electric Light Bulb ◽  
High Place
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