preview

Invention, Innovation, and Interdependence Essay

Better Essays

Scientific and technological progress is one of the most important and far reaching of humanity’s effort streams throughout history. One of the hallmarks of any great society is what new or improved knowledge of the world and how it works that the society can contribute. A strong and vibrant culture celebrates the spirit of invention and innovation. Closely allied with this concept is the spirit of entrepreneurship, considered one of the greatest qualities of the American culture.
Americans laud the success of the inventor and salesman alike; while the greatest self-promoters are more fully remembered, the greatest minds are never truly forgotten. It is in the American society that the ideals of invention and innovation exist …show more content…

In this manner, he established himself as the archetypal genius tinkerer rather than an educated engineer or knowledgeable scientist. Edison did not value ideas for their own sake, as ideas for inventions can be easy enough to acquire; he knew that the real work came from “…the long laborious trouble of working them out and producing apparatus that is commercial” (Millard 43).

This process of working things out led Edison to establish one of the earliest successful industrial research centers in America at his West Orange laboratory in New Jersey. It was here that Edison and company pioneered many of the technologies associated with his name. Inventions such as the motion picture camera and the phonograph were developed here; from their humble technological beginnings, these devices have given rise to the motion picture and musical entertainment industries and are ubiquitous in their modern applications. Edison realized that the key to being a successful inventor is not in making things but in acquiring sufficient financial backing to transform genius into reality on a large scale. In this area, Edison proved himself to be perhaps more adept as a procurer of capital and support than as an inventor. He excelled at the ‘business of innovation’, outpacing many of his contemporaries who preferred to disregard the business side

Get Access