Thomas Edison/Talk

I have read that, similarly, the credit traditionally given to Thomas Edison for the invention of the [Light Bulb]? is misplaced. I am not competent to assess this claim.

He did invent the filament for the light bulb...I know that.

No he didn't. He came up with one that extended the lifespan of the bulbs from 150 hours to 1200. Joseph Swan patented the carbon filament lightbulb a year before Edison. Wikipedia needs to get this right, and not rely on me either. --Belltower

Well read the change I have just made and you will see that even Swann wasn't first. I think it is OK to say that he is widely recognised as the inventor of the light bulb (which is true) but wikipedia should show the prior art as well.

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Many inventions are so complex that no one person can be named the inventor. Many people contribute pieces to the whole, and by a creative process that is worth studying in itself, the pieces are brought together. Probably this is more common today then it was in the past, because technologies are more complex today, but it is true even of many older technologies: steam engine, radio, automobile, television. It would not be surprising if many of Edison's inventions turned out to be contributions of this sort, but I do not think this should detract from his reputation. - TimShell

By and large this isn't what happened, though. What Edison did was pioneer the concept of a research lab: he got a bunch of bright people together, so they could work together, and made sure their ideas were not (as oft happens) simply dropped. So he doesn't deserve credit for most of the ideas, but he does deserve credit for anyone using them. This shouldn't detract from his reputation, but it should make it different. -- Josh Grosse

Joshua, that's an interesting perspective! I had not thought of this before, but to me it actually enhances Edison's reputation. Because surely the pioneering of a research process is an invention of sorts, far surpassing the importance of the particular inventions that came out of the process. Most people view Henry Ford's greatest contribution as the pioneering of the commercial assembly line for mass production, as opposed to anything in particular having to do with automobiles. -- Jimbo Wales

For all of Edison's strengths, perhaps his greatest one was for the business of inventing. However, he was a hard-nosed businessman who was more inclined to roll over anything in his way than to compete with it. In the recent trend toward revisionist history, there is probably not a truly balanced perspective on this man: it's either idol worship or "he's a cad." -- Jonathan Walker