Editing Thomas Edison (section)

===Research and development facility===
[[File:Menlo Park Laboratory.JPG|thumb|Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory, reconstructed at Greenfield Village in [[Henry Ford Museum]] in [[Dearborn, Michigan]]]]
[[File:Edison's Menlo Park Lab.jpg|thumb|Edison's Menlo Park Lab in 1880]]
Edison's major innovation was the establishment of an industrial research lab in 1876. It was built in [[Menlo Park, New Jersey|Menlo Park]], a part of Raritan Township (now named [[Edison, New Jersey|Edison Township]] in his honor) in [[Middlesex County, New Jersey]], with the funds from the sale of Edison's [[quadruplex telegraph]]. After his demonstration of the telegraph, Edison was not sure that his original plan to sell it for $4,000 to $5,000 was right, so he asked Western Union to make a bid. He was surprised to hear them offer $10,000 {{USDCY|10000|1874}}, which he gratefully accepted.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bounceenergy.com/blog/2013/02/happy-birthday-thomas-edison/ |title=Happy Birthday, Thomas Edison! |last=Trollinger |first=Vernon |work=Bounce Energy |date=February 11, 2013 |access-date=February 24, 2013 |archive-date=June 2, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130602160113/http://www.bounceenergy.com/blog/2013/02/happy-birthday-thomas-edison/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> The quadruplex telegraph was Edison's first big financial success, and Menlo Park became the first institution set up with the specific purpose of producing constant technological innovation and improvement. Edison was legally credited with most of the inventions produced there, though many employees carried out research and development under his direction. His staff was generally told to carry out his directions in conducting research, and he drove them hard to produce results.

[[William Joseph Hammer]], a consulting [[electrical engineer]], started working for Edison and began his duties as a laboratory assistant in December 1879. He assisted in experiments on the telephone, phonograph, electric railway, [[Edison Ore-Milling Company|iron ore separator]], [[incandescent light bulb|electric lighting]], and other developing inventions. However, Hammer worked primarily on the incandescent electric lamp and was put in charge of tests and records on that device. 

In 1880, he was appointed chief engineer of the Edison Lamp Works. In his first year, the plant under general manager [[Francis Robbins Upton]] turned out 50,000 lamps. According to Edison, Hammer was "a pioneer of incandescent electric lighting".<ref>{{cite book |title=Thomas Edison: Life of an Electrifying Man |last=Biographiq |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-59986-216-3 |page=9 |publisher=Filiquarian Publishing}}</ref> {{anchor|sprague}}[[Frank J. Sprague]], a competent mathematician and former [[United States Navy|naval officer]], was recruited by [[Edward H. Johnson]] and joined the Edison organization in 1883. One of Sprague's contributions to the Edison Laboratory at Menlo Park was to expand Edison's mathematical methods. Despite the common belief that Edison did not use mathematics, analysis of his notebooks reveal that he was an astute user of mathematical analysis conducted by his assistants such as Francis Robbins Upton, for example, determining the critical parameters of his electric lighting system including lamp resistance by an analysis of [[Ohm's law]], [[Joule's first law|Joule's law]] and economics.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://edison.rutgers.edu/ |title=The Thomas A. Edison Papers |publisher=Edison.rutgers.edu |access-date=January 29, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070630040718/http://edison.rutgers.edu/ |archive-date=June 30, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Nearly all of Edison's patents were utility patents, which were protected for 17 years and included inventions or processes that are electrical, mechanical, or chemical in nature. About a dozen were [[design patent]]s, which protect an ornamental design for up to 14 years. As in most patents, the inventions he described were improvements over [[prior art]]. The phonograph patent, in contrast, was unprecedented in describing the first device to record and reproduce sounds.<ref>Evans, Harold (2004), ''They Made America''. New York: Little, Brown and Company. {{ISBN|978-0-316-27766-2}}. p. 152.</ref>

In just over a decade, Edison's Menlo Park laboratory had expanded to occupy two city blocks. Edison said he wanted the lab to have "a stock of almost every conceivable material".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.minrec.org/labels.asp?colid=737 |title=Thomas Alva Edison (1847–1931) |last=Wilson |first=Wendell E. |work=The Mineralogical Record |access-date=February 24, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415080355/http://www.minrec.org/labels.asp?colid=737 |archive-date=April 15, 2013 }}</ref> A newspaper article printed in 1887 reveals the seriousness of his claim, stating the lab contained "eight thousand kinds of chemicals, every kind of screw made, every size of needle, every kind of cord or wire, hair of humans, horses, hogs, cows, rabbits, goats, minx, camels&nbsp;... silk in every texture, cocoons, various kinds of hoofs, shark's teeth, deer horns, tortoise shell&nbsp;... cork, resin, varnish and oil, ostrich feathers, a peacock's tail, jet, amber, rubber, all ores&nbsp;..." and the list goes on.<ref>{{cite book | last = Shulman | first = Seth | title = Owning the Future | url = https://archive.org/details/owningfuture00shul | url-access = registration | publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company | year = 1999 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/owningfuture00shul/page/158 158–160]| isbn = 9780395841754 }}</ref>

Over his desk Edison displayed a placard with [[Sir Joshua Reynolds]]' famous quotation: "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,752631,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080125035516/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,752631,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 25, 2008 |title=AERONAUTICS: Real Labor |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=December 8, 1930 |access-date= January 10, 2008}}</ref> This slogan was reputedly posted at several other locations throughout the facility.

In Menlo Park, Edison had created the first industrial laboratory concerned with creating knowledge and then controlling its application.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/gilded-age/essays/edison%E2%80%99s-laboratory |title=Edison's Laboratory |last=Israel |first=Paul |work=The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History |date=August 3, 2012 |access-date=February 24, 2013 |archive-date=February 25, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130225091901/http://gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/gilded-age/essays/edison%E2%80%99s-laboratory |url-status=live }}</ref> Edison's name is registered on 1,093 patents.<ref name=time1979>{{cite magazine|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,947523-1,00.html|title=Business: The Quintessential Innovator|date=October 22, 1979|magazine=Time|access-date=November 23, 2016|archive-date=November 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161124025122/http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,947523-1,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref>