Edison in Science and Inquiry

Jan 13, 2020 Mary rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, biography

鈥淚 would say to one particular atom in me鈥攃all it atom No. 4320鈥斺€楪o and be part of a rose for a while.鈥� All the atoms could be sent off to become parts of different minerals, plants, and other substances. Then, if by just pressing a little push button they could be called together again, they would bring back their experiences while they were parts of those different substances, and I would have the benefit of the knowledge.鈥� Morris, Edmund. Edison. P. 495. (2019)

Edmund Morris鈥檚 biography of Tho 鈥淚 would say to one particular atom in me鈥攃all it atom No. 4320鈥斺€楪o and be part of a rose for a while.鈥� All the atoms could be sent off to become parts of different minerals, plants, and other substances. Then, if by just pressing a little push button they could be called together again, they would bring back their experiences while they were parts of those different substances, and I would have the benefit of the knowledge.鈥� Morris, Edmund. Edison. P. 495. (2019)

Edmund Morris鈥檚 biography of Thomas Edison brings to life all sides of the genius鈥檚 character. His lifelong curiosity about how things work, his ability to dream up new devices, his ability to focus deeply on achieving his goal, and his legendary capacity for hard work.

Readers will learn not only about Edison鈥檚 many inventions, his incredible number of patents, but more importantly how his work has changed they way we live. Morris chooses to tell the story of Edison鈥檚 life in reverse. Beginning with his diabetes, stomach ailments, and the severe hearing loss he dealt with all his life, Morris chronicles Edison鈥檚 business success and failures through the years. As Edison鈥檚 physical health wained, his strong desire to continue finding solutions to problems maintained its dominant hold on his life. A man more at home in his laboratory than at home with wife and children. He was married twice and had children from two marriages. His first wife died at age 28 leaving him a widower with 3 young children.

Edison鈥檚 early years were marked by people mistaking his power of concentration or day dreaming for slowness or an inability to comprehend daily life as others do. Educated at home by his mother, due to difficulty fitting in at school, Edison is in large part that rare breed of self educated man. Moving through the biography, readers will see Edison鈥檚 ability through reading to gather information about whatever area he was interested in whether it is electricity, mining, or botany. A true life long learner.

- [ ] If you read nothing else in this biography, read Morris鈥檚 Epilogue.
For in it, he evokes the tremendous sense of loss felt through out the United States at Edison鈥檚 death. A sense of loss felt only in my lifetime with the death of President Kennedy. A brilliant writer and biographer Morris is now lost to us as well having died in May 2019.
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Jan 27, 2025 taylor rated it really liked it

A long and challenging read for me. The book is told in reverse chronological order, and thematically it's Brownian motion. I read the first two chapters, then began reading the chapters in reverse order. Better but I still found the writing style out of phase with my reading comprehension. I was reminded of the quote, that goes something like "If I had more time, this letter would have been shorter"

The book is extremely well researched and touches most aspects of his life and work. I wish there ...more

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