He told of how he lured consumers with free light bulbs, so he could sign them up as paying utility customers. How he tricked J. P. Morgan into investing in his electric company. A lot of his legend is just that. He was much more likely deaf from childhood meningitis than from a Pullman porter pulling him aboard a moving train by the ears. The Pullman story was just his way of tweaking the world.
Modern inventions require development by committee.
True enough, except for the occasional Apple or Linux. In 1978, I remember cutting a picture and story from the newspaper. That old cherry tree, the one the bright boy with the big ideas swung from, rumored to be 200 years old, held up by crutches and wires, finally surrendered its spirit. In the springtime, all it could coax from itself was one last hatful of white blossoms. How hard it is to see the great ones go.