The Wilmington morning star., 1947-02-09
"THE MAN OF A
THOUSAND IDEAS"

The February Issue OF The
Civilian magazine, published
by Civilian International, fea-
lures Thomas A. Edison - an
active member of. a Civitan
club at his Florida home.
Charles F. Kettering, vice
president of General Motors
and directing head of General
Motors Research laboratories,
writes about The Man of a
Thousand Ideas" in connection
with the Edison Centennial eel
ebration this month.
Mr.. Kettering's article follows:
THOMAS ALVA EDISON: On
February II, 1947-just 100 years
ago this month, a son was born
to Samuel and Nancy Edison in
the village of Milan, Ohio. In many
ways the boy, young Tom. demon
strated the qualities for which he
later became famous-such things
as a sturdy self-reliance, a desire
to build things and a hunger for
more and more knowledge.
When he was Is, as most people
know, he became a n%ewsboy and
candy butcher" on the Grand
Trunk train between Port Huron,
Michigan and Detroit. His expert
ences in publishing a paper on the
train and his experiments in his
baggage car laboratory cost him
his job on the train But he still
haunted the railroads and a lucky
accident at Mount Clemens gave
him an opportunity to learn train
biography. BY the time he had
reached the age Of 20 young Edi-
son had become one Of the most
efficient operators in the country
and had developed a marvellous
speed in receiving messages.
Filled With Ideas
But the inventive streak in the
young operator could not be sub
dued-his mind was always filled
with ideas. AS a telegraph opera
tor he had many spare hours on
his hands which he spent in ex-
perimenting a d studying. His
basic education consisted princi-
pally of studying, observing and
doing. But the young telegraph OPP
orator had nor than ideas, he
had something more important-a
desire and ability to put those
ideas into physical form and try
them out.
All of his experimenting, though,
cost money, and the minute young
Tom would get hold of a few dol
lars, it went into apparatus and
equipment. One of his first in
ventions was a vote recorder but
it was turned down in Washington
as something that was not needed
As the result of this experiment
Edison resolved never to invent a
thing that was not a necessity to
the community at large - a de-
cision that vas destined to pro-
foundry affect his own future and
that of the nation.
49,. the young inventors con-
slant experimenting at last bore
1ruit. He redesigned the clumsy
stock ticker of that day and sold
the improved machine to Marshall
Lefferts, p r e sident of Western
Union, for $40, 900 = a fortune in
those days. To Edison it meant
that he could spend more time and
money in research.
In 1870, after he had reheived
payment for improving the stock
ticker, ne set up business in New
ark, N. j. Perhaps it was not so
clearly evident to the young Edi-
son as it is to us nowadays lust
how difficult it is to conduct re-
search. engineering, and manu-
ing All under one roof. We
realize today that these are three
distinct stages in converting an
idea into a reality, and the time
interval separating each of these
stages may run into years. Edi-
sons keen mind, however, quickly
lie fact that something
was wrong: he could not develop
lis -ueas and manufs cture things
with the same facilities, so ne
turned over the factory to a com
petent superintendent a n d moved
to Menlo Park where he could con-
centrate undisturbed on ideas. But
he had more new ideas than he
had time and hands to work out.
AS a result. he made probably n
of his greatest contributions ia
mankind-he collected around him
a group of brilliant men who could
help him explore the many chan
nels opened by his fertile mind
Today organized research is the