Thomas Edison

This concise biography examines Thomas Edison’s rise from an experimental telegraph operator to one of the most prolific inventors and entrepreneurs of industrial America. Boyle follows the development of the phonograph, electric-light systems, motion-picture technology and the Menlo Park laboratory, while stressing that Edison’s achievements depended on organised teams, finance and commercial strategy as well as individual ingenuity.

The book places Edison within the competitive technological culture of the late nineteenth century, when patents, manufacturing systems and new networks of electrical power were reshaping American life. It also considers the habits and personality that made Edison unusually productive and asks how far the familiar image of the solitary genius matches the collaborative reality of invention.