I was interested in learning more about the man who invented the phonograph, the lightbulb, the movie camera, the person who singlehandedly, or with a team of workers, laid the foundation for the technological revolution of the modern electric world. The holder of a world-record 1,093 patents, nearly 400 of them for electric light and power, he was more than the Steve Jobs or Bill Gates of his time.
As for Ford, as much as I admire the brightness of his inventive mind -- the A and T model cars -- and his development of new, mass production methods, I cannot say I was eager to know more. While generous to his workers, Ford was, after all, a noted union hater whose writings about race and anti-Semitism, "The International Jew," became a basis for Hitler's autobiography, "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle), which, unfortunately, still wields great influence among racists around the world.
So, no, I was not eager to learn more about Ford, and, as it turned out, there was little Ford history on display at the museum and his winter home.
True, Edison and Ford were friends, maintained homes just yards apart, and they and their families enjoyed exploring southwest Florida during trips to Fort Myers.
But, from
what I gathered during a two-hour visit to the estates on Christmas Eve, the two men -- driven by a fierce determination to invent or solve manufacturing problems -- may actually have been philosophically far apart in their personal lives and beliefs.Consider the entrance to the Estates Museum's newest exhibit, "Movies, Music and Dance," which welcomed visitors with photos of and single quotations by the two men.
Ascribed to Edison: "Music, next to religion, is the mind's greatest solace and also its greatest inspiration. The history of the world shows that lofty aspirations find vent in music, and that music, in turn, helps to inspire such aspiration in others."
Ascribed to Ford, who, by the way, loved to dance and play the fiddle: "I am not thinking so much of teaching children to dance, but of teaching children courtesy and conduct that goes with dancing."
I think I understood Ford's point and I have no real fault with it, but, still, I couldn't help but notice the men's different approaches to the fine and lively arts, and Ford struck me as a little stiff.
Entering the museum, the front of which is graced with the largest banyan tree in North America, shoots from its branches hanging down and rooted, I learned that Edison was nearly stone deaf. In early moving images, it was plain to see that the aging, white-haired super inventor leaned forward to hear what others were saying. There was an early phonograph, framed by small pieces of wood, a corner of which indented with bite marks, a way for Edison to feel the vibrations and, thus, "hear" the music through his jawbone.
His chrome kitchen sandwich grill, marketed in 1927 but discontinued in 1934, during the height of the Great Depression, looked like a forerunner to the George Foreman Grill. Edison considered the Embossing Translating Telegraph to be "the father of the phonograph," the latter, understandably, his favorite invention. I saw a photo of him with an early electric car, a 1913 model. His first patent? The vote recorder, about 1870.
He is considered "the father of organized research," a leader of groups working together doing different tasks to produce a product. He envisioned the value of solar energy, saying, in 1931, the year he died, "I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy."
Edison: a tireless tinkerer and thinker, for sure.
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E-mail Reporter staff writer Richard Bammer at RBammer@TheReporter.com.
Source: http://www.thereporter.com/columnists/ci_19671148?source=rss
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