The Sunday NYT ran an excerpt from a new book about Thomas Edison. We all know him as the inventor of the light bulb, phonograph, motion pucture camera, and thousands of other components of the modern world. He also invented the concept of the inventor as celebrity, and shrewdly used publicity to make his the public face of his idea factory, staffed by many other creative minds. This was not a bad thing, it helped put a human face on the pace of technological change, which made many uneasy. And it made him a very wealthy man; years of buying out smaller companies led to eventual creation of the General Electric company from his various holdings.

He was also very concerned about the control of how his inventions were used. Foreshadowing what companies like Sony would do a century later, he tried to control the media and artists used by his phonograph and kinetoscope. He hated paying high royalties to artists, and tried various means to prevent the recordings of his rival companies' products on his machines. Fascinating stuff.

My favorite part of the article was a short quote that illustrated his understanding of how the world really works:

One occasion when Edison cast off the expectations of others in his middle age was when he met Henry Stanley, of “Dr. Livingston, I presume” fame, and Stanley’s wife, who had come to visit him at his laboratory in West Orange, N.J. Edison provided a demonstration of the phonograph, which Stanley had never heard before. Stanley asked, in a low voice and slow cadence, “Mr. Edison, if it were possible for you to hear the voice of any man whose name is known in the history of the world, whose voice would you prefer to hear?”

“Napoleon’s,” replied Edison without hesitation.

“No, no,” Stanley said piously, “I should like to hear the voice of our Savior.”

“Well,” explained Edison, “You know, I like a hustler.”

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