Thomas Edison: Success and Innovation through Failure (eBook)

Ian Wills (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2020 | 1st ed. 2019
VII, 257 Seiten
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-030-29940-8 (ISBN)

Infos

This book develops a systematic approach to the role of failure in innovation, using the laboratory notebooks of America's most successful inventor, Thomas Edison. It argues that Edison's active pursuit of failure and innovative uses of failure as a tool were crucial to his success. From this the author argues that not only should we expect innovations to fail but that there are good reasons to want them to fail. Using Edison's laboratory notebooks, written as he worked and before he knew the outcome we see the many false starts, wrong directions and failures that he worked through on his way to producing revolutionary inventions. While Edison's strengths in exploiting failure made him the icon of American inventors, they could also be liabilities when he moved from one field to another. Not only is this book of value to readers with an interest in the history of technology and American invention, its insights are important to those who seek to innovate and to those who employ and finance them.

Ian turned to the history and philosophy of science after a career in engineering. His PhD dissertation focused on the history and philosophy of technology using Thomas Edison's laboratory notebooks to understand the processes by which novel artefacts are created.

Subsequent work included industrial heritage in Australia; the science of F W Taylor's Scientific Management; and the Great Strike of 1917.  His current interests include Australia's failed attempt to build nuclear weapons; the history of manufacturing in Australia; and manufacturing's interaction with Australian history more broadly.

Inhalt

Acknowledgments 6
Contents 7
Chapter 1: Introduction 8
1.1 Part I: Edison and Failure 11
1.2 Part II Edison, Science and Invention 12
1.3 Part III Edison´s World 13
1.4 Part IV Reversing Edison 13
1.5 Citing the Thomas A. Edison Papers 14
1.6 The Thomas A. Edison Book Edition (TAEB) 14
1.7 The Thomas A. Edison Papers Digital Edition (TAED) 14
Part I: Edison and Failure 16
Chapter 2: Success, Failure and Innovation: The Carbon Microphone 17
2.1 Edison´s Dilemma 17
2.2 Edison and the Telephone 18
2.3 Challenges to Western Union 19
2.4 Edison Starts Work on the Telephone 21
2.5 Greenwich, England, 1873 22
2.6 Exploring Induction 23
2.7 Bell´s Telephone 26
2.8 Edison´s 1876 Telephone Experiments 33
2.9 January 1877: Carbon Enters the Telephone 36
2.10 July 1877: Fluff 41
2.11 Failure as a Tool 43
2.11.1 Failure as a Source of Negative Examples 45
2.11.2 Using Failure Through Trial and Error 45
2.11.3 Failure as a Source of New Phenomena 45
2.11.4 Failures Provide Direction 46
2.11.5 Hypotheses and Failure 47
2.11.6 Failure Points to Ways of Changing Devices 48
2.11.7 Failures Suggest New Possibilities to Build and Test 49
2.11.8 Failure Provides Motivation 49
2.12 Calculation and Experiment 50
2.13 Seeking Failure 52
Chapter 3: Failure and Success 54
3.1 Edison Takes a Break 54
3.2 Failure 55
3.3 Success Criteria 56
3.4 Success Clues 57
3.5 Problem Redefinition 58
3.6 Success Frameworks 58
3.7 Identifying Failures 60
3.8 Identifying Success Criteria 61
3.9 Identifying Limits 61
3.10 Everyday Use of Failure 62
3.11 Failure as Paradox 63
Chapter 4: Innovation and Systems 65
4.1 Systems 65
4.2 Functional Systems 67
4.3 Systems, Components and Interactions 68
4.4 Systems, Functions and Means 68
4.5 The Phonograph as a Functional System 71
4.6 Even Simple Functional Systems Are Complex 74
4.7 Using Functional Systems to Identify Novelty and Innovation 75
4.8 Functional Systems and Innovation: Newcomen´s Engine 78
Chapter 5: Innovation Must Fail 84
5.1 Innovation 84
5.2 Inventions, Functions and Means 85
5.3 Novelty, Functions and Means 87
5.4 The Phonograph as Novelty 88
5.5 Success Criteria and Novelty 89
5.6 Novelty Lies in Identifying and Meeting New Success Criteria 90
5.7 No Functions, No Invention, No Means, No Invention 91
5.8 Who Invented the? 92
5.9 Invention as System Creation 97
5.10 Why Do Some Innovations Not Fail? 97
5.11 Innovation and Risk 98
Chapter 6: Catastrophic Failure 100
6.1 Recognising Catastrophic Failure 100
6.2 The Space Shuttle Challenger 100
6.3 Catastrophic Failure in Complex Systems 102
6.4 Eclipsing the Weakest Link 104
6.5 In Complex Systems, Innovation Will Probably Fail 105
Part II: Edison, Science and Invention 106
Chapter 7: Inventive Success: The Phonograph 107
7.1 The Phonograph Introduces Itself 107
7.2 The Beginnings of the Phonograph 110
7.3 Edison´s First Phonograph Patent 110
7.4 The Invention of the Phonograph 111
7.5 Conceptual Origins of the Phonograph 113
7.6 The Phonograph Begins with a Misconception 114
7.7 Edison´s First Phonograph Experiments 115
7.8 Edison Develops the Phonograph into a Patentable Invention 116
7.9 Kruesi´s First Phonograph 125
7.10 Repeating Edison´s Early Recording Experiments 126
7.10.1 The Hand Phonograph Mark 1 127
7.10.2 The Hand Phonograph Mark 2 127
7.10.3 The Waxed Tape Phonograph Mark 1 129
7.10.4 Recording Medium 130
7.10.5 Recording Points 130
7.10.6 Finally, a Credible Recording 131
7.10.7 The Waxed Tape Phonograph: Mark 2 132
7.10.8 The Waxed Tape Phonograph: Mark 3 133
7.11 What Edison and Batchelor Heard 135
7.12 Edison Pursues Sound Recording and Reproduction 136
7.13 Why Edison? 138
7.14 Some Reflections on Experimental History of Technology 139
7.15 Innovation 141
Chapter 8: Scientific Failure: Etheric Force 143
8.1 Edison Patents a Wireless Communication System 143
8.2 The Etheric Force Debate 145
8.3 Thomas A. Edison, Inventor 159
8.4 Experiments in Science and Invention 160
8.5 Edison´s Failure 162
8.6 Artefacts in Science 164
8.7 Science and Technology 169
Part III: Edison´s World 171
Chapter 9: Thomas Edison and Patents 172
9.1 Patents Make Edison 172
9.2 The Patent System 173
9.3 Patent Priority 177
9.4 Why So Many Patents? 180
9.5 Edison´s Patents 181
9.6 Patterns in Edison´s Patents 184
9.6.1 Electric Light and Power Patents 186
9.6.2 Ore Processing, Mining, Cement and Concrete Patents 191
9.6.3 Phonograph Patents 193
9.6.4 Motion Picture Patents 195
9.6.5 Battery Patents 196
9.6.6 Electroplating Patents 197
9.6.7 Telegraph Patents 197
9.7 Patents and Systems 199
9.8 Inventing Systems 200
9.9 Deciding What to Invent 200
Chapter 10: The Edisonian Method: Trial and Error 203
10.1 ``His Method Was Inefficient in the Extreme´´ 203
10.2 Edison´s Use of Trial and Error 204
10.3 Trial and Error Techniques 206
10.4 Blind Trial and Error 206
10.5 Simple Trial and Error 207
10.6 Informed Trial and Error 207
10.7 Using Trial and Error Instead of Theory 208
10.8 The Use of Trial and Error in Exploratory Experiments 212
10.9 Transmitting Trial and Error Knowledge 213
10.10 Scientists´ Use of Trial and Error 216
10.11 Problematic Aspects of Trial and Error 220
10.12 Not the First or the Last Resort 221
Part IV: Reversing Edison 223
Chapter 11: Reverse Engineering 224
11.1 Reverse Engineering Is Ubiquitous 224
11.2 Reverse Engineering the Engineered 225
11.3 Reverse Engineering the Non-engineered 230
11.4 Problems with Analytical Reverse Engineering 232
11.4.1 Problem 1: One Means, Many Functions 232
11.4.2 Problem 2: One Set of Functions, Many Means 234
11.4.3 Problem 3: Unknown Failures 235
11.4.4 Problem 4: Unknown Success Criteria 238
11.4.5 Problem 5: Function Without Context 240
11.5 Biology as Reverse Engineering 241
Chapter 12: Epilogue 242
12.1 Death 242
12.2 Immortality 243
12.3 Legacy 245
Bibliography 247

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.1.2020
• Reihe/Serie: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
• Reihe/Serie: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
• Zusatzinfo: VII, 257 p. 75 illus., 27 illus. in color.
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Logistik / Produktion
• Schlagworte: carbon telephone • Edison and failure • Edison and innovation • Edison and the telephone • Engineering and Philosophy • History of Science • History of technology • the carbon microphone • the life of Thomas Edison • Thomas Edison's life
• ISBN-10: 3-030-29940-6 / 3030299406
• ISBN-13: 978-3-030-29940-8 / 9783030299408