Edison [antikvár]

PREFACE The ending of the Civil War released American energies for activities of peace. Then followed the era during which industries in the United States were transformed and public utilities were organized and developed. It was a time when mingled with so much that was convenient, serviceable, and beneficial went ruthless financial piracy and the sorriest alliances between politics and "big business." In those crowded decades, pure science-the disinterested search after truth for its own sake-was even less emphasized than now in our "practical" land. On the other hand, an essential part was naturally played by workers in applied science. Their inventions made possible the growth of forces destined to have vast effect upon the country's political, economic, and social life. Among such men, Edison, by his directed good sense, patient resourcefulness, repeated conquest of obstacles, and varied achievements, won in the generál mind a place of especial distinction-a place that he continued to hold after he had left Menlo Park and entered upon a new phase of his career. Interest was unfailing, too, in the humán side of the man-his beginnings, his early struggles, his capacity for toil, his working methods, his distinctive personality, his simple ways, his blunt opinions -even his prejudices. In the course of a half-century, a great quantity of material relating to Edison has been printed; but a goodly part of it is more or less inaccessible to the ordinary v