Why Thomas Edison? In 1997 Life Magazine began a search to select the 100 most important people of the millennium. To get on this team a person had to change more than just a corner of the world—he or she had the divert the course of human history. On the list were such expected luminaries as Susan B. Anthony (#83), Florence Nightingale (#41), Abraham Lincoln (#35) Albert Einstein (#21), Thomas Jefferson (#10), and Leonardo da Vinci (#5). The person listed at number #1…Life’s "Man of the Millennium", was Thomas Alva Edison, arguably the world’s greatest innovator.
The historian, Thomas Hughes writes; "Only Leonardo da Vinci evokes the inventive spirit as impressively. But, unlike Edison, Leonardo actually constructed only a few of his brilliant conceptions." Historian, Ruth Cowan writes; “Edison from the beginning wanted to build a technological system and a series of businesses to manage that system. By the time he applied for any patent, Edison had already envisaged how he could translate the invention into a tangible, commercial product; indeed, he would not begin the research otherwise. Still, he was a classic innovator.”
If you desire to investigate this great man for yourself I would like to direct you to the ‘Edison Papers’,’ which is a work of Rutgers University. I know of no greater authority on Edison as they have been archiving over five million pages of documents found from Edison’s life of invention.
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