![]() ![]() The public proved eager to embrace them as the heroes of the nation’s technological ascendence. Martin similarly lauded Edison for his “unsurpassed inventive ability” which emanated “like rays of search-light into all the regions of science and nature.” Both Edison and Tesla actively solicited the attention the publicity helped them raise money from investors. Tesla became “a most radiant creature,” Brisbane gushed, basking in “effulgent glory,” as “myriad tongues of electric flame” passed through his body. Biographers Frank Dyer and T. In 1894, New York World reporter Arthur Brisbane described how electrical inventor Nikola Tesla occasionally absorbed 250,000-volt shocks to demonstrate the safety of alternating current. ![]() In celebratory articles, fawning biographies and sentimental paintings, contemporary authors and artists lionized these “Men of Progress” as mythical, heroic figures. These homegrown American inventors became a source of national pride for a country that was quickly surpassing Great Britain and the rest of Europe as the crucible of industrial activity. During the 19th century, dozens of gifted inventors-Samuel Colt (revolver), Isaac Singer (sewing machine), Samuel Morse (telegraph), Cyrus McCormick (mechanical reaper), Alexander Graham Bell (telephone) and Thomas Edison (incandescent lighting)-became wildly famous, their names synonymous with their inventions. ![]() The celebrity status of today’s high-tech innovators echoes an earlier era when inventors commanded similar attention. By recovering the stories of a group once considered extinct, Hintz shows that independent inventors have long been-and remain-an important source of new technologies. I also explain how celebrity inventor-entrepreneurs came roaring back at the turn of the 21st century.Īmerican Independent Inventors in an Era of Corporate R&D (Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation series)Įric Hintz offers a major new interpretation of American independent inventors in the 20th century. In my new book, American Independent Inventors in an Era of Corporate R&D, I revisit the era when the important contributions of the nation's unaffiliated inventors were eclipsed by the high-tech innovations advanced by corporate brands. The founders of technology companies-including Musk, Bezos, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin-hold seven of the top ten spots on Forbes’s real-time list of the world’s wealthiest billionaires.īut it wasn’t always this way. Meanwhile, the public remains captivated by the fabulous riches of these and other high-tech titans. (Jeff Bezos is a Smithsonian Institution donor.) Both men and their firms have also drawn plenty of negative attention, including allegations of unfair trade practices, union-busting and securities fraud. Bezos started Blue Origin with the enormous profits he’d earned from his other venture-the world’s largest retailer, Amazon. Having disrupted the credit card industry with PayPal and the automotive industry with Tesla Motors, Musk recently secured a $2.9 billion NASA contract for SpaceX, then hosted an episode of “ Saturday Night Live.” Musk now competes in a 21st-century space race with Bezos, who recently crewed one of his Blue Origin capsules on a suborbital spaceflight. Take the world’s richest men, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. For better or worse, today’s high-tech entrepreneurs have the celebrity star power of Hollywood’s most famous (or infamous) movie stars. ![]()
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