Jeeze. Thanks for "breaking it to them easy", Olde Tyme Quaker Man. You really are a jerk.
On another note, here's what I've been reading lately. Empires of Light, by Jill Jonnes. It's a somewhat dramatic telling of the discovery and rise of electricity in the late 1800s. More specifically, how Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse helped shape the electrical world from its infancy into what we now have today. It's pretty fascinating. It also reinforces Edison as one of the baddest asses of all time. In his day, he had the fame and influence of a Bono/P. Diddy cross. Extreme crossover appeal. One of my favorite passages from the book describes Edison's method of dealing with striking workers in his light bulb factory:
At the lamp factory out in New Jersey, eighty highly skilled filament sealers formed a union and "became very insolent," said Edison, "knowing that it was very impossible to manufacture lamps without them." When they objected to the proposed firing of one of their members, Edison quickly designed thirty machines to automate their work. Then he fired the man as planned. "The union went out," said Edison, following up with the punch line: "It has been out ever since."
The moral of the story? Don't screw with the world's foremost genius inventor.
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