Reflecting on Edison’s Creativity
Edison wrote down and sketched almost all of his ideas in pocket-sized notebooks. These pages are a record of his creative mind at work. When he died, he left more than 3,000 notebooks, which people can still see today at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange, New Jersey.
While other inventors had made devices that could record sounds, Edison's phonograph, shown in the sketch above, was the first that could play back recorded sound. Edison suggested possible uses for the device that included reproducing music, reading books to blind people, and recording classroom lessons so students could listen to them later.
By using creativity to solve problems, Edison was able to make some remarkable inventions. Some people have said that for every great idea Edison had, he also had many bad ones. Edison thought the key was to generate a lot of ideas, not to limit oneself to thinking there is only one solution to a problem or only one use for an invention.
Edison wouldn’t accept things as they were and was always looking for ways to improve on existing ideas. It didn’t matter if they were his own ideas or someone else’s. This was true for the electric light bulb and for the phonograph.
- Edison didn’t invent the first light bulb, but he did make the first one that could be used in the home.
- Before inventing the phonograph, Edison studied Alexander Graham Bell’s invention, the telephone. Edison thought he saw a way of recording sound that could then be played back. He created a device and then tested it by reading the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” This was the first time a human voice had ever been recorded.
Take Notes
Read the following quotes credited to Edison. Choose one that reminds you of some experience you’ve had in your life and write one to two sentences about it.
- “To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.” Imagination is another word often used with creativity. When have you used your imagination to create something?
- “Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do, doesn’t mean it’s useless.” Edison was always open to the possibility of an idea going in a different direction than he had expected. Can you think of a time when your creativity helped you solve a problem in a surprising way or make or build something unexpected?
