There's a common story that circulates about "success and failure"
that I'm curious as to its authenticity.

The story goes that "Thomas Edison failed more than 1,000 times when
trying to create the light bulb".  (The story is often told as 5,000
or 10,000 times depending on the version.)  When asked about it,
Edison allegedly said, "I have not failed 1,000 times.  I have
successfully discovered 1,000 ways to NOT make a light bulb."

The idea is that -- even if you try and fail, it doesn't mean that you
didn't learn something.

Never mind the fact that Thomas Edison didn't invent the light bulb
(as they'd already been in existence for fifty years prior to Edison's
patent date)....my question is this....

....did Edison ever actually make this statement or any similar
statement?  Or is this just an urban legend?

Thanks in advance!
Tony Rush

---

Request for Question Clarification by cynthia-ga on 18 Jul 2006 13:45 PDT

I think he said it.

From Hyperhistory:

Thomas Edison 
February 11, 1847 ? October 18, 1931 
http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b4edisont.htm
..."I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have
succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have
eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will
work." ?Edison. (source) ..."

It has been reported that this quote was in response to a New York
Times Reporter's question:
http://www.medleague.com/Articles/president/topquotes.htm

And another reference here, includes a source:

..."Thomas Edison, who said, "I have not failed 10,000 times. I have
successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work." REFERENCE The
World Bank. 1994. World Development Report 1994: Infrastructure for
Development. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press..."
http://darwin.nap.edu/books/NX006728/html/35.html

Does this answer your question?

~~Cynthia

---

Request for Question Clarification by cynthia-ga on 18 Jul 2006 13:47 PDT

The book is here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=d15Ew-X0xDoC&printsec=toc&vq=10,000&dq=World+Development+Report+1994:+Infrastructure+for

From "Edison The Man And His Work" by George S. Bryan 1926.

Can't find it online (where I can view it) but it might be a good lead
for a researcher.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00085NM84/sr=8-2/qid=1153185251/ref=sr_1_2/102-4758127-7760949?ie=UTF8

Tony ...

Never mind the fact that Thomas Edison didn't invent the light bulb
(as they'd already been in existence for fifty years prior to Edison's
patent date)

Then what was Edison's problem?

Maybe the previous ones were not commercially viable?

As to the previous comment, Edison's goal was to find a suitable
filament to make the incandescent electric light a viable device.

"He literally tested thousands of different substances as filaments
and sent men all over the world to try to find better materials."

Please see http://www.ushistory.net/electricity.html for more of the story.

I apologize for being of no help in regard to the original question.

Have a good day.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to prove that someone didn't say
something. But I believe the alleged quote that often appears online
is a pithy version of this actual quote:

"After we had conducted thousands of experiments on a certain project
without solving the problem, one of my associates, after we had
conducted the crowning experiment and it had proved a failure,
expressed discouragement and disgust over our having failed to find
out anything. I cheerily assured him that we had learned something.
For we had learned for a certainty that the thing couldn't be done
that way, and that we would have to try some other way."

The quote above comes from an interview with Edison that was published
in the January 1921 issue of American Magazine.

He did say it. My nan told me.

Incandescent lights all suffer from a tradeoff between the luminous
output and the lifetime. The higher the temrperature of the filament,
the brighter and more efficient the light and the shorter the lifetime
of the bulb. Incandescent lights were well known before Edison, but
dim and inefficient when run at temperatures low enough to guarantee
long life.

Edison was the king of the empirical approach, trying literally
everything until he found a suitable way to make a reasonably reliable
carbon filament. This, in combination with the more difficult problem
of electric power distribution, was commercially successful, but later
outdone with Tungsten filaments, which are still in use today, often
now in a bulb filled with a halogen for even better performance.

So this man Edison is supposed to have been a genius?

When he never even thought of using either tungsten or halogen!

Bah!

I bet today's GARs would have sorted this out within 24 hours ... but,
of course, it would have first required a $200 question from the
Mighty Myoarin.

And, en passant, it would probably have excited a comment or two from
the Katastrofic Kemlo.

It was not my intention to disparage Edison. He was a great inventor
and business man. His invention of the phonograph was truly
revolutionary. He played an important role in improving and
commercializing the incadescent bulb, but certainly did not invent it.
The incandescent light was invented about 70 years before Edison's
work and went through many stages of refinement. His laboratory
improved the lifetime of the carbon filament bulb remarkably, from 13
hours to 1200 hours, according to this web site:

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bllight2.htm

Equally important to the commercial success of this invention was
Edison's electric power distribution system that made electric
lighting practical. His company, General Electric, went on to innovate
practical Tungsten filaments in later years.

A truly great inventor and business man, but his role in the invention
of the light bulb, while dramatic, tends to be overstated. His true
ingenuity, in my mind, is exemplified by his remarkable invention of
the first device to record and play back sound. Before Edison, who
would have thought it possible?

Not to mention the concrete piano...

http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/1996/3/1996_3_50.shtml