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Robert Sherriff 08/07/1954 - Australian - Poet -Author - Singer - Actor - American Historian – Photographer
Work by Robert Sherriff is protected by the Australian Federal Government Copyright Act 1968.

Thomas Edison - 'Fraud': The True Legacy of Thomas Edison

Innovator or Appropriator?
When we think of the incandescent light bulb, Thomas Edison's name inevitably comes to mind. However, the truth behind this iconic invention tells a more complex story that celebrates the power of collaboration in innovation. It challenges the notion of Edison as a lone genius and paints a picture of a collective process that has shaped our world.

The Light Bulb Saga
Edison is often credited with inventing the first commercially successful incandescent light bulb in 1879. However, his breakthrough leaned heavily on the prior work of others. Canadian inventors Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans developed a light bulb concept and sold their patent to Edison after struggling to secure funding.

Meanwhile, British inventor Joseph Swan had already filed a patent for a similar technology and successfully sued Edison for patent infringement. American engineer William Sawyer's contributions were also significant enough that eventually, U.S. authorities cancelled Edison's patents.
This layered history reveals that the creation of the light bulb was less about singular brilliance and more about the synthesis of various ideas, many of which came from lesser-known inventors.

Beyond the Bulb
Edison's story of appropriation extends beyond the light bulb. Consider the movie projector, a technology that Charles Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat initially demonstrated as the Phantoscope.

They sold their invention to Edison's company, where it was further developed and commercialized into the Kinetoscope. Similarly, Edison is often lauded for inventing the phonograph, but French printer Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville had created the phonautograph two decades earlier. Charles Cros, another French inventor, had also devised a method for recording sound before Edison's company improved upon these ideas and brought them to the public.
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