period intense competition and rapid
growth focused attention the most dynamic new industry of
the Second Industrial Revolution.(Illus 5-1, Edison laboratory in
the 1890s. Deputations from potential customers were given.)
The Edison electrical companies made the most their
special relationship with Edison and the prestige the
largest industrial research center the United States. Edison once said that he
needed incentive invent: 1887 had the opportunity
to pit his inventive powers, and his great new laboratory, with
the best his contemporaries. Edison's fortune, and his
financial future, were dependent the success the
phonograph but was electricity which kept the laboratory in
the public eye. The
Edison Electric Light Company naturally stressed the
technological advantage possessed Edison and his
laboratory, and used selling point market its
franchises.1
CHAPTER FIVE
"A POWERFUL INCENTIVE"
EDISON'S LABORATORY AND THE ELECTRICAL INDUSTRY
The great experimental campaigns perfect the
phonograph went unnoticed the public continued associate
Edison's laboratory with electricity
