functioning manager, Edison altered
the character the invention process West Orange. Like the
prinicipal investigator modern research project, Edison
was responsible for monitoring each individual experimenter's
line research, identifying general trends, and shifting
chemists the most promising leads.5
comes blinding flash; instead, results came plodding
through innumerable experiments. also regularly
compared the laboratory results with commercial considerations,
watching for the right combination that could put into
production quickly. In
a certain sense, the orderliness and routinization indicate
that Edison had rendered the invention process predictable and
manageable. many ways, the
convergent approach was probably appropriate for the large
scale West Orange since permitted Edison make
efficient use his large staff and substantial facilities. No
longer was invention mysterious, seat-of-the-pants
proposition; instead was orderly, painstaking process
which slowly but surely got results.
In shifting from divergent convergent style of
research management, Edison's role within the laboratory
changed. sure, Edison
performed his own experiments the battery, but his major
task was coordinate and manage the project. While previously had been just "one the boys" or
the "head mucker," the course the storage battery
campaign clearly became manager R&D.
