Edison might the world's
greatest inventor, but was also deaf. Several
of the engineers West Orange took interest radio,
. There was great appeal listening live
performance the air and the show was free! Edison had
trained his ear listen the phonograph and consequently he
could not bear hear the rasping sound the first radio
loudspeakers. His lab experimented several areas involving the
electrical recording and reproduction sound. felt that radio could
never more than novelty, forgetting the enormous novelty
appeal his own phonograph which kept going the very
early years technical problems.XIII-16
radio sets badly distorted the sound.^ The lab had provided Forest with phonograph parts
for his experiments with wireless telephones and had taken part
in the development lighthouse warning device. Just people were
impressed that sound could reproduced the 1880s,
Americans the 1920s bought radios because the wonder of
wireless. Edison was
interested the audion amplifier and made clear to
De Forest that was not interested its application to
radio. was full criticism the radio, arguing
that the amplification distorted the sound music.
Although Edison was totally opposed radio product
for the mass market, had not ignored the technology the
wireless. The radio
industry shot back that Mr. Edison was
intrigued the audion and asked Lee Forest what parts of
the invention were free and open for development
