took pride telling the press and his associates
that was busy "getting rubber from weeds," and what could be
g
more appropriate task for patriot and practical man. Yet
the rubber project kept the aged inventor busy and content." was able produce strain with high rubber
content, but the results gained did not justify production. The
., but
they were way radical new products. Both the radio and
Edicraft appliances leaned heavily the appeal Edison's
name without advancing the technological boundaries these
products.XIV- 6
Q
just now. Production engineering was the order the day and
the new products developed the laboratory were hardly
revolutionary. The
staff West Orange were instructed not send him any bad
news. allotted large
sum money for R&D and the setting manufacture. The Board Directors TAE Inc. Nor did not alter his approach the problem or
his experimental method. The West Orange laboratory also
continued along the conservative paths set the twentieth
century.
The experimental projects undertaken Edison his
last years show divergence from his earlier work; stayed
in the same general areas— storage battery, phonograph, and
chemistry. Radios and consumer durables, such toasters
and coffee percolators, were new departures for TAE Inc.
Edison's stubborn opposition radio had been overcome
by 1928. Instead leading
the pack, the Edison industries were entering fields that had
already passed through the pioneering phase
