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Edison, Coolidge, and Langmuir: Evolving Approaches to American Industrial Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Leonard S. Reich
Leonard S. Reich
Affiliation:
Department of Administrative Science, Colby College, Waterville, ME 04901.
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Abstract

This article considers how and why American industry has supported research and development during the last century. It examines the differences in methods and results of Thomas Edison (inventor-entrepreneur), William Coolidge (General Electric engineer-scientist), and Irving Langmuir (General Electric Nobel Prize winner). The article concludes that Edison's effective use of organized research and development paved the way for scientifically trained people to use varied methodologies to advance science, technology, and commercial interests together.

Type
Papers Presented at the Forty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the Economic History Association
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , June 1987 , pp. 341 - 351
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1987

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References

He would like to acknowledge the Smithsonian Institution, the Harvard Business School, and Rutgers University for support while working on research for this article.Google Scholar

1 Quoted in Broderick, John, Willis R. Whitney (Albany, 1945), p. 188.Google Scholar For background on the establishment of industrial research in the United States, see Reich, Leonard, The Making of American Industrial Research: Science and Business at GE and Bell, 1876–1926 (New York, 1985).Google Scholar

2 Quoted in Josephson, Matthew, Edison: A Biography (New York, 1959), pp. 133–34.Google Scholar

3 Information on these and many other inventions can be gleaned from materials in the archives of the Edison National Site, West Orange, New Jersey. Forthcoming volumes of The Thomas A. Edison Papers (Johns Hopkins University Press) will contain selected documents and references.Google Scholar

4 Hughes, Thomas P., “Edison's Method,” American Patent Law Association Bulletin (July–August 1977), p. 440.Google Scholar

5 Friedel, Robert and Israel, Paul, Edison's Electric Light, Biography of an Invention (New Brunswick, 1986), esp. pp. 224–32.Google Scholar

6 From the Boston Herald of 28 January 1883, quoted in Josephson, Edison, p. 263.Google Scholar

7 Smith, Cyril Stanley, Metallurgy as a Human Experience (New York, 1977), pp. 3, 30–31;Google Scholar General Electric Co. v. Independent Lamp and Wire Co., District Court of the U.S., District of New Jersey, October Term 1920, In Equity 648, Defendant's Record of Testimony, pp. 71–72; Ibid., Brief for Plaintiff on Final Hearing, pp. 9–42.

8 Howell, John and Schroeder, Henry, History of the Incandescent Lamp (Schenectady, 1927), p. 116.Google Scholar

9 Ibid., pp. 111–12; wise, George, Whitney, Willis, General Electric, and the Origins of U.S. Industrial Research (New York, 1985) p. 134.Google Scholar

10 “The Drawn Tungsten Filament for Incandescent Lamps,” (n.d.; about 1925), File, John H. Hammond, General Electric Co., Schenectady, NY, Document No. L250–L252; Howell and Schroeder, History of the Incandescent Lamp, pp. 112–13.Google Scholar

11 See, for example, Coolidge, , “Ductile Tungsten,” Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, 29 (1910), pp. 961–65;CrossRefGoogle ScholarFink, Colin, “Ductile Tungsten and Molybdenum,” Transactions of the American Electrochemical Society, 17 (1910), pp. 229–34.Google Scholar Coolidge's work on ductile tungsten aroused considerable interest among chemists and metallurgists, a few years later bringing him the prestigious Rumford Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. It is of interest to note that in defending the validity of Coolidge's valuable ductile-tungsten filament patents, GE attorneys cited this award to emphasize the original nature of his work. See General Electric Co. v. Independent Lamp and Wire Co., Brief for Plaintiff on Final Hearing, p. 43.

12 Quoted in Tate, Alfred O., Edison's Open Door (New York, 1938), p. 126.Google Scholar

13 On this concept, see Wise, George, “A New Role for Professional Scientists in Industry: Industrial Research at General Electric, 1900–1916,” Technology and Culture, 21 (1980), pp. 408–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 On Langmuir's drive for reputation and income, see Reich, Leonard, “Irving Langmuir and the Pursuit of Science and Technology in the Corporate Environment,” Technology and Culture, 24 (1983), pp. 205–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 Bridgman, Percy, “Some of the Physical Aspects of the Work of Langmuir,” in Suits, C. G., ed., The Collected Works of Irving Langmuir (New York, 1962), vol. 1, p. xxxiii.Google Scholar

16 Quoted in Rosenfeld, Albert, The Quintessence of Irving Langmuir (New York, 1966), p. 119.Google Scholar

17 Suits, C. G. and Martin, M. J., “Irving Langinuir,” National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs, 45 (1974), p. 223;Google ScholarKingdon, Kenneth, “From Submarines to A-Bombs,” G.E. Research Laboratory Bulletin (1959), p. 12.Google Scholar

18 Suitd and Martin, “Irving Langmuir,” p. 222.Google Scholar