“Some time after his visit to the General Electric Laboratory, Edison, old free lance that he was, shook his head and declared that the ‘corporation laboratory’ would not do. The inventor was now a ‘hired person’ for the corporation, assigning to it all his patents; such men now worked in large groups and held many [...]
“When an associate came to him one day and in forthright language declared that a long series of tests had proved negative and that whole venture was a waste of labor and money, Edison rounded on him and cried angrily, ‘Is that all you have to say for yourself?’ and then walked out of the [...]
“After they had suffered some heartbreaking failures and felt downcast, Edison would raise their spirits by starting the next morning on a new round of similar trials with the undimmed hope and joy of a guileless child. His irrepressible enthusiasm was infectious. At such moments he would say proudly, ‘The trouble with other inventors is [...]