Lindsey Graham

How might that have influenced his invention in innovation?

So we know that Edison kept copious records of the work underway at Menlo Park and his other lab at West Orange.

This wasn't just because he liked to take notes, though.

Talk a bit about how he was savvy in applying for patents to secure and promote his innovations.

So after the phonograph, after the light bulb, and with the race to electrify entire cities now underway, this is the introduction of Nikola Tesla.

He went to work with Edison Machine Works, and there's this, I guess, popular image of Edison as a savvy businessman who's best at patenting things, as we just described, but Nikola Tesla as a genius who's just overrun by men like Edison.

How accurate is this story?

So it seems the real rivalry then was between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, who backed Tesla.

So what was their rivalry like?

But even ultimately, Edison's own company switched over to AC at the time.

That must have been a big deal for him.

Yeah, it was.

So then here we are with Edison fundamentally losing the war of the currents.

AC is ascendant.

His name is removed from his company.

He moves to a new workshop facility at West Orange.

What is he doing now after this period?

In this period of losing out to AC and losing his name off his company, was Edison personally bitter?

So we've spent a fair amount of time going through Edison's remarkable career, but I wonder what you might personally consider to be his most important invention or innovation.

Throughout his career, Edison was on the vanguard of several very different technologies, but almost always in communications.