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Edison, Coolidge, and Langmuir: Evolving Approaches to American Industrial Research
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 March 2009
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.
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- Papers Presented at the Forty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the Economic History Association
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- Copyright © The Economic History Association 1987
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
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