Innovation as a Social Process: Elihu Thomson and the Rise of General Electric. 1870-1900 (Studies in Economic History and Policy: USA in the Twentieth Century)

Elihu Thomson was a major American inventor of electric light and power systems. A contemporary of Thomas Edison, Thomson performed the engineering and design work necessary to make electric lighting a common product. From the 1880s to the 1930s, Thomson was employed by the General Electric Company and its predecessors. Working within the corporation, Thomson reveals how successful inventions are based on explicit links among technological artifacts, marketing strategy, and the business organization needed for manufacturing and marketing. Frontmatter List of figures and tables (page viii) Editors' preface (page xiii) Acknowledgments (page xv) Abbreviations used in footnotes (page xx) Introduction (page 1) 1. The cultivation of a scientific man (page 16) 2. Learning the craft of invention (page 66) 3. The Philadelphia partnership, 1879-1880 (page 109) 4. Frustration in New Britain, 1880-1883 (page 146) 5. Success in Lynn: the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, 1883-1892 (page 203) 6. Maintaining the organization: product development at General Electric, 1892-1900 (page 271) Epilogue and conclusion (page 340) Index (page 363) Elihu Thomson was a late-nineteenth-century American inventor who helped create the first electric lighting and power systems. One of the most prolific inventors in American history, Thomson was granted nearly 700 patents in a career spanning the 1880s to 1930s. At first glance, the details of Elihu Thomson's childhood and early adulthood parallel the life stories of other American technological heroes, such as Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. W. Bernard Carlson. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.