Thomas Edison—Genius Made by Teamwork
托马斯·爱迪生——团队造就的天才
Thomas Edison was the genius inventor of the electrical age. His hundreds of inventions made him a giant public figure in American and around the world at the turn of the 20th century. Among Edison's most famous inventions is the first practical long-lasting light bulb； he also helped refine and develop other inventions like motion picture cameras， the stock ticker and the typewriter. By the end of his life Edison had registered 1093 patents. Edison's labs were located in Menlo Park， New Jersey， leading to his nickname of “The Invention Factory” where he conducted experiments. However， he did not work alone. A team of talented professionals assisted him all hours of the day and night. These men had the skills to make Edison's ideas and sketches into real devices of wood， wire， glass， and metal.
Edison had a large staff of specialists， ranging from machinists to physicists， who helped turn his ideas into realities. Charles Batcheldor was an English machinist. John Kruesi was a Swiss clockmaker. Ludwig Boehm was a German glassblower. Francis Upton was a Princeton-trained mathematician. They were drawn to the then-isolated hamlet of Menlo Park by the magnetic force of Thomas Edison's genius. But it was Edison's unique ability to tap into their skills that turned his half-formed ideas into workable products. “He was never the lonely inventor，” says Bill Pretzer， a curator of the Edison collection at the Henry Ford Museum.
Edison broke the previous individual scientists to engage in research tradition in this laboratory， and organized a group of professionals， and the subject of their assignment， a common commitment to the invention. The way he did created the correct way to modern scientific research. Edison believed that inventions and research could best be accomplished by great minds working together. His laboratory is the basis for the majority of our current laboratories and research development places. While he didn't invent teamwork， he just made it popular. Until Edison， most inventors worked by themselves for many years， sometimes giving up because they couldn't solve problems by themselves.
It had been a general belief in Edison's time that the act of invention was pure happenstance or isolated genius. Edison considered this wrong and he demonstrated that by bringing the right people together in the right environment， world-changing inventions could be produced in a regular manner. A good example of this is the light bulb. Since 1802， over 20 different inventors had been working to solve the difficult problem of lighting the world. Most of them had been working by themselves and weren't using the other inventors' research or solutions. When Edison set out to create the light bulb， he encouraged the inventors and scientists who worked with him to concentrate on this difficult problem. Suddenly， there were ten people working on the problem instead of just one. Ten people working meant ten times the amount of time and energy and the “cross-pollination” of ideas， which improved the chances of success more than tenfold.
Edison and his team worked together in an open and collaborative environment. Their work， driven with the purpose of building valuable marketable products， produced world-changing new inventions at an unprecedented7 rate. Edison set a goal to produce a minor invention every ten days and a major one every six months. However， not everyone who worked for Edison found the experience satisfying—the hours was long. Those who found the working environment too coarse soon left. But those who could work the long hours as “one of the boys” often stayed with Edison for years.
Edison and his professionals often recorded designs and experiments in notebooks all around the lab. In October 1879， Batchelor recorded a series of experiments with carbon filaments made from a variety of materials. Much mythology surrounds these experiments， but according to the notebooks a carbonized filament of uncoated cotton thread operated for a total of 14 hours. While not the 40 hours of legend， this success led the Menlo Park team to believe that they were absolutely on the right track. By November 2nd of that year that belief was such that Upton reported in a letter home， “The electric light is coming up. ”It was Upton who invented the instruments that led the team to a breakthrough insight in electric lighting， and it was Batcheldor's nimble hands that threaded a carbon filament into a bulb that Boehm evacuated to a millionth of an atmosphere. And on Oct 22， 1879， when the bulb finished a 14-hour burn， the darkness filled with the cheers of five men and four nationalities.
托马斯·爱迪生是电气时代的天才发明家。数以百计的发明使他成为二十世纪之交美国乃至全球的公众巨人。爱迪生的众多发明中最为著名的便是他发明的第一经济实用且照明时间长的电灯泡。此外，爱迪生还对其他的发明做了改进，如电影摄影机、证券报价机以及打字机。到了晚年，爱迪生的注册专利已达1093个。爱迪生的实验室坐落在新泽西州的门罗公园里，他昵称之为“发明工厂”，并在这里进行实验。然而，爱迪生并非独自作战，一个精英团队在夜以继日地协助着他的工作。这些人具备着能够将爱迪生的想法和草图转变成由木头、电线、玻璃和金属等制成的工具。
爱迪生拥有着一支庞大的专业团队，这其中既有机械师又有物理学家。爱迪生的许多想法就是在这些专业人员的帮助下转变成现实的。其中，查尔斯·贝彻勒是一名英国机械师；约翰·克鲁斯是一名瑞士的钟表制造者；路德维格·伯姆是一名德国的玻璃吹制工；弗兰西斯·厄普顿是一位毕业于普林斯顿大学的数学家。爱迪生的才气有如磁石般将他们吸引到了当年门罗公园中的那个孤寂的小村子里。然而，正是具有这些专业人才技能的独特能力，爱迪生才能将他尚未成型的观点转化成具有实用价值的产品。“他从来都不是一位独行发明家，”比尔·布莱特泽尔，亨利·福特博物馆爱迪生藏品处的管理员如此评说道。
在这个实验室里，爱迪生打破了以往科学家们独自从事研究的传统。他组织了一批专门人才，由他给定任务课题，一同致力于发明创造。爱迪生所采用的这种方式为现代科学研究指明了正确方向。他相信精英们的共同协作能够将发明与研究做到最好。爱迪生的实验室为我们现如今大多数实验室以及研究开发场所的设立提供了基础。然而，并非是爱迪生创造了团队协作，他只是将其推广开来。爱迪生以前的大多数发明家都是长年累月独自一人工作的，他们有时会选择放弃，是因为凭借个人的力量是无法将问题解决的。
在爱迪生所处的时代里，人们普遍认为发明创造只不过是一种纯粹的偶然事件或是个别天才才具有的才能。爱迪生却不以为然，他要证明给世人，只要环境适当，再找对合适的人选，改变世界的发明便会应运而生。电灯泡的发明便是一个很好的例子。自1802年以来，二十多位发明家一直致力于研究如何照亮世界这一难题，但绝大多数均为独立研究，未能将其他发明家的研究与解决方案为己所用。爱迪生开始着手发明电灯泡时，他便鼓励那些和他一同工作的发明家及科学家共同专注于这一难题。这样，致力于解决这个问题的人手就在骤然间从一个变成了十个。十个人共同工作意味着时间和精力的投入是原来的十倍，人们的观点得到了交流，犹如“异花授粉”一样。这样成功的机率也就提高了十倍还多。
爱迪生和他的团队在开放互助的氛围下共同工作。为了能够创造出有价值且市场销路好的产品，他们以空前的速度创造出了各种能够改变世界的新发明。爱迪生定下了一个目标，那便是每十天要有一个小发明，每六个月便要完成一项大发明。然而，并不是每一个为爱迪生工作的人都对这种经历感到满意——因为工作时间过长。那些觉得工作环境糟糕的人很快便离开了，但那些能够长时间工作的“团队中的一员”，追随爱迪生多年。
爱迪生和他的专业团队经常在实验室各处的笔记本中记录下各种设计及实验。1879年10月，贝彻勒记录了一系列从不同物质当中提取出炭丝的实验。关于这些实验有着诸多谜团，然而根据笔记本中的记录，从无涂层棉线中提取出一条炭丝的实验花费了十四个小时，而不是传说中的四十个小时。而这一成功也使得门罗帕克团队对自己所走的正确道路确信不疑。
同年11月2日，厄普顿在一封家书中这样描述：“电灯就要问世了。”正是发明了灯泡装置的厄普顿使整个团队对电力照明有了突破性的见解；也正是贝彻勒灵巧的双手将一根炭丝穿过了电灯泡；伯姆则抽离了其中百万分之一的大气。1879年10月22日，当这个电灯泡结束了它长达十四个小时的照明后，来自四个国家、五个人的欢呼声响彻黑夜。
译者感言
托马斯·爱迪生的名字对许多人来讲并不陌生，这位给世界带来电灯、留声机、电影等上百项发明的天才留给后人的财富是无价之宝。爱迪生有一句广为传颂的名言“天才，是百分之一的灵感加上百分之九十九的汗水”。然而，爱迪生背后的那个与他共同挥洒汗水的团队却鲜为人知。正是在这个由世界顶尖人才组成的“门罗帕克团队”的共同协作下，爱迪生头脑当中的一个个奇思妙想才最终转变成了现实。集体的力量不可估量，许多个人无法攀越的高峰在团队面前都是渺小甚微的。任何一位在历史的沙滩上留下足迹的伟人所取得的成就都不仅仅是个人努力奋斗的结果，他们的成功当中包含着他人的无私相助与团队的通力合作。正如牛顿的名言所说“我之所以成功是因为我站在了巨人的肩上”。因此，人类所取得的伟大成就都是集体智慧的结晶。时代呼唤天才的出现，而我们不能忘记任何天才都是在集体协作的强大力量中应运而生的，天才与集体只有团结一致才会创造奇迹，缔造传奇。
