DK Biography: Thomas Edison: A Photographic Story of a Life

"Biography Thomas Edison ", Jan Adkins. DK Publishing, New York, NY, 2009. ISBN 978-0-7566-5207-4, PC 128/123. pgs., Index 2 pgs. 7 3/4" x 5". A biography, lavishly illustrated with tinted photographs, splendidly written in a style for even the youngest readers. This short treatise does a remarkable job of tying in the vastness of Thomas Edison's gift to society: it fills in many areas of endeavor often overlooked, to wit: his designed and built gigantic ore-crushing machines, conveyor belts, huge cement manufacturing plants, concrete cast houses, electric power plants with underground cable placement for safety, improved batteries, and not forgetting the typewriter though now nearly replaced by computer keyboards but functionally unchanged, and so importantly, his concept of specialized research laboratories - a forerunner of JPL, NASA, Bell Labs, NRL, and Los Alamos that were patterned after his Menlo Park work center. We also become privy to this scientist's personality, his hearing loss, his marriages, children, his hired technicians ("the Boys"), and his association with Henry Ford, Nikola Tesla, George Westinghouse, and studies of x-ray fluoroscope usefulness and dangers, etc. His inventiveness in such diverse areas is unequaled - and we have much to learn from him, and to be indebted to him, for his wisdom, curiosity and perseverance. Finis