Rural Electrification Sources Behind the Story

	Source: Photograph for Edison Phonograph Company This photograph shows some of the changes Edison's electronic inventions - like the phonograph - brought to American life. Instead of going out to see shows at a theater or night club, people could be bring music directly into the home. Famous performers like the opera star, Enrico Caruso, could be captured on wax and played back whenever the listener wanted. Suddenly, music became more than a performance - it became an item for sale. In addition to concerts, a performer could earn money by visiting a studio and recording a song.
Two women listening to Edison Portable Phonograph as two other women dance to the Music. ca 1920s. Photographer unknown (publicity still for Edison Phonograph Company, West Orange, N.J.).
The following exerpts describe other effects of Edison's inventions. EXERPT 1: "The life of Thomas Alva Edison ... spanned the making of modern America. It was ... a life which helped give both the United States and Europe the technological sinews of the contemporary world: electrical industries, the viable telephone network, the phonograph, and the movies." --historian Ronald W. Clark EXERPT 2: "The incandescent electric light bulb has become a familiar symbol for that flash of inspired genius traditionally associated with invention. In part the light bulb's symbolic value comes from its obvious role as a visual metaphor of the 'bright idea.' But this symbolism also arises from its association with Thomas Edison - the electric light perceived as the greatest invention of the world's greatest inventor. But the electric light was not a single invention emanating from an inspired genius. Instead it was a complex network of inventions produced by one of the first institutions of organized corporate research. As he invented a system of electric lighting, Edison was simultaneously reinventing the system of invention." --historian Paul Israel
Source of the Source: Photo: http://www.nps.gov/edis/29500000.HTM (Edison National Historic Site website, online photo collections) Excerpt 1: Ronald W. Clark, Edison: The Man Who Made the Future (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1977), 7. Excerpt 2: Paul Israel, Edison: A Life of Invention (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998), 167.
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