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The self-effacing Upton may therefore be given principal credit for interpreting Edison’s ideas and translating them into mathematical form. It was Edison, nevertheless, who had the ideas. Upton was frequently surprised by the accuracy of Edison’s “guesses” and never considered that he himself was given insufficient credit for his work. A careful student of contemporary electrical science, he seems to have been conversant with, and to have guided himself by, some of the important critical writing of Dr. John Hopkinson, of England, on the structure of the Siemens dynamo. As Upton admits, the design of the Edison-Upton dynamo, as we may call it, was not essentially different in principle from that of the Siemens. Edison’s main improvements seem to have been in dividing the formerly solid armature cores and the commutator into a far greater number of sections than had been formerly the practice. He also seems to have been the first to use mica in insulating the commutator sections from each other, a very effective method. The new dynamo, though it was said to have incorporated a number of elementary mistakes, contained many admirable features for that period. With its great masses of iron and large, heavy wires, it stood in bold contrast to other dynamos having a more meager ferrous quantity. Its magnets seemed enormous in those pioneering days. When this machine was run at a certain constant speed, the voltage between its two armature brushes was approximately 110 and remained about constant, falling but slightly when increasing amounts of current were taken from the machine. The new dynamo’s bipolar form, owning to its two upright columns, led to its being nicknamed Edison’s “Long-waisted Mary Ann.”315
Creative people naturally produce false positives. Ideas that they think are good but aren’t. Ideas that other people have already had. Mediocre ideas that contain buried within them the seeds of much better ideas. The key is to catch them early. And the only way to do that is by doing the work at least partly in front of an audience. A book should be an article before it’s a book, and a dinner conversation before it’s an article. See how things go before going all in. Seeking out this feedback is essential—but also dangerous.
Perennial Seller
Ryan Holiday
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort and advancing on Chaos and the Dark.
Self Reliance
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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