Thomas Edison's record as an American inventor seems hard to beat if Hollywood wants a historical hero — he pioneered practical electric lighting, spawned the sound recording industry and created the first commercial system for motion pictures. "The Wizard of Menlo Park" captured the public imagination with his awe-inspiring inventions and swam through a sea of celebrity as easily as Tony Stark, the superhero Iron Man of comics and films.
But Edison's greatest legacy may be as a founder of modern innovation, the process of turning an invention idea into a fully realized and patented commercial product. His early knack for entrepreneurial success gave him the wealth and investor backing to transform small inventor's workshops into the huge research-and-development laboratories of today. He even helped found U.S. military labs such as the Naval Research Laboratory.
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