Edison, Genius, Perspiration and Inspiration

Well, it’s been a busy and exhausting work day, but cetainly not boring. Ever wished like me that a day has 36 hours? I’m sure you have. Sometimes after a late dinner, I relax in the comfort of Mozart’s lovely and enchanting music, othertimes, I take a breather in my favourite reclining chair, switch on the TV. One particular cool night, the program didn’t interest me enough, and for no particular reason my eyes lingered on the standing lamp nearby.

Suddenly my thoughts drifted to that famous science genius who gave us the incandescent electric lamp many years ago.

Perhaps many out there already know about this… I’m trying to recall from my reading, this little boy whose name I can’t even remember. Ok, for the sake of this piece, I’ll call him Oliver. Little Oliver was the son of the stationmaster at a certain town in Michigan. One day, the story went, Oliver was playing when a loaded wagon came rolling along the line right in his path.

A youth in his teens rushed to the rescue and snatched Oliver to safety just in the nick of time. Not a la Superman rescue of course, but he still saved little Oliver’s life. Naturally, Oliver’s Daddy, the stationmaster, was so grateful that he asked the savior-teenager if there was anything he could do to repay him.

The youth asked with much enthusiasm, “Could you teach me telegraphy, please?” In a few months, he had mastered it. Later, the impressed stationmaster recommended him for the job of a telegraph operator on the locale’s trunk line service system.

And so began the remarkable career of Thomas Alva Edison, who perfected the incandescent electric lamp, many other related things, and also known for his all-time quote: Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”