In the way of words, Thomas Edison certainly was both compelling and entertaining. He was a lot more, too. We know, for example, that he was exact. A story about him points up the reason I’m here. One morning, he walked in with some crude drawings and specifications and handed them to an assistant with the curt words: “Build this!“
Naturally curious, the man asked, “What will it do?”
“It will talk back, ” Edison replied, and walked away to other matters.
Well, the assistant did as he was told. The result was the phonograph, a machine which talked back. Now, Edison is honored for his inventive genius. But he also was very skilled at marketing. To him, everything-everythingl— had a purpose. At almost the same time the phonograph was invented, he made a list of eight uses which it could be put. The first four were strictly business, but number five was reproduction of music.