8.7. Lesson 71: Don't Stop with Version 1
To create the prototype of his incandescent electric lamp, Thomas Edison conducted thousands of experiments, most of them in search of the best filament material. Even if we consider the prototype version 1 of the invention, we would be justified in concluding that, as the product of so much trial and error, experimentation, and tweaking, this "version 1" was already a prime candidate for mass production.
Not that Edison viewed it this way.
In the spring of 1884 alone, he supervised 2,774 more lamp experiments at Menlo Park prior to authorizing the beginning of mass production. The cost of the experiments was $70,000, each of them aimed at refining every detail of design and manufacturing in order to ...
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