「おはよう、さて、今日は何を発明しようか?」

これは彼の発明王エジソンが朝、研究所に現れた際にしていた挨拶だった。学歴として小学校中退、早々に自宅での化学実験に没頭し爆発事故とボヤ騒ぎを起こし、汽車におけるアルバイト生活においても化学の実験に熱中しまたもや事故と火事を招いた発明家の言葉である。エジソンには現代で言うASD及びADHDの色濃い特徴が見られる。彼は徹底した実験主義者であり、物心ついた時分から化学の実験でも電信でもなんでも実験を試み、幼少期より上記のようなトラブルと発明をセットで生み出している。竹を用いてうまくいった脱炭素の電球のフィラメントの実験に関しては数千に及ぶ素材を繰り返し、失敗を気にも留めなかったという。実験の後に「数千の材料で失敗したのではない、数千の材料が使用できないことが分かったのだ」との発言は有名である。実験主義者ぶりと徹底した実践主義具合が伝わってくる。ただ、彼の発明に対する執念は周囲もしっかりと巻き込んでいたらしく、レントゲンがエックス線を発明したニュースを聞いたエジソンは、すぐさま追試を開始し研究員の一人が被爆し左手にやけどを負ったという。また、知能と独創性に相関性は薄いとされているがエジソンの発明には睡眠時間を削ってしらみつぶしに事例を調査するやり方が主流であった。そして彼の発言の数々からその徹底ぶりが発明に関する執念に近いものから発生していることが見て取れる。このことが如実に見てとれる例が一つある。1876年にグラハム・ベルが電話を発明した際、エジソンは相当ショックを受けたとされる。なぜならエジソンは電信の領域に絶対の自信を持っており、自分こそが電話を発明すべき人間だと確信していた。ウェスタン・ユニオン社からグラハム・ベルの電話の特許を迂回できる電話の技術の発明を依頼されてからというもの、彼は技術開発に没頭した。それから二年の間、彼は一年だけで188日55夜を費やして実験を行ったという。

Good morning, everyone! What shall we invent today?
This was a phrase that Edison, the king of invention, used whenever he appeared to his laboratory in the morning. The inventor who dropped out of elementary school, immersed himself in chemical experiments at home, which eventually caused an explosion and a fire. After a while he was working part-time for a railway company, during which time he again became absorbed in another chemical experiments and that also led him to another accident and fire. Edison reportedly had the characteristics of ASD and ADHD. He experimented almost anything from chemistry to telegraphy from his childhood. As a child he created a lot of trouble but at the same time his unconventional way of thinking helped him to create a lot of inventions the world can enjoy. Here is one interesting anecdote explaining his characteristics about his attitude toward the experiments. After a lot of unsuccessful experiments with various other materials, he finally succeeded in inventing the filament of decarbonized light bulb by using bamboo as a material. After the success he noted famously “In the process of inventing light bulbs, what I did just proved that many materials were unusable. I didn’t think those experiments were failure” He was a man to pursue experimentalism and practicality.
His obsession with experiments gave great impacts to people around him. When Edison heard the news of Roentgen’s invention of X-rays, he immediately started follow-up tests right after the invention. During the follow up experiments one of his researchers at the lab was exposed to radiation and burned his left hand.
If we can measure people’s intelligence with his I.Q, I don’t believe that’s true, then we should say that there is little correlation between intelligence and originality. Edison was an unconventional man with unique personality whose competence the ordinary IQ test can’t measure. Edison was almost always obsessed with invention and he never had enough time to sleep or he would rather spend his time on experiment than sleep. And from his many statements, we can see that his thoroughness has a lot to do with his obsession with experiments. In one instance, When Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876、Edison was shocked to know that Graham did it ahead of him. Because Edison had absolute confidence in the telegraph technology and was convinced himself that he would be the man to invent the telephone. When the Western Union Company asked him to invent a telephone technology. He spend 188 days and 55 nights in one year on experimenting its technology and continued that for 2 consecutive years.