Nothing to do with football at all...may interest.

[charledrfc]

Recently my son visited the summer homes of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison situated in Forth Myers, Florida. Ford used to work for Edison and it was Edison who encouraged him to create the motor car. Edison went to Fort Myers for the peace and quiet to concentrate on his inventions.

One of these inventions was the phonograph. early record player, which had a large horn through which the sound came. Unfortunately it did not have a volume control so when the noise was too loud Edison used to stuff a sock in the horn. Thereafter, when the noise got too much Edison was exhorted to \"put a sock in it\"
Hence our saying

[Mike_F]

Quite interesting but a couple of points:

1. Ford didn't create the motor car although he did pioneer mass production lines. The workstation mass production system, however is credited to Adam Smith who pioneered it in pin manufacture.

2. Always great to read interesting snippets like this but the thread ought to be in the off topic forum. Not having a pop, just a heads up really.

Back to the original post though and it's interesting to note that Edison never saw his invention as an entertainment device. He saw it purely as a means for storing and passing on messages and the like, as one would use a dictaphone.

[BillyStubbsTears]

I thought the saying originated when an exasperated mother was exhorting her teenage son to find a way to prevent glop stains all over his bed-head.

EDIT: My mistake. That was \"Put it in a sock\".

[charledrfc]

Hi Mike F

You seem to be a knowledgable person and I appreciate that.

It is still true that Ford created the motor car in such a way to make it accessible to a lot of people.
You have a point with pin production (no pun) but I think Ford is more widely known than Smith. Drawing boards and prototypes are no substitute for practical application.

But it is good to exchange ideas with you.

[Mike_F]

Charle, certainly in terms of making the motor car accessible then you are quite correct inasmuch as he applied production techniques never used on such a scale to  great effect.

Smith certainly went way beyond drawing boards and prototypes - he greatly increased production levels and reduced costs and labour intensivity.

You have to give Edison credit for his creativity and persistence. He kept on inventing and inventing despite many of his creations not finding any practical use. He was also a brillaint businessman in temrs of getting his patents filed around the world. Whilst he was developing the lightbulb, several others were doing the same thing independently in Europe and he put his patent in a matter of hours before another inventor in Britain whose name escapes me now.

[Sheepskin Stu]

Random b*llocks!  

[Florida Rover]

Sheepskin we never heard from you about the match on Saturday was there anything in particular that you saw of interest?

[dumbroofer]

sorry sheepskin stu but it was deffo not random b*llocks who invented the light bulb in britain

[Drover]

Mike_F wrote:

Quite interesting but a couple of points:

1. Ford didn't create the motor car although he did pioneer mass production lines. The workstation mass production system, however is credited to Adam Smith who pioneered it in pin manufacture.

2. Always great to read interesting snippets like this but the thread ought to be in the off topic forum. Not having a pop, just a heads up really.

Back to the original post though and it's interesting to note that Edison never saw his invention as an entertainment device. He saw it purely as a means for storing and passing on messages and the like, as one would use a dictaphone.

Thats a modern term for what alot of people will know more as \"The Division of labour\" which is what like you say Adam Smith pioneered.He was the first to introduce it into any production and to see the potential for cutting costs and speeding up production and Ford was the first to implement it into the Motor industry.
 
I also find the invention world interesting.Certain people get credited for inventing things but what alot of people don't realise is that they were often actually not the inventor but actually the first to either develope it right or get or already have the funding needed or have contacts/friends who could help him with what they needed to make it HAPPEN.Nearly every story of an invention has 2 or 3 people fighting it out to be the first to make it work and often the best version is not the winner.Many of the famous inventors have Copied,Stolen or bought thier creations from other brain box's who could not compete or have the necessary funds/contacts/knowledge to make it happen.Subsequently the real first Inventor gets nothing and dies relatively unknown without the credit he deserved.Alot of inventions are often found by mistake or accident or by errors.It's a funny old world eh!

[Glyn_Wigley]

Mike_F wrote:

You have to give Edison credit for his creativity and persistence. He kept on inventing and inventing despite many of his creations not finding any practical use. He was also a brillaint businessman in temrs of getting his patents filed around the world. Whilst he was developing the lightbulb, several others were doing the same thing independently in Europe and he put his patent in a matter of hours before another inventor in Britain whose name escapes me now.

Edison hardly ever invented anything. He improved other people's inventions. Including the lightbulb.

[Sheepskin Stu]

Florida Rover wrote:

Sheepskin we never heard from you about the match on Saturday was there anything in particular that you saw of interest?

Yeah, a few pints of M&B bitter and an horrific sky blue Rovers shirt. The match was typical pre season fayre.

[bobjimwilly]

(thread moved to Off Topic  B)  )

[Mike_F]

Glyn_Wigley wrote:

Mike_F wrote:

You have to give Edison credit for his creativity and persistence. He kept on inventing and inventing despite many of his creations not finding any practical use. He was also a brillaint businessman in temrs of getting his patents filed around the world. Whilst he was developing the lightbulb, several others were doing the same thing independently in Europe and he put his patent in a matter of hours before another inventor in Britain whose name escapes me now.

Edison hardly ever invented anything. He improved other people's inventions. Including the lightbulb.

Cap doffed. You're quite right, he took themes that a lot of people had wrked on and in many cases given up then applied them to to practical uses and got the patents. My point was that you have to credit his vision and persistence to succeed where others had failed or lacked the ambition/foresight to fully capitalise on opportunities.

EDIT: Thinking a little more about the light bulb in particular, the technology had been around for some time but the problem was the filament burning out in a matter of minutes. The problem was solved by using a mercury pump invented by a German whose name also escapes me right now to create an efficient vacuum insode the bulb allowing the filament to wor for much longer periods. It was the marriage of the bulb and vacuum technologies that made Edison's name.