Author Topic: Houdini And Edison Illuminate The Mysteries Of American Invention  (Read 475 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Online corbe

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 38,071
Houdini And Edison Illuminate The Mysteries Of American Invention

Two new biographies of a pair of America's most innovative men attempt to explain how intense dedication produces remarkable and wondrous results.

By Michael Rosen
March 27, 2020


Brilliance and dedication are the indispensable hallmarks of invention; without either, progress in science and the arts would grind to a halt. As demonstrated by the inventively fertile late 19th and early 20th centuries, however, when masterminds like Harry Houdini (1874-1926) and Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) ascended to worldwide celebrity status, the creative explosion that profoundly changed the world was powered by another, less tangible fuel: imagination.

As evident in two new biographies, Edison and Houdini pushed human progress far beyond previously imagined boundaries, conjuring the new (and vastly improved) out of nothing. They harnessed the magic of their particular geniuses and yoked it to their boundless energy and supreme cleverness in the service of enhancing and extending life the world over.

This amalgam of science and imagination unique to world-class inventors emerges in the mysterious origin stories of their lives and creations; in the unusual circumstances of improvement; in their manner of overcoming their failures; in the importance of spectacle and flair; and, ultimately, in their departure from the scene. Through these lenses, we witness the science of magic and the magic of science.

The Importance of Origin Stories

<..snip..>

https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/27/houdini-and-edison-illuminate-the-mysteries-of-american-invention/
No government in the 12,000 years of modern mankind history has led its people into anything but the history books with a simple lesson, don't let this happen to you.