Word: telegraphist
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Edison's life does entail some inherently interesting history--young Tom growing up in the Midwest during the Civil War, selling newspapers and printing one of his own; Edison the insomniac telegraphist; Edison the eccentric inventor; Edison the occasional businessman. But Clark's book is only interesting to the extent that Edison's life was interesting. Thoughtful analysis is largely left behind after the first half dozen pages, and the book becomes a string of information bits, arranged loosely in chronological order. The only logic connecting the information presented is the immediately obvious: what happened when. Clark rarely steps back...
...months of war, oil lamps had been supplanted by the light bulb, the gourd by the bidet, pineapple juice by Coca Cola, lotto by roulette, Rocambole by Pearl White, the messenger boy's donkey by the telegraphist's bicycle...