Inventors and Their Often Wacky Chemical Inventions

Abstract

Sidney Stratton (Alec Guinness in The Man in the White Suit) knows exactly what he wants to make. He just doesn’t know how to make it. So, he engages in a trial-and-error search for the right conditions to create his nonstaining fiber. Every time he makes a new trial, however, he sets off an explosion. As the Birnley Mills building crumbles around him, he tries, tries, and tries again. Like Stratton, most movie inventors create oxymoronic products such as rechargeable batteries, flexible glass, bulletproof tires, and water-repellent hairsprays. Movie inventors are very closely associated with the slapstick humor of the 1910s to 1930s, but ultimately they owe the strength of their fictional existence to Thomas Alva Edison. His inventions brought him worldwide fame in 1877, when he was 29 years old. After that, he regularly made front-page news until his death in 1931. His creation of the phonograph, commercialization of the light bulb, and 1,091 other inventions changed the way we live. Of all his inventions, the phonograph truly came out of nowhere, so much so that a journalist dubbed him the “Wizard of Menlo Park.” He followed that up with the electric light bulb and, more important, the electric power generation and delivery system. His most profound creation was the research laboratory, discussed in the next section, which he didn’t even patent. The iconic power of Edison is evident in the observation that inventors before The Absent-Minded Professor in 1961 create in the absence of theory, while those after 1961 rely on theory to make their products. Edison wanted to invent things that interested him. He didn’t care how they worked, just that they did. He hired men with advanced degrees for their theoretical expertise but relied on them more for their specialized technical abilities. In contrast, the industrial research laboratories that were founded on Edison’s example, such as General Electric Laboratories and Bell Laboratories, among many others, were and are staffed by large numbers of trained scientists, engineers, and technicians who rely on the free flow of ideas and expertise between theory and practicality to solve problems.