Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond

7.4. Lesson 62: Create New Uses for Whatever You Have

In the 1880s, Edison conducted experiments on what he called a pyromagnetic generator, a device designed to generate electricity directly from coal, in the form of an anthracite (coke) rod, heated with a metal strip in a closed vessel into which a thin gas vapor was injected. The gas would ionize, thereby generating an electric current. The problem, Edison found—and it was apparently insurmountable—was that the heated gas was dangerously explosive. Indeed, after an explosion blew the windows out of a room in his laboratory, he abandoned further experimentation.

When he quit experimenting with pyromagnetic generator, Edison was left with a substantial stock of roasted anthracite carbon, for ...