9.5. Lesson 83: Start a School
As Edison pushed ahead with the commercialization of his electric lighting system, marketing electrification to industry, communities, and entire cities, he encountered—not surprisingly—a terrible dearth of experienced electrical engineers, electricians, installers, and other workmen to do the necessary building, installing, maintaining, and operating of the components of the system. The wiring of buildings was often undertaken by plumbers, whose vocation was at least roughly analogous to that of the emerging trade of electrician, but Edison well knew that this stop-gap was hardly sufficient to the needs of the vast industry that was rapidly taking shape under his hands. Edison approached Columbia University in ...
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