As the Great Lakes and much of North America freezes over with all time historic low temperatures, consider warming up with a couple of Academy Award nominated films from the 1940's about two innovative giants of all-time: Thomas Edison and Marie Curie. Starring in these two films respectively are greats of yesteryear - Spencer Tracy and Greer Garson.
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The following link for the trailer of the movie "Edison, The Man" (1940) opens with a long overview of Spencer Tracy's acting career before getting to the actual trailer on Edison, The Man [about half way into the ~2 1/2 minute clip ... which of course builds to Thomas Edison's breakthrough discovery in 1879 that a carbon filament in an oxygen-free bulb glowed but did not burn for up to 40 hours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0WBu2zvNs4
From TCM's review of the movie: A combination of legend and fact, a fast-moving family drama ... set in 1929 with Edison a old man, the bulk of the movie is flash-backs to key steps [successes, challenges & setbacks] along Edison's career. Using extensive photographs and documentary footage, the art department re-created Edison's long abandoned labroatory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, including the more than 10,000 devices he had invented. Popular Mechanics magazine lauded their efforts.
It was Spencer Tracy who gave the film its greatest authenticity. Having a slight resemblance to Edison, Tracy studied biographies of Edison, as well as all existing film footage on Edison. As Tracy's son John was deaf, Tracy understood how to incorporate Edison's hearing difficulties. Per TCM, the only part of Edison's characterization that deviated from fact was substituting cigas for Edison's trademark chewing tobacco - at the request of his son Charles Edison.
The challenges Edison faced with funding were interesting, as was the maneuvering by leaders of existing technology (i.e.: gas for lanterns). That ole Innovator's Dilemma-thing again.
Today in New Jersey there is a wonderful National Historic Park http://www.nps.gov/edis/index.htm where Thomas Edison's home and laboratory are fully restored - where one can see where modern industries were born. Other museums on Edison are in New Jersey and Florida including:
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This trailer similarly opens by heralding the acting career accomplishments of Greer Garson, then segways into the trailer of "Madame Curie" (1943), in which Greer Garson was nominated for Best Actress and co-star acting legend Walter Pigeon (Pierre Curie, her inventor husband) was nominated as Best Actor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrURyPLBV44
The film tells the story of Polish-French physicist Marie Curie in 1890s Paris as she begins to share a laboratory with her future husband. From Wikipedia, Marie Sklowska (Gree Garson) is a poor, idealistic, top performing student living in Paris and studying at the Sorbonne. She neglects
her health and one day faints during class. Her tutor, Prof. Perot (no relation to Ross that I am aware of) is sym- pathetic and, finding that she has no friends or family in Paris, invites her to a soirée his wife is throwing for friends (primarily professors). Among them is Pierre Curie (Walter Pidgeon), an extremely shy and absentminded man completely devoted to his work. A chauvinist (in the movie anyway) concerning women and science, he allows Marie to share his lab as a favor to the tutor, then to his surprise finds Marie is a gifted scientist.
Marie is fascinated by a demonstration she saw as an undergraduate of a pitchblende rock that seems to generate enough energy to take small photographs. Marie decides to make the rock's energy the subject of her doctoral study.
The Physics Department at the Sorbornne refuses to fund their (Marie & Pierre's) research without more proof of the element's existence, but allows them to use a old shed across from the physics building. The movie does a nice job overviewing the complexities ad challenges they worked through starting with importing 8 tons of pitchblende ore, then cooking it down through countless iterations as they looked for the visibly elusive new element they were trying discover (which they named 'radium'). The Curies' marathon to achieve the discovery was remarkable.
Museums for Curie are in both France and Poland:
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- Imagine if these types of remarkable people typified who our culture focused on and aspired to be like (rather than the vapid who chase celebrity),
- Imagine if foundational education for all citizens was enhanced to explain the journey innovators have - as both Edison and Curie tried to make breakthroughs for years ... but relented. Further, imagine these enhanced foundational studies educating citizens on the reality of the pathways to innovation - inside various sized companies to one one's own - both with the challenges to secure financial backing (as either a short list priority in a big company or from various forms of independent investors from angel, to seed, all the way to institutional.
- While helpful that there are social media sites (i.e.: MosaicHUB http://www.mosaichub.com/ ... and certainly others) that facilitate communications between those seeking guidance and those willing to provide guidance, seems like there is opportunity to do better in terms of making all students, all citizens of any age for that matter, aware of the landscape for a career in innovation.
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THOMAS EDISON
The following link for the trailer of the movie "Edison, The Man" (1940) opens with a long overview of Spencer Tracy's acting career before getting to the actual trailer on Edison, The Man [about half way into the ~2 1/2 minute clip ... which of course builds to Thomas Edison's breakthrough discovery in 1879 that a carbon filament in an oxygen-free bulb glowed but did not burn for up to 40 hours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0WBu2zvNs4From TCM's review of the movie: A combination of legend and fact, a fast-moving family drama ... set in 1929 with Edison a old man, the bulk of the movie is flash-backs to key steps [successes, challenges & setbacks] along Edison's career. Using extensive photographs and documentary footage, the art department re-created Edison's long abandoned labroatory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, including the more than 10,000 devices he had invented. Popular Mechanics magazine lauded their efforts. It was Spencer Tracy who gave the film its greatest authenticity. Having a slight resemblance to Edison, Tracy studied biographies of Edison, as well as all existing film footage on Edison. As Tracy's son John was deaf, Tracy understood how to incorporate Edison's hearing difficulties. Per TCM, the only part of Edison's characterization that deviated from fact was substituting cigas for Edison's trademark chewing tobacco - at the request of his son Charles Edison.
The challenges Edison faced with funding were interesting, as was the maneuvering by leaders of existing technology (i.e.: gas for lanterns). That ole Innovator's Dilemma-thing again.
Today in New Jersey there is a wonderful National Historic Park http://www.nps.gov/edis/index.htm where Thomas Edison's home and laboratory are fully restored - where one can see where modern industries were born. Other museums on Edison are in New Jersey and Florida including:
http://www.menloparkmuseum.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Alva_Edison_Memorial_Tower_and_Museum http://www.edisonfordwinterestates.org.
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MARIE CURIE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrURyPLBV44
The film tells the story of Polish-French physicist Marie Curie in 1890s Paris as she begins to share a laboratory with her future husband. From Wikipedia, Marie Sklowska (Gree Garson) is a poor, idealistic, top performing student living in Paris and studying at the Sorbonne. She neglects
her health and one day faints during class. Her tutor, Prof. Perot (no relation to Ross that I am aware of) is sym- pathetic and, finding that she has no friends or family in Paris, invites her to a soirée his wife is throwing for friends (primarily professors). Among them is Pierre Curie (Walter Pidgeon), an extremely shy and absentminded man completely devoted to his work. A chauvinist (in the movie anyway) concerning women and science, he allows Marie to share his lab as a favor to the tutor, then to his surprise finds Marie is a gifted scientist.
Marie is fascinated by a demonstration she saw as an undergraduate of a pitchblende rock that seems to generate enough energy to take small photographs. Marie decides to make the rock's energy the subject of her doctoral study.
The Physics Department at the Sorbornne refuses to fund their (Marie & Pierre's) research without more proof of the element's existence, but allows them to use a old shed across from the physics building. The movie does a nice job overviewing the complexities ad challenges they worked through starting with importing 8 tons of pitchblende ore, then cooking it down through countless iterations as they looked for the visibly elusive new element they were trying discover (which they named 'radium'). The Curies' marathon to achieve the discovery was remarkable.
Museums for Curie are in both France and Poland:
http://www.france.fr/en/museums/curie-museum.html
http://en.muzeum-msc.pl
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- Imagine if these types of remarkable people typified who our culture focused on and aspired to be like (rather than the vapid who chase celebrity),
- Imagine if foundational education for all citizens was enhanced to explain the journey innovators have - as both Edison and Curie tried to make breakthroughs for years ... but relented. Further, imagine these enhanced foundational studies educating citizens on the reality of the pathways to innovation - inside various sized companies to one one's own - both with the challenges to secure financial backing (as either a short list priority in a big company or from various forms of independent investors from angel, to seed, all the way to institutional.
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