While I was a kid in Junior High I bought a book '愛迪生傳' from a bookstore along 重慶南路. I glued to the book and read it in details. It was a very good book for a little kid like me. At least it gave me some push and inspiration to study Electrical Engineering years later. I was especially impressed on his inventive work in Menlo Park (孟洛公園) at which he invented phonograph and light bulb. So in 1972, I moved down here from Dallas, the first thing caught my eyes was Menlo Park and immediately reminded me of Edison. Then it dawns on me that the Menlo Park of Edison is in New Jersey, not here in California.
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| Silicon Valley's Menlo Park |
When time goes by, I noticed that many companies have done some brilliant work started here in Menlo Park of California. Examples are SRI International, Netscape, Sun Micro System, Google, Facebook etc. After all, Menlo Park is a good name and this one seems to follow the tradition of the east coast. Ironically, Palo Alto and East Palo Alto are both right next to Menlo Park but belong to different county. Palo Alto is right next to Menlo Park to the south, it belongs to Santa Clara County. But Menlo Park is part of San Mateo County. The strange thing is the little town East Palo Alto belongs to San Mateo County. It is on the east side of highway 101 and adjacent to Menlo Park. This little town was not very safe several years ago and some real estate agents were nervous to prospect there. Some Palo Altans thought since East Palo Alto belongs to San Mateo County and right next to Menlo Park, it should be renamed to something like XXX Park. Someone suggests Jurassic Park. Of course it sounds like a bad joke.
Edison was considered a 'Wizard of Menlo Park' at his time of 1875-1885. Both sound reproducing, (recording device) and bulb lighting device are technical breakthroughs and both of them were invented by Edison and his team in Menlo Park. The phonograph has revolutionized the audio device and used continuously until about 1970. It lasted about 100 years. The bulb also revolutionized the working time of human society. The light bulb has been used uninterrupted until around 1980 when fluorescent type of lighting device finally replaces it. Its time of influence also lasts more than 100 years. They are the great contributions Thomas Edison gave to our society and the whole world. He is listed at the 38th most influential persons in our human history in the book 'The 100' by Michael Hart. Edison later also invented the Motion Picture. Consider the enormous impact his inventions of Light Bulb, Phonograph and Motion Picture to our society, Edison is truly a modern Prometheus who stole fire from heaven and gave it to the mankind.
In Silicon Valley, some people think lately that Steve Jobs is a 'Wizard of Cupertino'. Cupertino is 10 miles south of Menlo Park, also considered part of Silicon Valley. The comparison of Steve Jobs to Edison seems odd as Jobs is not an inventor of any science or technology, He simply a package innovator who performs mix and match of various technology to form a gadget that people want or desire to have. A better saying perhaps should be Marketing Genius of Cupertino. His Machintosh personal computer was not successful and his iPod only last for a few years. The real success is his iPad and iPhone. It makes a lot of money for Apple. However it remains to be seen how many years iPhone and iPad will be around in the market. It is interesting to note that what iPhone integrates is actually audio, video and microprocessor. The first two technology audio and video are essentially the same as Edison's phonograph and motion picture. Packaging of technology changes very fast. It remains to be seen whether iPhone will last for more than 20 years, let alone 100 years as Edison's invention.
