Yeah, '1% inspiration, 99% perspiration' I believe was the statement. But then again, Edison was an idiot as well as a lousy human being. Edison refused to 'learn' anything at all and instead insisted on trying things at random. The real problem was that every time he had someone intelligent, educated and able working for him, he drove them off either with is idiocy or bad behavior and occasionally a combination of the two. Thomas Edison is the reason George Westinghouse became dominant in the electrical business.... Tesla invented both long distance transmission of electricity as well as the induction motor (which even today universally makes <almost> all motion from electricity used for that purpose) but Edison refused to use either one instead advocating, and trying to sell, D.C. as the main type of power generated and used. At one time, 'The General Electric Co.' was 'The Edison General Electric Co.' until Edison's idiocy and abrasive personality got enough people on the board banded together and threw him out.
Edison said that he did 50,000 experiments before selecting the Edison cell as his battery of choice. Tesla said about Edison's 50,000 experiments something to the effect 'a little theory would have gone a long way' meaning that the great majority of those "experiments" (guesses really) could have been eliminated by a basic understanding of chemistry and electrical behavior.
Brian
Wasn't it Edison who basically said the exact opposite? "Invention is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration..." or something to that effect.