Overview

The foundations of modern technology grew out of developments in electricity, communications, industrial research, and science in the first half of the twentieth century. During that period, technology became much more science-based, invention and innovation became much more deliberate, and the exploitation of electricity provided a new world of electronics for communications, entertainment, and information.

More than any other Western figure, American inventor Thomas Edison (1847-1931) epitomized the changes occurring in technology during the 1900s. His pioneering work with electrical technology in the late nineteenth century, his establishment of an industrial research and development laboratory, and his success in anticipating new markets for communications devices—such as the phonograph, the telephone, and motion picture systems—set an agenda for technological development that shaped the era. The use of electricity to encode, detect, and amplify signals grew out of the previous contributions of Edison...