Thursday, September 27, 2012

PSYCHOLOGY OF THE MIND

The mind works like a computer; it plays and replays the information stored therein. In essence, the more you saturate your conscious mind with an idea or possibility, the more tendency there is for your subconscious mind to act towards such possibility or idea.

THE HOME SYNDROME
A person who grows up in a home where "if you don't go to school, you will be a failure" is a cliche, will believe that the only prerequisite for success is "going to school." He will undoubtedly believe what he has been used to over time. For such person, education is the ultimate notwithstanding the myriad of talent and inherent ability he has. Nothing matters to him; only "school" He keeps waiting to go to school without exploring other areas of his life that can enable him financially and mentally to go to "school"

DIFFERENT SET OF RULES

Having a negatively fixed mindset disables your mental prowess and deactivates your thinking cap. Only you can disillusion yourself by reassuring yourself that that set of rule that has made you stagnant, or that has made you not to beyond average is not the best for you. Apply a different set of rules; be positively minded and evade fallacy.

WHAT IS THE CAUSE?

It's amazing how two people are born into different homes, one grows up with a high self-esteem, the other swims in inferiority complex. A factor is responsible for this; the mindset of those who nursed and or schooled them. Really, there is no way for you to determine the authenticity of what your guardians teach you during your formative years of childhood. That is why as adults, it is vital to read books and do somethings outside what you have been always used to. When you hear something new, something different from what you used to know, don't wave the idea off. If it makes a little sense to you, in the extra-mile to know more about the seeming absurd realization, that could be your breakthrough.

Those who succeed in life are those who bend easily and try out new things. If you have been holding on to an idea for a long time and it seems as though you are yet in the same spot, try new things. Don't be stiff to changes. Pride makes you keep holding on to what you believe in even though you are convinced it's false!

CONTROL WHAT GOES INTO YOUR MIND

When the ear keeps listening to one thing, the mind continues to assimilate it and consequently transmits it to the brain. Funny enough, the brain accepts whatever the mind tells it and acts according to the dictates of the status quo.

A mind, which has been soaked with possibilities and positivity will naturally respond to a situation positively, and with adept because his mind has been trained to believe that nothing is impossible if only he can first imagine the success that will come from the step he will take. Then he throws his heart over the bar; he goes for the best, expects the worse, and takes whatever comes so as to do subsequent improvisation. He tries with relentless effort until there is a result.

DARE TO TRY

Until you try, you will never know you can actually succeed in a particular thing. Good enough, there is no price for trying, but a higher price is placed on not trying at all; failure.

When you know how the mind works, you will be able to avert certain things and live a life that is devoid of recklessness and immaturity. When you realize that your mind listens to, and works with what it has been constantly fed with over time, you should also realize that it's high time you disillusioned yourself from fallacies and negativities of life. Henceforth, feed your ears and mind with materials and ideas that can transform your whole being and make you see possibility in everything you do. Read books that can replace your negative mindset. Listen to songs that will inspire you to do great things; songs that will motivate you towards greatness and fulfilment.

THE DIP ANECDOTE

When a foam is dipped in oil, and is squeezed, it brings forth oil. The same thing happens to a bottle filled with water, when the bottle is turned upside down, it pours out water. Likewise your mind. The uppermost material or idea is activated at any inconvienience, hereby displaying what it has been made to repeatedly believe.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

THREE THINGS THAT CAN EITHER MAKE YOU FAIL OR SUCCEED





The reality of life begins when you realize the need to have a reasonable future either by your present actions or your approach towards life.

There are multitudes who if they had known they were sailing to the wrong place would have had a rethink.The funny thing about life is that it keeps pushing you to where you want to go. It doesn't push you towards that place you really need to be. At first it feels like a tour, but with time you realize that you've been merry-going round.

                                            THREE CORE THINGS
When journeying through life, there three main things to be considered and prioritized. The first is

                                                                    MISSION



As humans, it is of utmost importance that we realized our core values, evaluate them and strengthen them. knowing your core values implies having a set-goal for the future. A future without a plan is as tasteless as a soup without salt. Of what benefit is it to live in an insipid future? A future where all you do is keep hoping for better days.

Gone are the days when we keep wishing for great deals. You and I know that for you a achieve a goal, you must work for it.

The second core thing is  

                                                                        VISION

The English dictionary describes VISION as "the ability to think about the future with imagination or wisdom." In essence, everyone irrespective of tribe, race, nationality, status, educational qualification etc. have the inherent ability, freedom and right  to build and live in a desired future. Question is "why do some people achieve their goals in life while others never get to achieve theirs till they drop dead?" Answer is "those who achieve their desired goals in life are either those who were able to imagine how they wanted their future to be, acted towards their imagination and never gave up their goals even when it seemed as though the whole world was crashing on their head. Or those who saw the need to bequeath a legacy behind.

When the heart conceives an idea and the brain rationalizes an agreement is then reached by both parties, that's when you either decide to carry out a plan or leave it. True success is born from trying to render a selfless service.

The third core thing in life is

                                                                  TARGET


When you know your MISSION in life and you have a VISION, you must as well have a target audience for whatever value you are rendering. know your capability and know who you want to reach or affect.


YOUR VISION IS YOUR FUTURE




There are a million and one ways with which anyone can be in the future they hope to be in, One of such ways is VISION. the Oxford dictionary defines VISION as the ability to think about the future with imagination or wisdom. in essence, VISION is a mental image of what you intend to achieve. This automatically implies that anyone can be in their desired future irrespective of their background, tribe, race, nationality, social status, educational qualification, etc.

VISION is the ability to see what is not visible as though it was visible, with an indomitable mind-set that it is achievable.

                                        

Saturday, June 9, 2012

YOU ARE NOT LESS THAN A KING. WORK ON YOUR MIND, PART ONE.









WHO ARE YOU?

Who you think you are is of utmost importance. Your life revolves around your inner-most thoughts, and this forms the basis of your life.

What you think about your circumstance matters as well, as it determines your attitude towards life and the people you encounter on a daily basis.


INFERIORITY COMPLEX?

Always have a positive mind-set, and wave every feeling of inferiority complex. It will only damage your self-image. You are not less than the next man. What differentiates you two is the kind of mind-set you have. He envisions something, goes for it and emerges a victor. Do you envision a goal and relegate it to doubt and inferiority complex? Then you might never make headway in life.

WHAT'S ALWAYS ON YOUR MIND?

Don't forget that whatever is preponderant on your mind is what jumps out at the slightest provocation. If you are obsessed with the thought of failure, whenever a positive thought shimmers in your mind, your obsessed mind waves it off either instantly or after a painstaking thought. In the same manner, if you have saturated your conscious and subconscious mind with positivity and IRREVOCABLE thoughts of SUCCESS, you quickly see OPPORTUNITY where others see disadvantage and failure.

THE INPUT TECHNOLOGY

The MIND works like a computer. What you input is what it you see on the screen. The bible also makes it clearer when it says "as a man thinketh so is he."

In essence, you cant be thinking of failiure and expect to succeed. You will only be merry-going round while living in fantasia.

WHAT DO YOU INPUT AND CONSEQUENTLY EXUDE, POSITIVITY OR NEGATIVITY?

Life expects a positive input from you before it gives you a positive output. Nothing is impossible to achieve. Only that you must first conceive it in your mind, believe you can achieve it, then set to work: of course you cant nurse doubt in your mind and anticipate success. You must first know and believe in yourself before others see and recognize what you have. People's recognition of your inherent ability, whether psychological, mental, physical or social, gets you easily noticed and connected, but in a case whereby you doubt your own self, it automatically implies that people will consequently doubt your ability. Boldness, positive self-esteem and a healthy self-image are the fundamental secrets!

YOUR MIND-SET

Just like a king doesn't just believe, but knows that whatever he envisions will become reality, also know that whatever you envision will become reality only if you will have a positive mind-set and act accordingly. Success embraces you when you fight for it!

Thursday, May 31, 2012

WHO SAYS YOU CAN'T DO IT?





Strength comes from what u have, not from what you acquire. Strength comes from the inside, it doesn't come from an external force,otherwise it's a pseudo strength. True strength is in u. But until u recognize d power of d WORD, u will never b able to truly exhibit such strength! Yours is just to know who u truly are in Christ Jesus and d inheritance u have in him, then your inner strength breaks through d precincts of your inner-man. And since u carry d spirit of Jehovah God,all u need do is claim your inheritance in Christ Jesus. D only place u can c,as well as claim these timeless promises is in d scriptures-d WORD. It's all free. Christ paid d ultimate PRICE. We're redeemed! Walk in d WORD! Use d WORD! Preach d WORD!

It's not about what u want to do. It's about what God wants u to do. U didn't choose Him,nor did you choose to serve Him. He formed u n choose u, which automatically means that u r indebted tn Him n owe allegiance to Him. D earlier u realized this fact n datum, d good 4u!
Strength comes from what u have, not from what you acquire. Strength comes from the inside, it doesn't come from an external force,otherwise it's a pseudo strength. True strength is in u. Bt until u recognize d power of d WORD, u wl neva b able to truly exhibit such strength! Yours is just to know who u truly are in Christ Jesus and d inheritance u have in him, then ur inner strength breaks through d precincts of ur inner-man. And since u carry d spirit of Jehovah God,all u nid do is claim ur inheritance in Christ Jesus. D only place u cn c,as wel as claim these timeless promises is in d scriptures-d WORD. It's all free. Christ paid d ultimate PRICE. We're redeemed! Walk in d WORD! Use d WORD! Preach d WORD!

It's nt abt wat u want to do. It's abt wat God wants u to do. U didn't chuz Him,nor did u chuz to serve Him. He formed u n choz u, whc automaticaly means dat u r indebted tn Him n owe aleigance to Him. D earlier u realized this fact n datum, d gud 4u!

Friday, May 25, 2012

THE PANACEA: QUOTE OF THE DAY ON IMPLEMENTING YOUR IDEAS.

THE PANACEA: QUOTE OF THE DAY ON IMPLEMENTING YOUR IDEAS.: What makes you a great achiever is your idea and concept, and your ability to implement those ideas. Do not despise little beginings for t...

@planetrehd

Friday, May 18, 2012

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

QUOTE OF THE DAY ON RATIONAL PRINCIPLES


The culture that leads to a great future is rational thinking, positive mindset, optimism, faith and rational principles. inculcate these

Monday, May 14, 2012

FACE REALITY




TIME FOR EXPERIMENT IS OVER. NOW IS TIME FOR PRACTICAL!

For you to know where you're going, you must at least have a description of where you're going so that you'll have a ready pose for any detour you come across.


THE PLACES YOU MUST PASS THROUGH

Some people think trouble,pain,challenges and so on come their way, but in the actual sense, it is we that come across these uncertainties in our quest for fulfillment and greatness. These are places yoU must walk through on our way to the top, your destination, they don't come to you-you actually pass through them. Avoidance of these places is avoidance of the truth. It means indulging in fantasy and merry-going round.

Those you see at the top today had a similar case as yours. They passed through what you've passed through, what you're passing through, and what you'll still pass through. Only that you have an advantage over them, an advantage of doing it better than them because you have the opportunity of learning from them. But for this to be possible. You must follow their precepts, and learn from their mistakes. If you're able to avert a mistake each one of them made in the same field as you, say ten of these people, what does that tell you? Doesn't that automatically imply that you have an edge over them, because the disaster they didn't see coming, some of which contributed to their retarded success, you are able to see and avert them, hereby expediting your success. Read about people who have made it to the top in your field. Learn from them. Acquaint yourself with their principles, lifestyle, mistakes and greatest achievement. These are the basic tools you need.


PREPARE BEFORE YOU GO TO THE BATTLE FIELD
There is no way you'll in to the battle field with a good weapon and not conquer, except you doubt the quality of your weapon, then it becomes a onerous task to use it. How can you believe in the potency of a drug which you yourself have refused to administer to yourself? The enemy seeing that you lack the knowledge with which to row your boat immediately begins to menace you with pestilence like low self-esteem, poor self-image, foolishness in the guise of humility, disbelief in oneself and potentials, mediocrity, and disguised hopelessness. Then you begin to see yourself as a no-good. But if you're harmed with good weapon, and as well understand the technique with which to use the weapon, victory abound.


THE BRAIN
The greatest weapon ever is the brain. From there emanates ideas, which is quickly transmitted to the waves of your mind. Then your level of attention-your alignment with such idea determines the rest.

To begin with, what is that thing your heart has been yearning to do but your mind tells you you can't achieve? That thing you're very certain that you're competent enough to do, yet you lack the zeal to step forth in faith?

Doubt makes you see the trouble you're most likely to encounter if you ever try. It doesn't tell or show you the success you're also most likely to achieve if you try. In essence, doubt hides the truth from you and implores the highest form of deception whenever you're close to actualizing your goals, because it's quite aware that if you realized that the merits of trying is far greater than that of not trying, you'll spur to action and your destiny be fulfilled in no time. How tricky and deceptive doubt is. If only you'd let it drop, the rest's be history.


YOU ARE A KING

You're a king in disguise. Remove that cloak of faithlessness and put on the sparkling garment of authority and faith. Stop hoping. Some hopes never come to pass, but when you step out in faith, and do that, which you fear most, chances are that you'll do the unexpected and achieve your desired result. After all, the scriptures says, that He gave man dominion over everything that He created Gen 1: 28. The spirit of God is in every human being. Of course He made us in His own image and likeness, and them He breathed His spirit into us. God's spirit is not a spirit of timidity. His spirit is a spirit of boldness. His spirit is not a spirit of fear, but a spirit of courage. It's not a spirit of laziness and immobility. It's a spirit of action,a spirit that can never be compensated.

Wake up to your true self. Stop swimming in the ocean of fantasy. Wake up to reality. Exercise your faith in Him. You don't need to beg. You need to authorize! You're a king!

You need to have a clear understanding of what you really need. You need to acquaint yourself with the map of the path you intend threading, so that you'll know how to avoid the detours that might pose a threat on your journey to the top.

Let your heart, not your mind influence your direction. Your mind is sentimental, but your heart believes and knows you can do it. Go for it. You're a success. You can do it. Step out in faith and do it.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

QUOTE OF THE DAY ON THE NEED TO START NOW


Unfortunately, the only time that never comes, and will never come is tomorrow. The more reason you should start today. The right time to start is now.

Friday, May 4, 2012

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Follow the foot steps of great achievers, and they'll influence your direction

LET IT DROP!


IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE NOTHING TO GIVE, YOU ARE WRONG!

Do you know you can give something even out of nothing. But the question is, do you really think you've nothing to give? When you're able to answer the above question sincerely, in a manner that's devoid of sentiment, then you know y ou have something to give. Let it drop!


LET YOUR FEAR DROP!

Sometimes you struggle to achieve a unique and worthwile goal, but something keeps pulling you back. It's fear. You must let it drop! God is the designer of dreams when you think well, He bequeaths you with incredible ideas: ideas you never thought were possible. He pushes you to the wall, so that you have no option than to implement those ideas, and then success is born! Let it drop!

Sometimes you just have to allow something fall from you. When you do, you're then opportuned to pick up some other things, which you never dropped. Who knows, you could pick up something more tangible and cherishable. Dear friend, let it drop!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

QUOTE OF THE DAY ON IMPLEMENTING YOUR IDEAS.


What makes you a great achiever is your idea and concept, and your ability to implement those ideas. Do not despise little beginings for there lies greatness.

THE POWER OF DREAMS





My greatest joy has always been in finding and fixing problems through rational and creative thinking. This has so much become a major part of me that I find myself always looking for a problem to fix.

THE SUBJECT MATTER: THE POWER OF DREAMS.

Dreams are solid foundations, on which impregnable prospects of survival are built. They are those plans that remind you of a positive future.

When you remember you have dreams, you feel this unavoidable need to actualize them and be fulfiled, because in the actualization of each dream is the EMANCIPATION OF UNCOUNTABLE SOULS. Hence the need to implement your ideas and actualize your dreams.

The genesis of any dream is your attentiveness to such.

What makes you great isn't what you have, rather it is the quality of idea you have that determines the quality of your future, this also determines how wealthy you're.

If your ideas are such that will not bring solutions to humanity, the aim of such dream is defeated. Humans subscribe to problem fixers. Everyone wants their problems fixed, even you and I.

When an idea doesn't enjoy conscious effort, it becomes redundant.

WHY ARE DREAMS IMPORTANT?

Since dreams are those plans that assure you of a better and interesting tomorrow, is not it wise therefore to have one? Dreams can never be bought. IT'S BORN IN THE HEART OF GREAT MINDS. Dreams supercede all things when human life comes into focus. They're those plans that make you happy notwithstanding your current situation. Dreams come with a need to actualize them.

Having dreams increase your knowledge about life. It helps you modify our reason for living, and if you implement these ideas, you become a VICTOR!

GOOD DREAMS HELP YOU KNOW YOUR WORTH, AS WELL AS GIVES YOU A SENSE OF BELONGING.

At some point in time, your life tends to be insipid, and you're demoralized, but when you remember you have dreams, you're immediately reminded of a better future, and then a victorious smile twitches your lips, hereby invigorating your physical, psychological and mental life, and bequeathing you with a positive tendency(the power of dreams)

Dreams help you to redefine your values and change your belief and attitude towards life. But until you strive to actualize your dreams, it makes little or no sense. It's when you've done this that you know your worth as a human, then these dream(s) appeal to you .Hence the need to actualize your dreams.

Dreams give meaning to your life.
They are instruments of value and survival.
Dreams are basic foundations on which any lasting success is built.

GOD HAD A DREAM, otherwise there would be no you and I.

 In the begining of the world, God envisioned how He wanted the universe to look like. Then He thought of creating humans in His own image and likeness. What a dream! He dreamt of embelishing the earth with vegetations, and so it was Gen. 1: 11- 12.

God was the first to dream. He dreamt of a paradisical world. With His effort and the holy spirit's, He actualized His dream!

God's achievement is a paradigm for you. He created you in His own image and likeness. He breathed His breath, the breath of life and dreams into you. The Lord shall open untm thee His good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in His season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow Deut 28: 12 KJV. God has given you virtually everything you need. What then are you waiting for? What is happening to your dreams? Step forth! Chidi Ugbe a friend of mine who's CEO The Emerge Review once told me that resources follow vision, not the other way, and I quite agree with him. What do you have in your hand? Cast it forth and every other thing'll follow!

QUOTE OF THE DAY ON OPPORTUNITY

Every slight opportunity you get is a manifestion of your dream. Dare to make use of it.
My greatest joy has always been in finding and fixing problems through rational and creative thinking. This has so much become a major part of me that I find myself always looking for a problem to fix. THE SUBJECT MATTER: THE POWER OF DREAMS. Dreams are solid foundations, on which impregnable prospects of survival are built. They are those plans that remind you of a positive future. When you remember you have dreams, you feel this unavoidable need to actualize them and be fulfiled, because in the actualization of each dream is the EMANCIPATION OF UNCOUNTABLE SOULS. Hence the need to implement your ideas and actualize your dreams. The genesis of any dream is your attentiveness to such. What makes you great isn't what you have, rather it is the quality of idea you have that determines the quality of your future, this also determines how wealthy you're. If your ideas are such that will not bring solutions to humanity, the aim of such dream is defeated. Humans subscribe to problem fixers. Everyone wants their problems fixed, even you and I. When an idea doesn't enjoy conscious effort, it becomes redundant. WHY ARE DREAMS IMPORTANT? Since dreams are those plans that assure you of a better and interesting tomorrow, is not it wise therefore to have one? Dreams can never be bought. IT'S BORN IN THE HEART OF GREAT MINDS. Dreams supercede all things when human life comes into focus. They're those plans that make you happy notwithstanding your current situation. Dreams come with a need to actualize them. Having dreams increase your knowledge about life. It helps you modify our reason for living, and if you implement these ideas, you become a VICTOR! GOOD DREAMS HELP YOU KNOW YOUR WORTH, AS WELL AS GIVES YOU A SENSE OF BELONGING. At some point in time, your life tends to be insipid, and you're demoralized, but when you remember you have dreams, you're immediately reminded of a better future, and then a victorious smile twitches your lips, hereby invigorating your physical, psychological and mental life, and bequeathing you with a positive tendency(the power of dreams) Dreams help you to redefine your values and change your belief and attitude towards life. But until you strive to actualize your dreams, it makes little or no sense. It's when you've done this that you know your worth as a human, then these dream(s) appeal to you .Hence the need to actualize your dreams. Dreams give meaning to your life. They are instruments of value and survival. Dreams are basic foundations on which any lasting success is built. GOD HAD A DREAM, otherwise there would be no you and I. In the begining of the world, God envisioned how He wanted the universe to look like. Then He thought of creating humans in His own image and likeness. What a dream! He dreamt of embelishing the earth with vegetations, and so it was Gen. 1: 11- 12. God was the first to dream. He dreamt of a paradisical world. With His effort and the holy spirit's, He actualized His dream! God's achievement is a paradigm for you. He created you in His own image and likeness. He breathed His breath, the breath of life and dreams into you. The Lord shall open untm thee His good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in His season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow Deut 28: 12 KJV. God has given you virtually everything you need. What then are you waiting for? What is happening to your dreams? Step forth! Chidi Ugbe a friend of mine who's CEO The Emerge Review once told me that resources follow vision, not the other way, and I quite agree with him. What do you have in your hand? Cast it forth and every other thing'll follow!

TODAY'S QUOTE ON THE NEED TO EVICT FEAR

Courage is the ability to do something dangerous, or to face pain or opposition, without showing fear. In essence, courage does not imply that you act without fear, but that you act even in fear and achieve your desired goal. For this to be effectual, you must drop your fear to a certain limit before you can then stand and act in the paucity that's left. Let it drop!

Monday, April 30, 2012

TODAY'S QUOTE

When you have reached the ground and there seem to be no other way,the only place to go is up, because you have gotten to the last level of the ground.

TODAY'S QUOTE

When you have reached the ground and there seem to be no other way,the only place to go is up, because you have gotten to the last level of the ground.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

THE POWER OF CHOICE AND IT'S EFFECT: BY Onyimadu Henry Spruced

THE POWER OF CHOICE AND IT'S EFFECT




CHOICE IS AS OLD AS MANKIND 
In the history of mankind,choice is as old as the world. Choice is a fundamental aspect of human existence. This is corroborated by the irrevocable action of Eve when the serpent lured her into eating of the fruit in the centre of the garden,which God had forbade them to eat.

God had before hand warned them against eating of the tree,but the serpent came and presented them with an alternative,thereby presenting them with two options and leaving them with a choice to make.

                EVE AND THE SERPENT       

The serpent presented Eve with the idea of plucking one of the fruits of the forbidden tree. Eve in response told the serpent that God had forbade them from eating the particular fruit. The cunning serpent convinced her beyond reasonable doubt. It told her that God Himself knows that the day she and her husband Adam eat of the tree,they would be like the gods,knowing good from evil. Without any further resistance,Eve plucked the fruit and ate part of it. (imagine the irresistible power of conviction)

However,Eve's was the choice to make. She could have refused the serpent's offer if she really believed what God had told she and her husband,Adam. She could have made the right choice notwithstanding the pressure,but because she had a choice to make,confusion crept in. There and then,she made a choice,which brought disaster on she and the entire human race
                                    ADAM'S CHOICE
Adam on the other hand could have outrightly rebuked his wife Eve the moment she presented him the fruit. He could have held on tenaciously to God's warning,but because he also had a choice to make;a free will,which God has given to everyone as soon as we were born,he followed suit.

You have to be very careful when you have a variety of choices to make,because you have the tendency of choosing the wrong option. At this point,you 're faced with a wrong and the right option. But the fact remains that you know what you you want,and the effect the alternative will have on your life. Make a choice you know will benefit you and at the same time benefit mankind. That's the only way you can be fulfiled.

Basically, the need for choice-making arises when we are faced with two different,and sometimes opposite options.


WHERE THERE IS A CHOICE, FAILURE  AND SUCCESS RESIDE

However, the best choice you can ever make will present itself to you in a plain view. It might not be easy to keep it after you've made the choice, but what justifies your decision is the end result. Since you' ve weighed both sides and realized that which, will benefit you a great deal,it's therefore rational and wise that you you make such decision.

Man so much love his comfort zone that he sees no need to leave there. A zone, which has caged him hitherto. Until you leave your comfort zone and step into uncertainty,you may never be able to define your goals,you may never be able to define your values as a human.

Define your values as a human by making sensible decisions.

Friday, April 20, 2012

IT'S WONDERFUL TO BE SENSIBLE: Onyimadu Henry Sprucced

Every human being has a great deposit of rational sense in them.But without exploring the mind,these senses won't be functional.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Nigeria: Ibori Jailed 13 Years in Britain: By Andrew Walker and Ibrahim Chonoko, 18 April 2012 James Ibori. (Photo Courtesy Vanguard ) London — A British court sentenced former Delta State governor James Ibori to 13 years in prison yesterday after he pleaded guilty to embezzling N12.6 billion. He pleaded guilty in February to 10 charges of fraud and money-laundering committed during his eight years asgovernor. Reflecting the sheer scale of the fraud whichIbori has admitted, Judge Anthony Pitts said at the end of the two-day sentencing at Southwark Crown Court in London: "None of the sentencing guidelines even come close to the amounts in your case." "During those two terms (as governor) youturned yourself in very short order indeed into amulti-millionaire through corruption," he added. Pitts said it was one of the biggest money-laundering cases seen and that the 50 million pounds Ibori had admitted to stealing may be a "ludicrously low" fraction of his totalbooty. "The figure may be in excess of 200 million pounds, it is difficult to tell. The confiscation proceedings may shed some further light on the enormity of the sums involved," he said. If he hadn't changed his mind and pleaded guilty Ibori could have been sentenced to 24 years in

A pupil whose father was an alabaru(load carrier)came home from school one fateful afternoon. The following conversation ensued between he and his father; Son:Father.why do you have a bald head? You look so ugly and disgusting. My classmates's parents hair is beautiful. The head on their scalp covers their head wonderfully,and they wear expensive clothes. But you are always wearing a brown-white singlet and shorts. You perspire home evering evening as though you just had a rumble with Ivander Hollyfield. The little boy climbed onto a chair and slapped his father's hair incessantly till it sprang blood. Father: exactly what you are doing to me now. This is what I did to my father while I was your age. Well, what more can I say? This bald head you are slapping now is what I inheritted from him for slapping him on the head. Am happy my own son has inheritted same from me. At least I have left a legacy. Son: 'why didn't you tell me all these earlier' the little boy raged. Father: my grand father never told my father,neither did my father tell me.besides you were not patient enough. This is one good lesson you must learn from this exercise;always exercise patience. It pays to be wise!

The world as we all know changes every second. This is a major challenge to everyone. Therefore,the status quo has given birth to reformations,inventions,and neccessity,which is the mother of invention. You cannot escape tomorrow's responsibility by evading it today. What does this datum bequeath you with? A statement made by Abraham Lincoln,the16th president of the United States. Challenges are those things we must come across. These are puzzles that make us grow bold. They make us think,hereby making the solution evident in itself. The more you learn to face your challenges rather run away from them,the more your confidence grow. The more your confidence grow,the more you surmount your challenges. The more you surmount your challenges,the more defined your goal is. Ther is nothing anyone can have,which supercedes a clear direction of where they are going. If you have a clear direction of where you are going, you definitely know how best you can get there! Let your dream influence your direction. Let your mind lead you home. Keep moving. Don't quit! You are almost there!

A pupil whose father was an alabaru(load carrier)came home from school one fateful afternoon. The following conversation ensued between he and his father; Son:Father.why do you have a bald head? You look so ugly and disgusting. My classmates's parents hair is beautiful. The head on their scalp covers their head wonderfully,and they wear expensive clothes. But you are always wearing a brown-white singlet and shorts. You perspire home evering evening as though you just had a rumble with Ivander Hollyfield. The little boy climbed onto a chair and slapped his father's hair incessantly till it sprang blood. Father: exactly what you are doing to me now. This is what I did to my father while I was your age. Well, what more can I say? This bald head you are slapping now is what I inheritted from him for slapping him on the head. Am happy my own son has inheritted same from me. At least I have left a legacy. Son: 'why didn't you tell me all these earlier' the little boy raged. Father: my grand father never told my father,neither did my father tell me.besides you were not patient enough. This is one good lesson you must learn from this exercise;always exercise patience. It pays to be wise!

sometimes you feel the need to have something good for your self,but you just realize it is not forthcoming. you don't need to give up. All you need do is, change your strategy. The fact that you have not succeeded does not mean you will not succeed. It only means you are yet to succeed. Only he who fails to try has failed. majority of those who quit did so,not because they lacked the potentials,but because they never knew how close they were to their destination. If you believe in your dreams and work tenaciously for them,they will definitely reward you someday. all you need do is keep doing that, which you know how to do well. keep doing it. you know how to do it. you love it and slave so much for it. there is a reward for every deed,good and bad alike.

Have you for once considered the opposite of failure? what reality dawned on you at the realization of your answer? would you like to settle for it? now is the time to decide what kind of future you want for yourself. where do you see yourself in five years to come?

The panacea to your question is this;
  • Do what you know how to do best
  • Do it with all your heart
  • Love to always do what you know to do best
  • Give your best your best shot
  • Have a formidable will power for what you need,not what you want
  • dedicate your precious time to do what you know to do best
Do the above. you will see that the mountain is only high when you are looking at it from afar. take a leap of fate. I assure you success abound.

                                                                                                              Henry O'Spruced

Saturday, April 14, 2012

HISTORY, THE BASIS OF A LASTING SUCCESS

The history of mankind could be likened to a can,which in zillion years will never be depleted. The more you and I achieve our goals, the more its authenticity solidifies. Its impregnability is endorsed by creating more goals.

History draws its strength from achievers and great men of valor. History knew you even when you knew not. It forms the basis of your existence and inspires a greater part of your life by putting you unto that lane of seemingly endless struggle,but with the consequential aim of making you achieve your desired goal. For it is in struggle you realize your worth, and then work smarter to reach that height,which you have always aspired.

Eternity might be endless,but every struggle has a crumpling end. only that the more hurdle we scale through,a bigger one appears. A bigger one because that is the only requirement to reach the next level-a level,which is both essential and rewarding. that is the only prerequisite to get to a higher level-a bigger hurdle. without this,there wouldn't be a higher level.

Struggle is the only direct inheritance,which man inherited from The Creator.

The creator struggled to put His empire under control against the opposition of Lucifer. He also struggled to make sure man didn't go astray when He put Adam and his wife Eve in the garden of Eden,but the serpent came in and deceived them.

Deception is the foremost trick disaster plays on you,knowing full well that you know almost nothing. poor you! Pray not to follow like a sheep that is led to the slaughter house,because, there the last 'd be heard of your mortal activity should you follow.

This is why it pays to be wise. Insight is a rare gift! Wisdom the best of all! History knows all of these. This is why it was able to get going even when the going go tougher.

History is a fortified treasure,which can never be besieged or looted. Its guards sre shielded in swords and armors-weapons acquired during the struggle against psychological and economical quagmire,and for survival. they gave these to their guards-wisdom and insight

 Insight indeed is a rare gift! Wisdom the more cherished!

 Her color is drab on the facade,but effulgence in the inside. Only wise men see this because they endured and sought history. During their struggle they beseeched wisdom. she humbly accepted them as her own begotten children,teaching them the antics and strategies with which to survive during the struggle. And victory with which to emerge the winner even among multitudes of various tendencies

History is the oldest man on earth. On it was the unshakeable foundations of the world built. His lessons and experiences are inexhaustible and invaluable. Great men sought him and were inspired. Amateurs patronized him and excelled. Generations yet unborn will come to him in their countless number for succor and would be glad they did! This will form the basis of their success.

A nation without history is doomed.
A man without history is damned
The greatest achiever that ever lived has a history
What is your history?
If you ain't got an history,fight for one
Be ready to die for one
So that your name can be boldly written with an indelible pen on the shimmering pages of history when its pages are flipped across continents and the universe


                                                                                                                   onyimadu Henry
                                                                                                                 Henry O'Spruced(Pen Name)

Thursday, April 12, 2012

DETERMINATION IS THE STRONGEST NATION ON EARTH. ALL OTHER NATIONS COME TO IT FOR ADVICE

Thomas Edison

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Thomas Edison

"Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration."
– Thomas Alva Edison, Harper's Monthly (September 1932)
Born Thomas Alva Edison
February 11, 1847(1847-02-11)
Milan, Ohio, United States
Died October 18, 1931(1931-10-18) (aged 84)
West Orange, New Jersey, USA
Education School dropout
Occupation Inventor, scientist, businessman
Religion Deist
Spouse Mary Stilwell (m. 1871–1884) «start: (1871)–end+1: (1885)»"Marriage: Mary Stilwell to Thomas Edison" Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison)
Mina Miller (m. 1886–1931) «start: (1886)–end+1: (1932)»"Marriage: Mina Miller to Thomas Edison" Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison)
Children Marion Estelle Edison (1873–1965)
Thomas Alva Edison Jr. (1876–1935)
William Leslie Edison (1878–1937)
Madeleine Edison (1888–1979)
Charles Edison (1890–1969)
Theodore Miller Edison (1898–1992)
Parents Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. (1804–1896)
Nancy Matthews Elliott (1810–1871)
Relatives Lewis Miller (father-in-law)
Signature
Edison as a boy
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park" (now Edison, New Jersey) by a newspaper reporter, he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large teamwork to the process of invention, and because of that, he is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory.[1]
Edison is the fourth most prolific inventor in history, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He is credited with numerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications. These included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures.
His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his early career as a telegraph operator. Edison originated the concept and implementation of electric-power generation and distribution to homes, businesses, and factories – a crucial development in the modern industrialized world. His first power station was on Manhattan Island, New York.

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Early life

Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. (1804–96, born in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia, Canada) and Nancy Matthews Elliott (1810–1871, born in Chenango County, New York).[2][citation needed] His father had to escape from Canada because he took part in the unsuccessful Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837.[citation needed] Edison reported being of Dutch ancestry.[3]
In school, the young Edison's mind often wandered, and his teacher, the Reverend Engle, was overheard calling him "addled". This ended Edison's three months of official schooling. Edison recalled later, "My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me; and I felt I had something to live for, someone I must not disappoint." His mother taught him at home.[4] Much of his education came from reading R.G. Parker's School of Natural Philosophy and The Cooper Union.
Edison developed hearing problems at an early age. The cause of his deafness has been attributed to a bout of scarlet fever during childhood and recurring untreated middle-ear infections. Around the middle of his career, Edison attributed the hearing impairment to being struck on the ears by a train conductor when his chemical laboratory in a boxcar caught fire and he was thrown off the train in Smiths Creek, Michigan, along with his apparatus and chemicals. In his later years, he modified the story to say the injury occurred when the conductor, in helping him onto a moving train, lifted him by the ears.[5][6]
Edison's family moved to Port Huron, Michigan after the railroad bypassed Milan in 1854 and business declined;[7] his life there was bittersweet. He sold candy and newspapers on trains running from Port Huron to Detroit, and he sold vegetables to supplement his income. He also studied qualitative analysis, and conducted chemical experiments on the train until an accident prohibited further work of the kind.[8]
He obtained the exclusive right to sell newspapers on the road, and, with the aid of four assistants, he set in type and printed the Grand Trunk Herald, which he sold with his other papers.[8] This began Edison's long streak of entrepreneurial ventures, as he discovered his talents as a businessman. These talents eventually led him to found 14 companies, including General Electric, which is still one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world.[9][10]

Telegrapher

Edison became a telegraph operator after he saved three-year-old Jimmie MacKenzie from being struck by a runaway train. Jimmie's father, station agent J.U. MacKenzie of Mount Clemens, Michigan, was so grateful that he trained Edison as a telegraph operator. Edison's first telegraphy job away from Port Huron was at Stratford Junction, Ontario, on the Grand Trunk Railway.[11]
In 1866, at the age of 19, Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where, as an employee of Western Union, he worked the Associated Press bureau news wire. Edison requested the night shift, which allowed him plenty of time to spend at his two favorite pastimes—reading and experimenting. Eventually, the latter pre-occupation cost him his job. One night in 1867, he was working with a lead–acid battery when he spilled sulfuric acid onto the floor. It ran between the floorboards and onto his boss's desk below. The next morning Edison was fired.[12]
One of his mentors during those early years was a fellow telegrapher and inventor named Franklin Leonard Pope, who allowed the impoverished youth to live and work in the basement of his Elizabeth, New Jersey home. Some of Edison's earliest inventions were related to telegraphy, including a stock ticker. His first patent was for the electric vote recorder, (U.S. Patent 90,646),[13] which was granted on June 1, 1869.[14]

Marriages and children

On December 25, 1871, Edison married 16-year-old Mary Stilwell (1855-1884), whom he had met two months earlier; she was an employee at one of his shops. They had three children:
  • Marion Estelle Edison (1873–1965), nicknamed "Dot"[15]
  • Thomas Alva Edison, Jr. (1876–1935), nicknamed "Dash"[16]
  • William Leslie Edison (1878–1937) Inventor, graduate of the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale, 1900.[17]
Mary Edison died at age 29 on August 9, 1884, of unknown causes: possibly from a brain tumor[18] or a morphine overdose. Doctors frequently prescribed morphine to women in those years to treat a variety of causes, and researchers believe that some of her symptoms sounded as if they were associated with morphine poisoning.[19]
Mina Edison in 1906
On February 24, 1886, at the age of thirty-nine, Edison married the 20-year-old Mina Miller (1866-1947) in Akron, Ohio.[20] She was the daughter of the inventor Lewis Miller, co-founder of the Chautauqua Institution and a benefactor of Methodist charities. They also had three children together:
  • Madeleine Edison (1888–1979), who married John Eyre Sloane.[21][22]
  • Charles Edison (1890–1969), who took over the company upon his father's death and who later was elected Governor of New Jersey.[23] He also took charge of his father's experimental laboratories in West Orange.
  • Theodore Edison (1898–1992), (MIT Physics 1923), credited with more than 80 patents.
Mina outlived Thomas Edison, dying on August 24, 1947.[24][25]

Beginning his career

Photograph of Edison with his phonograph (2nd model), taken in Mathew Brady's Washington, DC studio in April 1878.
Thomas Edison began his career as an inventor in Newark, New Jersey, with the automatic repeater and his other improved telegraphic devices, but the invention that first gained him notice was the phonograph in 1877. This accomplishment was so unexpected by the public at large as to appear almost magical. Edison became known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park," New Jersey.
His first phonograph recorded on tinfoil around a grooved cylinder, but had poor sound quality and the recordings could be played only a few times. In the 1880s, a redesigned model using wax-coated cardboard cylinders was produced by Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester Bell, and Charles Tainter. This was one reason that Thomas Edison continued work on his own "Perfected Phonograph."

Menlo Park (1876–1881)

Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory, removed to Greenfield Village at Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. (Note the organ against the back wall)
Edison's major innovation was the first industrial research lab, which was built in Menlo Park, New Jersey. It was built with the funds from the sale of Edison's quadruplex telegraph. After his demonstration of the telegraph, Edison was not sure that his original plan to sell it for $4,000 to $5,000 was right, so he asked Western Union to make a bid. He was surprised to hear them offer $10,000,[citation needed] ($202,000 USD 2010) which he gratefully accepted.
The quadruplex telegraph was Edison's first big financial success, and Menlo Park became the first institution set up with the specific purpose of producing constant technological innovation and improvement. Edison was legally attributed with most of the inventions produced there, though many employees carried out research and development under his direction. His staff was generally told to carry out his directions in conducting research, and he drove them hard to produce results.
William Joseph Hammer, a consulting electrical engineer, began his duties as a laboratory assistant to Edison in December 1879. He assisted in experiments on the telephone, phonograph, electric railway, iron ore separator, electric lighting, and other developing inventions. However, Hammer worked primarily on the incandescent electric lamp and was put in charge of tests and records on that device. In 1880, he was appointed chief engineer of the Edison Lamp Works. In his first year, the plant under General Manager Francis Robbins Upton turned out 50,000 lamps. According to Edison, Hammer was "a pioneer of incandescent electric lighting".
Thomas Edison's first successful light bulb model, used in public demonstration at Menlo Park, December 1879
Nearly all of Edison's patents were utility patents, which were protected for a 17-year period and included inventions or processes that are electrical, mechanical, or chemical in nature. About a dozen were design patents, which protect an ornamental design for up to a 14-year period. As in most patents, the inventions he described were improvements over prior art. The phonograph patent, in contrast, was unprecedented as describing the first device to record and reproduce sounds.[26]
Edison did not invent the first electric light bulb, but instead invented the first commercially practical incandescent light.[citation needed] Many earlier inventors had previously devised incandescent lamps, including Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans. Others who developed early and commercially impractical incandescent electric lamps included Humphry Davy, James Bowman Lindsay, Moses G. Farmer,[27] William E. Sawyer, Joseph Swan and Heinrich Göbel. Some of these early bulbs had such flaws as an extremely short life, high expense to produce, and high electric current drawn, making them difficult to apply on a large scale commercially.[28]
In 1878, Edison applied the term filament to the element of glowing wire carrying the current, although the English inventor Joseph Swan had used the term prior to this. Swan developed an incandescent light with a long lasting filament at about the same time as Edison, as Swan's earlier bulbs lacked the high resistance needed to be an effective part of an electrical utility. Edison and his co-workers set about the task of creating longer-lasting bulbs. In Britain, Joseph Swan had been able to obtain a patent on the incandescent lamp; though Edison had already been making successful lamps for some time, his patent application was incompletely prepared and failed.[28]
Unable to raise the required capital in Britain because of this, Edison was forced to enter into a joint venture with Swan (known as Ediswan). Swan acknowledged that Edison had anticipated him, saying "Edison is entitled to more than I ... he has seen further into this subject, vastly than I, and foreseen and provided for details that I did not comprehend until I saw his system".[29]
By 1879, Edison had produced a new concept: a high resistance lamp in a very high vacuum, which would burn for hundreds of hours. While the earlier inventors had produced electric lighting in laboratory conditions, dating back to a demonstration of a glowing wire by Alessandro Volta in 1800, Edison concentrated on commercial application, and was able to sell the concept to homes and businesses by mass-producing relatively long-lasting light bulbs and creating a complete system for the generation and distribution of electricity.
In just over a decade Edison's Menlo Park laboratory had expanded to occupy two city blocks. Edison said he wanted the lab to have "a stock of almost every conceivable material". A newspaper article printed in 1887 reveals the seriousness of his claim, stating the lab contained "eight thousand kinds of chemicals, every kind of screw made, every size of needle, every kind of cord or wire, hair of humans, horses, hogs, cows, rabbits, goats, minx, camels ... silk in every texture, cocoons, various kinds of hoofs, shark's teeth, deer horns, tortoise shell ... cork, resin, varnish and oil, ostrich feathers, a peacock's tail, jet, amber, rubber, all ores ..." and the list goes on.[30]
Over his desk, Edison displayed a placard with Sir Joshua Reynolds' famous quotation: "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking."[31] This slogan was reputedly posted at several other locations throughout the facility.
With Menlo Park, Edison had created the first industrial laboratory concerned with creating knowledge and then controlling its application.

Carbon telephone transmitter

In 1877–78, Edison invented and developed the carbon microphone used in all telephones along with the Bell receiver until the 1980s. After protracted patent litigation, in 1892 a federal court ruled that Edison and not Emile Berliner was the inventor of the carbon microphone. The carbon microphone was also used in radio broadcasting and public address work through the 1920s.

Electric light

Edison in 1878
Building on the contributions of other developers over the previous three quarters of a century, Edison made improvements to the idea of incandescent light, and entered the public consciousness as "the inventor" of the lightbulb, and a prime mover in developing the necessary infrastructure for electric power.
After many experiments with platinum and other metal filaments, Edison returned to a carbon filament. The first successful test was on October 22, 1879;[32] it lasted 13.5 hours.[33] Edison continued to improve this design and by November 4, 1879, filed for U.S. patent 223,898 (granted on January 27, 1880) for an electric lamp using "a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected to platina contact wires".[34]
Although the patent described several ways of creating the carbon filament including "cotton and linen thread, wood splints, papers coiled in various ways",[34] it was not until several months after the patent was granted that Edison and his team discovered a carbonized bamboo filament that could last over 1,200 hours. The idea of using this particular raw material originated from Edison's recalling his examination of a few threads from a bamboo fishing pole while relaxing on the shore of Battle Lake in the present-day state of Wyoming, where he and other members of a scientific team had traveled so that they could clearly observe a total eclipse of the sun on July 29, 1878, from the Continental Divide.[35]
U.S. Patent#223898: Electric-Lamp. Issued January 27, 1880.
In 1878, Edison formed the Edison Electric Light Company in New York City with several financiers, including J. P. Morgan and the members of the Vanderbilt family. Edison made the first public demonstration of his incandescent light bulb on December 31, 1879, in Menlo Park. It was during this time that he said: "We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles."[36]
Lewis Latimer joined the Edison Electric Light Company in 1884. Latimer had received a patent in January 1881 for the "Process of Manufacturing Carbons", an improved method for the production of carbon filaments for lightbulbs. Latimer worked as an engineer, a draftsman and an expert witness in patent litigation on electric lights.[37]
George Westinghouse's company bought Philip Diehl's competing induction lamp patent rights (1882) for $25,000, forcing the holders of the Edison patent to charge a more reasonable rate for the use of the Edison patent rights and lowering the price of the electric lamp.[38]
On October 8, 1883, the US patent office ruled that Edison's patent was based on the work of William Sawyer and was therefore invalid. Litigation continued for nearly six years, until October 6, 1889, when a judge ruled that Edison's electric-light improvement claim for "a filament of carbon of high resistance" was valid. To avoid a possible court battle with Joseph Swan, whose British patent had been awarded a year before Edison's, he and Swan formed a joint company called Ediswan to manufacture and market the invention in Britain.
Mahen Theatre in Brno (in what is now the Czech Republic) was the first public building in the world to use Edison's electric lamps, with the installation supervised by Edison's assistant in the invention of the lamp, Francis Jehl.[39] In September 2010, a sculpture of three giant light bulbs was erected in Brno, in front of the theatre.[40]

Electric power distribution

Edison patented a system for electricity distribution in 1880, which was essential to capitalize on the invention of the electric lamp. On December 17, 1880, Edison founded the Edison Illuminating Company. The company established the first investor-owned electric utility in 1882 on Pearl Street Station, New York City. It was on September 4, 1882, that Edison switched on his Pearl Street generating station's electrical power distribution system, which provided 110 volts direct current (DC) to 59 customers in lower Manhattan.[41]
Earlier in the year, in January 1882, he had switched on the first steam-generating power station at Holborn Viaduct in London. The DC supply system provided electricity supplies to street lamps and several private dwellings within a short distance of the station. On January 19, 1883, the first standardized incandescent electric lighting system employing overhead wires began service in Roselle, New Jersey.

War of currents

Extravagant displays of electric lights quickly became a feature of public events, as in this picture from the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition.
Edison's true success, like that of his friend Henry Ford, was in his ability to maximize profits through establishment of mass-production systems and intellectual property rights. George Westinghouse and Edison became adversaries because of Edison's promotion of direct current (DC) for electric power distribution instead of the more easily transmitted alternating current (AC) system invented by Nikola Tesla and promoted by Westinghouse. Unlike DC, AC could be stepped up to very high voltages with transformers, sent over thinner and cheaper wires, and stepped down again at the destination for distribution to users.
In 1887 there were 121 Edison power stations in the United States delivering DC electricity to customers. When the limitations of DC were discussed by the public, Edison launched a propaganda campaign to convince people that AC was far too dangerous to use. The problem with DC was that the power plants could economically deliver DC electricity only to customers within about one and a half miles (about 2.4 km) from the generating station, so that it was suitable only for central business districts. When George Westinghouse suggested using high-voltage AC instead, as it could carry electricity hundreds of miles with marginal loss of power, Edison waged a "War of Currents" to prevent AC from being adopted.
The war against AC led him to become involved in the development and promotion of the electric chair (using AC) as an attempt to portray AC to have greater lethal potential than DC. Edison went on to carry out a brief but intense campaign to ban the use of AC or to limit the allowable voltage for safety purposes. As part of this campaign, Edison's employees publicly electrocuted animals to demonstrate the dangers of AC;[42][43] alternating electric currents are slightly more dangerous in that frequencies near 60 Hz have a markedly greater potential for inducing fatal "cardiac fibrillation" than do direct currents.[44] On one of the more notable occasions, in 1903, Edison's workers electrocuted Topsy the elephant at Luna Park, near Coney Island, after she had killed several men and her owners wanted her put to death.[45] His company filmed the electrocution.
AC replaced DC in most instances of generation and power distribution, enormously extending the range and improving the efficiency of power distribution. Though widespread use of DC ultimately lost favor for distribution, it exists today primarily in long-distance high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission systems. Low-voltage DC distribution continued to be used in high-density downtown areas for many years but was eventually replaced by AC low-voltage network distribution in many of them.[46]
DC had the advantage that large battery banks could maintain continuous power through brief interruptions of the electric supply from generators and the transmission system. Utilities such as Commonwealth Edison in Chicago had rotary converters or motor-generator sets, which could change DC to AC and AC to various frequencies in the early to mid-20th century. Utilities supplied rectifiers to convert the low voltage AC to DC for such DC loads as elevators, fans and pumps. There were still 1,600 DC customers in downtown New York City as of 2005, and service was finally discontinued only on November 14, 2007.[46] Most subway systems are still powered by direct current.

Fluoroscopy

Edison is credited with designing and producing the first commercially available fluoroscope, a machine that uses X-rays to take radiographs. Until Edison discovered that calcium tungstate fluoroscopy screens produced brighter images than the barium platinocyanide screens originally used by Wilhelm Röntgen, the technology was capable of producing only very faint images.
The fundamental design of Edison's fluoroscope is still in use today, despite the fact that Edison himself abandoned the project after nearly losing his own eyesight and seriously injuring his assistant, Clarence Dally. Dally had made himself an enthusiastic human guinea pig for the fluoroscopy project and in the process been exposed to a poisonous dose of radiation. He later died of injuries related to the exposure. In 1903, a shaken Edison said "Don't talk to me about X-rays, I am afraid of them."[47]

Work relations

Photograph of Thomas Edison by Victor Daireaux, Paris, circa 1880s
Frank J. Sprague, a competent mathematician and former naval officer, was recruited by Edward H. Johnson and joined the Edison organization in 1883. One of Sprague's contributions to the Edison Laboratory at Menlo Park was to expand Edison's mathematical methods. Despite the common belief that Edison did not use mathematics, analysis of his notebooks reveal that he was an astute user of mathematical analysis conducted by his assistants such as Francis Robbins Upton, for example, determining the critical parameters of his electric lighting system including lamp resistance by an analysis of Ohm's Law, Joule's Law and economics.[48]
Another of Edison's assistants was Nikola Tesla. Tesla claimed that Edison had promised him $50,000 if he succeeded in making improvements to his DC generation plants. Several months later, when Tesla had finished the work and asked to be paid, he said that Edison replied, "When you become a full-fledged American you will appreciate an American joke."[49]
Tesla immediately resigned. With Tesla's salary of $18 per week, the payment would have amounted to over 53 years' pay and the amount was equal to the initial capital of the company. Another account states that Tesla resigned when he was refused a raise to $25 per week.[50]
Although Tesla accepted an Edison Medal later in life, this and other negative events concerning Edison remained with him. The day after Edison died, the New York Times contained extensive coverage of Edison's life, with the only negative opinion coming from Tesla who was quoted as saying:
He had no hobby, cared for no sort of amusement of any kind and lived in utter disregard of the most elementary rules of hygiene. [...] His method was inefficient in the extreme, for an immense ground had to be covered to get anything at all unless blind chance intervened and, at first, I was almost a sorry witness of his doings, knowing that just a little theory and calculation would have saved him 90% of the labour. But he had a veritable contempt for book learning and mathematical knowledge, trusting himself entirely to his inventor's instinct and practical American sense.[51]
—Nikola Tesla
One of Edison's famous quotations about his attempts to make the light globe suggest that perhaps Tesla was right about Edison's methods of working: "If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward."[52]
When Edison was a very old man and close to death, he said, in looking back, that the biggest mistake he had made was in not respecting Tesla or his work.[53]
There were 28 men recognized as Edison Pioneers.

Media inventions

The key to Edison's fortunes was telegraphy. With knowledge gained from years of working as a telegraph operator, he learned the basics of electricity. This allowed him to make his early fortune with the stock ticker, the first electricity-based broadcast system. Edison patented the sound recording and reproducing phonograph in 1878. Edison was also granted a patent for the motion picture camera or "Kinetograph". He did the electromechanical design, while his employee W.K.L. Dickson, a photographer, worked on the photographic and optical development. Much of the credit for the invention belongs to Dickson.[32] In 1891, Thomas Edison built a Kinetoscope, or peep-hole viewer. This device was installed in penny arcades, where people could watch short, simple films. The kinetograph and kinetoscope were both first publicly exhibited May 20, 1891.[54]
On August 9, 1892, Edison received a patent for a two-way telegraph. In April 1896, Thomas Armat's Vitascope, manufactured by the Edison factory and marketed in Edison's name, was used to project motion pictures in public screenings in New York City. Later he exhibited motion pictures with voice soundtrack on cylinder recordings, mechanically synchronized with the film.
Leonard Cushing Kinetograph 1894.ogv
The June 1894 Leonard–Cushing bout. Each of the six one-minute rounds recorded by the Kinetoscope was made available to exhibitors for $22.50.[55] Customers who watched the final round saw Leonard score a knockdown.
Officially the kinetoscope entered Europe when the rich American Businessman Irving T. Bush (1869–1948) bought from the Continental Commerce Company of Frank Z. Maguire and Joseph D. Baucus a dozen machines. Bush placed from October 17, 1894, the first kinetoscopes in London. At the same time the French company Kinétoscope Edison Michel et Alexis Werner bought these machines for the market in France. In the last three months of 1894, The Continental Commerce Company sold hundreds of kinetoscopes in Europe (i.e. the Netherlands and Italy). In Germany and in Austria-Hungary the kinetoscope was introduced by the Deutsche-österreichische-Edison-Kinetoscop Gesellschaft, founded by the Ludwig Stollwerck[56] of the Schokoladen-Süsswarenfabrik Stollwerck & Co of Cologne.
The first kinetoscopes arrived in Belgium at the Fairs in early 1895. The Edison's Kinétoscope Français, a Belgian company, was founded in Brussels on January 15, 1895, with the rights to sell the kinetoscopes in Monaco, France and the French colonies. The main investors in this company were Belgian industrialists.[57]
On May 14, 1895, the Edison's Kinétoscope Belge was founded in Brussels. The businessman Ladislas-Victor Lewitzki, living in London but active in Belgium and France, took the initiative in starting this business. He had contacts with Leon Gaumont and the American Mutoscope and Biograph Co. In 1898 he also became a shareholder of the Biograph and Mutoscope Company for France.[57]
In 1901, he visited the Sudbury area in Ontario, Canada, as a mining prospector, and is credited with the original discovery of the Falconbridge ore body. His attempts to mine the ore body were not successful, however, and he abandoned his mining claim in 1903.[58] A street in Falconbridge, as well as the Edison Building, which served as the head office of Falconbridge Mines, are named for him.
In 1902, agents of Thomas Edison bribed a theater owner in London for a copy of A Trip to the Moon by Georges Méliès. Edison then made hundreds of copies and showed them in New York City. Méliès received no compensation. He was counting on taking the film to the US and recapture its huge cost by showing it throughout the country when he realized it had already been shown there by Edison. This effectively bankrupted Méliès.[59]
Other exhibitors similarly routinely copied and exhibited each others films.[60] To better protect the copyrights on his films, Edison deposited prints of them on long strips of photographic paper with the U.S. copyright office. Many of these paper prints survived longer and in better condition than the actual films of that era.[61]
Edison's favorite movie was The Birth of a Nation. He thought that talkies had "spoiled everything" for him. "There isn't any good acting on the screen. They concentrate on the voice now and have forgotten how to act. I can sense it more than you because I am deaf."[62] His favorite stars were Mary Pickford and Clara Bow.[63]
In 1908, Edison started the Motion Picture Patents Company, which was a conglomerate of nine major film studios (commonly known as the Edison Trust). Thomas Edison was the first honorary fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, which was founded in 1929.

West Orange and Fort Myers (1886–1931)

Thomas A. Edison Industries Exhibit, Primary Battery section, 1915
Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Harvey Firestone, respectively. Ft. Myers, Florida, February 11, 1929
Edison moved from Menlo Park after the death of Mary Stilwell and purchased a home known as "Glenmont" in 1886 as a wedding gift for Mina in Llewellyn Park in West Orange, New Jersey. In 1885, Thomas Edison bought property in Fort Myers, Florida, and built what was later called Seminole Lodge as a winter retreat. Edison and his wife Mina spent many winters in Fort Myers where they recreated and Edison tried to find a domestic source of natural rubber.
Henry Ford, the automobile magnate, later lived a few hundred feet away from Edison at his winter retreat in Fort Myers, Florida. Edison even contributed technology to the automobile. They were friends until Edison's death.
In 1928, Edison joined the Fort Myers Civitan Club. He believed strongly in the organization, writing that "The Civitan Club is doing things —big things— for the community, state, and nation, and I certainly consider it an honor to be numbered in its ranks."[64] He was an active member in the club until his death, sometimes bringing Henry Ford to the club's meetings.

The final years

Edison was active in business right up to the end. Just months before his death in 1931, the Lackawanna Railroad implemented electric trains in suburban service from Hoboken to Gladstone, Montclair and Dover in New Jersey. Transmission was by means of an overhead catenary system, with the entire project under Edison's guidance. To the surprise of many, he was at the throttle of the very first MU (Multiple-Unit) train to depart Lackawanna Terminal in Hoboken, driving the train all the way to Dover.[65]
As another tribute to his lasting legacy, the same fleet of cars Edison deployed on the Lackawanna in 1931 served commuters until their retirement in 1984, when some of them were purchased by the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum in Lenox, Massachusetts. A special plaque commemorating the joint achievement of both the railway and Edison can be seen today in the waiting room of Lackawanna Terminal in Hoboken, presently operated by New Jersey Transit.[65]
Edison was said to have been influenced by a popular fad diet in his last few years; "the only liquid he consumed was a pint of milk every three hours".[32] He is reported to have believed this diet would restore his health. However, this tale is doubtful. In 1930, the year before Edison died, Mina said in an interview about him that "Correct eating is one of his greatest hobbies." She also said that during one of his periodic "great scientific adventures", Edison would be up at 7:00, have breakfast at 8:00, and be rarely home for lunch or dinner, implying that he continued to have all three.[62]
Edison became the owner of his Milan, Ohio, birthplace in 1906. On his last visit, in 1923, he was shocked to find his old home still lit by lamps and candles.
Thomas Edison died of complications of diabetes on October 18, 1931, in his home, "Glenmont" in Llewellyn Park in West Orange, New Jersey, which he had purchased in 1886 as a wedding gift for Mina. He is buried behind the home.[66][67]
Edison's last breath is reportedly contained in a test tube at the Henry Ford Museum. Ford reportedly convinced Charles Edison to seal a test tube of air in the inventor's room shortly after his death, as a memento. A plaster death mask was also made.[68]
Mina died in 1947.

Views on politics, religion and metaphysics

Historian Paul Israel has characterized Edison as a "freethinker".[32] Edison was heavily influenced by Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason.[32] Edison defended Paine's "scientific deism", saying, "He has been called an atheist, but atheist he was not. Paine believed in a supreme intelligence, as representing the idea which other men often express by the name of deity."[32] In an October 2, 1910, interview in the New York Times Magazine, Edison stated:
Nature is what we know. We do not know the gods of religions. And nature is not kind, or merciful, or loving. If God made me — the fabled God of the three qualities of which I spoke: mercy, kindness, love — He also made the fish I catch and eat. And where do His mercy, kindness, and love for that fish come in? No; nature made us — nature did it all — not the gods of the religions.[69]
Edison was called an atheist for those remarks, and although he did not allow himself to be drawn into the controversy publicly, he clarified himself in a private letter: "You have misunderstood the whole article, because you jumped to the conclusion that it denies the existence of God. There is no such denial, what you call God I call Nature, the Supreme intelligence that rules matter. All the article states is that it is doubtful in my opinion if our intelligence or soul or whatever one may call it lives hereafter as an entity or disperses back again from whence it came, scattered amongst the cells of which we are made."[32]
Nonviolence was key to Edison's moral views, and when asked to serve as a naval consultant for World War I, he specified he would work only on defensive weapons and later noted, "I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill." Edison's philosophy of nonviolence extended to animals as well, about which he stated: "Nonviolence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."[70] However, he is also notorious for having electrocuted a number of dogs in 1888, both by direct and alternating current, in an attempt to argue that the former (which he had a vested business interest in promoting) was safer than the latter (favored by his rival George Westinghouse).[71]
Edison's success in promoting direct current as less lethal also led to alternating current being used in the electric chair adopted by New York in 1889 as a supposedly humane execution method. Because Westinghouse was angered by the decision, he funded Eighth Amendment-based appeals for inmates set to die in the electric chair, ultimately resulting in Edison providing the generators which powered early electrocutions and testifying successfully on behalf of the state that electrocution was a painless method of execution.[72]

Tributes

Places and people named for Edison

Several places have been named after Edison, most notably the town of Edison, New Jersey. Thomas Edison State College, a nationally known college for adult learners, is in Trenton, New Jersey. Two community colleges are named for him: Edison State College in Fort Myers, Florida, and Edison Community College in Piqua, Ohio.[73] There are numerous high schools named after Edison; see Edison High School.
The City Hotel, in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, was the first building to be lit with Edison's three-wire system. The hotel was re-named The Hotel Edison, and retains that name today.
Three bridges around the United States have been named in his honor (see Edison Bridge).
In space, his name is commemorated in asteroid 742 Edisona.
The Russian composer Edison Denisov, whose father was a radio-physicist, was named after the inventor.

Museums and memorials

Statue of young Thomas Edison by the railroad tracks in Port Huron, Michigan.
In West Orange, New Jersey, the 13.5 acre (5.5 ha) Glenmont estate is maintained and operated by the National Park Service as the Edison National Historic Site.[74] The Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower and Museum is in the town of Edison, New Jersey.[75] In Beaumont, Texas, there is an Edison Museum, though Edison never visited there.[citation needed]
The Port Huron Museum, in Port Huron, Michigan, restored the original depot that Thomas Edison worked out of as a young newsbutcher. The depot has been named the Thomas Edison Depot Museum.[76] The town has many Edison historical landmarks, including the graves of Edison's parents, and a monument along the St. Clair River. Edison's influence can be seen throughout this city of 32,000.
In Detroit, the Edison Memorial Fountain in Grand Circus Park was created to honor his achievements. The limestone fountain was dedicated October 21, 1929, the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of the lightbulb.[77] On the same night, The Edison Institute was dedicated in nearby Dearborn.
In early 2010, Edison was proposed by the Ohio Historical Society as a finalist in a statewide vote for inclusion in Statuary Hall at the United States Capitol.

Companies bearing Edison's name

In 1915

Awards named in honor of Edison

The Edison Medal was created on February 11, 1904, by a group of Edison's friends and associates. Four years later the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), later IEEE, entered into an agreement with the group to present the medal as its highest award. The first medal was presented in 1909 to Elihu Thomson and, in a twist of fate, was awarded to Nikola Tesla in 1917. It is the oldest award in the area of electrical and electronics engineering, and is presented annually "for a career of meritorious achievement in electrical science, electrical engineering or the electrical arts."
In the Netherlands, the major music awards are named the Edison Award after him.
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers concedes the Thomas A. Edison Patent Award to individual patents since 2000.[78]

Honors and awards given to Edison

The President of the Third French Republic, Jules Grévy, on the recommendation of his Minister of Foreign Affairs Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire and with the presentations of the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs Louis Cochery, designated Edison with the distinction of an 'Officer of the Legion of Honour' (Légion d'honneur) by decree on November 10, 1881;[79] He also named a Chevalier in 1879, and a Commander in 1889.[80]
In 1887, Edison won the Matteucci Medal. In 1890, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
The Philadelphia City Council named Edison the recipient of the John Scott Medal in 1889.[80]
In 1899, Edison was awarded the Edward Longstreth Medal of The Franklin Institute.[81]
He was named an Honorable Consulting Engineer at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's fair in 1904.[80]
In 1908, Edison received the American Association of Engineering Societies John Fritz Medal.[80]
Edison was awarded Franklin Medal of The Franklin Institute in 1915 for discoveries contributing to the foundation of industries and the well-being of the human race.
The United States Navy department awarded him the Distinguished Service Medal in 1920.[80]
The American Institute of Electrical Engineers created the Edison Medal in 1923 and he was its first recipient.[80]
In 1927, he was granted membership in the National Academy of Sciences.[80]
On May 29, 1928 Edison received the Congressional Gold Medal.[80]
In 1983, the United States Congress, pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 140 (Public Law 97—198), designated February 11, Edison's birthday, as National Inventor's Day.
Edison was ranked thirty-fifth on Michael H. Hart's 1978 book The 100, a list of the most influential figures in history. Life magazine (USA), in a special double issue in 1997, placed Edison first in the list of the "100 Most Important People in the Last 1000 Years", noting that the light bulb he promoted "lit up the world". In the 2005 television series The Greatest American, he was voted by viewers as the fifteenth-greatest.
In 2008, Edison was inducted in the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
In 2010, Edison was honored with a Technical Grammy Award.
In 2011, Edison was inducted into the Entrepreneur Walk of Fame, and named a Great Floridian by the Florida Governor and Cabinet.[82]
On November 6, 1915 The New York Times announced that both Edison and Tesla were to jointly receive the 1915 Nobel Prize but it did not occur.[83] The details of what happened are not known but Tesla who had once worked for Edison quit when he was promised a large bonus for solving a problem and then after being successful was told the promise was a joke.[84] Telsa once said that if Edison had to find a needle in a haystack he would take apart the haystack one straw at a time.[85] The Prize was awarded to Sir William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg "for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays" .

Other items named after Edison

The United States Navy named the USS Edison (DD-439), a Gleaves class destroyer, in his honor in 1940. The ship was decommissioned a few months after the end of World War II. In 1962, the Navy commissioned USS Thomas A. Edison (SSBN-610), a fleet ballistic missile nuclear-powered submarine.
Decommissioned on December 1, 1983, Thomas A. Edison was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on April 30, 1986. She went through the Navy's Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Bremerton, Washington, beginning on October 1, 1996. When she finished the program on December 1, 1997, she ceased to exist as a complete ship and was listed as scrapped.

In popular culture

Thomas Edison has appeared in popular culture as a character in novels, films, comics and video games. His prolific inventing helped make him an icon and he has made appearances in popular culture during his lifetime down to the present day. His history with Nikola Tesla has also provided dramatic tension and is a theme returned to numerous times.
On February 11, 2011, on Thomas Edison's 164th birthday, Google's homepage featured an animated Google Doodle commemorating his many inventions. When the cursor was hovered over the doodle, a series of mechanisms seemed to move, causing a lightbulb to glow.[86]

Novel Mentions

in Dos Passos' The 42nd Parallel, Thomas Edison is introduced as "The Electrical Wizard", a very handy and intellectual person. In his lifetime he held many different jobs and created many patents and inventions.[87]

See also

References

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  5. ^ "Edison" by Matthew Josephson. McGraw Hill, New York, 1959, ISBN 978-0-07-033046-7
  6. ^ "Edison: Inventing the Century" by Neil Baldwin, University of Chicago Press, 2001, ISBN 978-0-226-03571-0
  7. ^ Josephson, p 18
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This is one man who persevered in the face of trial and hardship.but his tenacious spirit saw him through

  • Albion, Michele Wehrwein. (2008). The Florida Life of Thomas Edison. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. ISBN 978-0-8130-3259-7. 
  • Adams, Glen J. (2004). The Search for Thomas Edison's Boyhood Home. ISBN 978-1-4116-1361-4. 
  • Angel, Ernst (1926). Edison. Sein Leben und Erfinden. Berlin: Ernst Angel Verlag. 
  • Baldwin, Neil (2001). Edison: Inventing the Century. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-03571-0. 
  • Clark, Ronald William (1977). Edison: The man who made the future. London: Macdonald & Jane's: Macdonald and Jane's. ISBN 978-0-354-04093-8. 
  • Conot, Robert (1979). A Streak of Luck. New York: Seaview Books. ISBN 978-0-87223-521-2. 
  • Davis, L. J. (1998). Fleet Fire: Thomas Edison and the Pioneers of the Electric Revolution. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-47927-1. 
  • Essig, Mark (2004). Edison and the Electric Chair. Stroud: Sutton. ISBN 978-0-7509-3680-4. 
  • Essig, Mark (2003). Edison & the Electric Chair: A Story of Light and Death. New York: Walker & Company. ISBN 978-0-8027-1406-0. 
  • Israel, Paul (1998). Edison: a Life of Invention. New York: Wiley. ISBN 978-0471529422. 
  • Jonnes, Jill (2003). Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-375-50739-7. 
  • Josephson, Matthew (1959). Edison. McGraw Hill. ISBN 978-0-07-033046-7. 
  • Koenigsberg, Allen (1987). Edison Cylinder Records, 1889-1912. APM Press. ISBN 0-937612-07-3. 
  • Pretzer, William S. (ed). (1989). Working at Inventing: Thomas A. Edison and the Menlo Park Experience. Dearborn, Michigan: Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village. ISBN 978-0-933728-33-2. 
  • Stross, Randall E. (2007). The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World. Crown. ISBN 1-400-04762-5. 

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