Thomas Alva Edison worked nights for Western Union (trains), while during the day he invented and built various devices: a teleprinter for stock market quotes, a fire alarm, a duplicating telegraph printer. And on October 13, 1869, he obtained his first patent: for an electrochemical recorder, with a solid wood model he carved himself. He learned that obtaining a patent was a long and expensive process. From then on, a large portion of his earnings, ranging from four to six figures, would be absorbed by patent litigation like water. He also learned the need to curry favor with financiers and influential entrepreneurs, something Edison was good at, despite the humiliating constant requests for money and then having to put up with the financier’s frequent desire to be involved in the creative process.
