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There are 2 quotes matching Thomas Edison in the collection:
It is apparent to me that the possibilities of the aeroplane, which two or three years ago were thought to hold the solution to the [flying machine] problem, have been exhausted, and that we must turn elsewhere.
Thomas Edison
Quoted in New York World, 17 November 1895.
The weak point of the present aeroplane, around which the Wright brothers will never be able to get, is that the operation of the machine lies wholly in the wonderful brain of its operator … One fractional mislevelment would mean destruction to the machine and operator. The dirigible balloon is a farce and the aeroplane impracticable … Long ago I saw the impracticability of the lighter-than-air machine … The aeroplane is a primitive adoption of the bird-wing theory, and, as we don’t posses the divinity to acquire the automatic action of the bird, it is impossible. In commercializing any new invention, we must follow nature.
Thomas Edison
Excerpts from speech given in Salt Lake City, 16 September 1908. Quoted in St. Louis Post Dispatch, 17 September 1908.
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