Free Essays on Symbolism In The Necklace And The Lottery

The necklace in â€Å"The Necklace† symbolizes several things, one of which is materialism. By picking a possession as the title of the story, Maupassant’s intent is to point out that materialism is the main focal point of the story. This is because the necklace is representative of the riches and expensive possessions Mme. Loisel so desperately wants. She doesn’t have the money for nice jewelry so she has to borrow some from her friend. When she borrowed the necklace it was very glamorous. Mme. Loisel mysteriously loses the necklace and she and her husband go into debt trying to replace it. You learn that material possessions aren’t nearly as important compared to the value of a good time. Mme. Loisel attended a black tie dinner and wore the necklace she had borrowed. At that time she thought the necklace was made of diamonds and she felt like a princess. She has no idea that the necklace is actually made of clay. Mathilde eventually discovers that, as fa te would have it, the necklace was worthless. She has spent ten years trying to replace the necklace when it actuality it really wasn’t worth anything. Fate interacts with the characters every time the necklace comes into the story, and the title helps focus the reader on the necklace’s implications. The villagers are very superstitious about the powers of the stones in â€Å"The Lottery.† The author uses the stones to symbolize evil. It reflects the evil nature of society as a whole. The towns, wanting to have a superior crop that year, believe they must hold a lottery in which the unlucky person, whose name is drawn, will be stoned to death, thus producing a superior crop. The villagers in the story are aware that the sacrifice is inhumane but would not let those feelings known. In stoning Tessie, the villagers treat her as a scapegoat. The only person who shows their rebellious attitude is Tessie. She doesn’t take the stoning seriously. She actually rushes to the square ... Free Essays on Symbolism In The Necklace And The Lottery Free Essays on Symbolism In The Necklace And The Lottery The necklace in â€Å"The Necklace† symbolizes several things, one of which is materialism. By picking a possession as the title of the story, Maupassant’s intent is to point out that materialism is the main focal point of the story. This is because the necklace is representative of the riches and expensive possessions Mme. Loisel so desperately wants. She doesn’t have the money for nice jewelry so she has to borrow some from her friend. When she borrowed the necklace it was very glamorous. Mme. Loisel mysteriously loses the necklace and she and her husband go into debt trying to replace it. You learn that material possessions aren’t nearly as important compared to the value of a good time. Mme. Loisel attended a black tie dinner and wore the necklace she had borrowed. At that time she thought the necklace was made of diamonds and she felt like a princess. She has no idea that the necklace is actually made of clay. Mathilde eventually discovers that, as fa te would have it, the necklace was worthless. She has spent ten years trying to replace the necklace when it actuality it really wasn’t worth anything. Fate interacts with the characters every time the necklace comes into the story, and the title helps focus the reader on the necklace’s implications. The villagers are very superstitious about the powers of the stones in â€Å"The Lottery.† The author uses the stones to symbolize evil. It reflects the evil nature of society as a whole. The towns, wanting to have a superior crop that year, believe they must hold a lottery in which the unlucky person, whose name is drawn, will be stoned to death, thus producing a superior crop. The villagers in the story are aware that the sacrifice is inhumane but would not let those feelings known. In stoning Tessie, the villagers treat her as a scapegoat. The only person who shows their rebellious attitude is Tessie. She doesn’t take the stoning seriously. She actually rushes to the square ...

The Architecture of El Tajin

The Architecture of El Tajin The once-magnificent city of El Tajin, which flourished not far inland from Mexicos Gulf Coast from roughly 800-1200 A.D., features some truly spectacular architecture. The palaces, temples and ballcourts of the excavated city show impressive architectural details like cornices, inset glyphs and niches. The City of Storms After the fall of Teotihuacan around 650 A.D., El Tajin was one of several powerful city-states that arose in the ensuing vacuum of power. The city flourished from about 800 to 1200 A.D. At one time, the city covered 500 hectares and may have had as many as 30,000 inhabitants; its influence spread throughout Mexicos Gulf Coast region. Their chief God was Quetzalcoatl, whose worship was common in Mesoamerican lands at the time. After 1200 A.D., the city was abandoned and left to return to the jungle: only locals knew about it until a Spanish colonial official stumbled across it in 1785. For the past century, a series of excavation and preservation programs have taken place there, and it is an important site for tourists and historians alike. The City of El Tajin and its Architecture The word Tajà ­n refers to a spirit with great powers over the weather, especially in terms of rain, lightning, thunder and storms. El Tajà ­n was built in the lush, hilly lowlands not far from the Gulf Coast. It is spread out over a relatively spacious area, but hills and arroyos defined the city limits. Much of it may once have been built of wood or other perishable materials: these have been long since lost to the jungle. There are a number of temples and buildings in the Arroyo Group and old ceremonial center and palaces and administrative-type buildings in Tajà ­n Chico, located on a hill to the north of the rest of the city. To the northeast is the impressive Great Xicalcoliuhqui wall. None of the buildings is known to be hollow or to house a tomb of any sort. Most of the buildings and structures are made of a locally available sandstone. Some of the temples and pyramids are built over earlier structures. Many of the pyramids and temples are made of finely carved stone and f illed with packed earth. Architectural Influence and Innovations El Tajin is unique enough architecturally that it has its own style, often referred to as Classic Central Veracruz. Nevertheless, there are some obvious external influences on the architectural style at the site. The overall style of the pyramids at the site is referred to in Spanish as the talà ºd-tablero style (it basically translates as slope/walls). In other words, the overall slope of the pyramid is created by piling progressively smaller square or rectangular levels on top of another. These levels can be quite tall, and there is always a stairway to grant access to the top. This style came to El Tajà ­n from Teotihuacan, but the builders of El Tajin took it further. On many of the pyramids in the ceremonial center, the tiers of the pyramids are adorned with cornices which jut out into space on the sides and corners. This gives the buildings a striking, majestic silhouette. The builders of El Tajà ­n also added niches to the flat walls of the tiers, resulting in a richly textured, dramatic look not seen at Teotihuacan. El Tajin also shows influence from Classic era Maya cities. One notable similarity is the association of altitude with power: in El Tajà ­n, the ruling class built a palace complexes on hills adjacent to the ceremonial center. From this section of the city, known as Tajin Chico, the ruling class gazed down upon the homes of their subjects and the pyramids of the ceremonial district and the Arroyo Group. In addition, building 19 is a pyramid which features four stairways to the top, on in each cardinal direction. This is similar to el Castillo or the Temple of Kukulcan in Chichà ©n Itz, which likewise has four stairways.   Another innovation at El Tajà ­n was the idea of plaster ceilings. Most of the structures at the top of pyramids or on finely built bases were constructed of perishable materials such as wood, but there is some evidence in the Tajà ­n Chico area of the site that some of the ceilings may have been made of a heavy plaster. Even the ceiling at the Building of the Columns may have had an arched plaster ceiling, as archaeologists discovered large blocks of convex, polished blocks of plaster there. Ballcourts of El Tajn The ballgame was of paramount importance to the people of El Tajà ­n. No fewer than seventeen ballcourts have been found so far at El Tajà ­n, including several in and around the ceremonial center. The usual shape of a ball court was that of a double T: a long narrow area in the middle with an open space at either end. At El Tajà ­n, buildings and pyramids were often constructed in such a way that they would naturally create courts between them. For example, one of the ballcourts in the ceremonial center is defined on either side by Buildings 13 and 14, which were designed for spectators. The south end of the ballcourt, however, is defined by Building 16, an early version of the Pyramid of the Niches. One of the most striking structures at El Tajin is the South Ballcourt. This was obviously the most important one, as it is decorated with six marvelous panels carved in bas-relief. These show scenes from the ceremonious ballgames including human sacrifice, which often was the result of one of the games. The Niches of El Tajin The most remarkable innovation of El Tajà ­ns architects was the niches so common at the site. From the rudimentary ones at Building 16 to the magnificence of the Pyramid of the Niches, the sites best-known structure, niches are everywhere at El Tajà ­n. The niches of El Tajà ­n are small recesses set into the exterior walls of the tiers of several pyramids on the site. Some of the niches in Tajà ­n Chico have a spiral-like design in them: this was one of the symbols of Quetzalcoatl. The best example of the importance of the Niches at El Tajin is the impressive Pyramid of the Niches. The pyramid, which sits on a square base, has exactly 365 deep-set, well-designed niches, suggesting that it was a place where the sun was worshiped. It was once dramatically painted to heighten the contrast between the shady, recessed niches and the faces of the tiers; the interior of the niches was painted black, and the surrounding walls red. On the stairway, there were once six platform-altars (only five remain). Each of these altars features three small niches: this adds up to eighteen niches, possibly representing the Mesoamerican solar calendar, which had eighteen months. Importance of Architecture at El Tajin The architects of El Tajin were very skilled, using advances such as cornices, niches, cement and plaster to make their buildings, which were brightly, dramatically painted to great effect. Their skill is also evident in the simple fact that so many of their buildings have survived to the present day, although the archaeologists who restored the magnificent palaces and temples surely helped. Unfortunately for those who study the City of Storms, relatively few records remain of the people who lived there. There are no books and no direct accounts by anyone who ever had direct contact with them. Unlike the Maya, who were fond of carving glyphs with names, dates and information into their stone artwork, the artists of El Tajin rarely did so. This lack of information makes the architecture that much more important: it is the best source of information about this lost culture. Sources: Coe, Andrew. . Emeryville, CA: Avalon Travel Publishing, 2001. Ladrà ³n de Guevara, Sara. El Tajin: La Urbe que Representa al Orbe. Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 2010. Solà ­s, Felipe. El Tajà ­n. Mà ©xico: Editorial Mà ©xico Desconocido, 2003. Wilkerson, Jeffrey K. Eighty Centuries of Veracruz. National Geographic 158, No. 2 (August 1980), 203-232. Zaleta, Leonardo. Tajà ­n: Misterio y Belleza. Pozo Rico: Leonardo Zaleta 1979 (2011).

Reading with Comprehension Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reading with Comprehension - Essay Example Learning Difficulties in Reading with comprehension According to Callella (2000), learning difficulties comprise of the inability to make clear connections between the text read and its actual meaning. Readers may be confronted with a number of difficulties in an attempt to understand and comprehend any piece of writing, which they read. Most of the difficulties in learning affect children and hinder their understanding of written texts. It becomes extremely challenging for school going children to understand what they read, when they have difficulties in learning. Some of the learning difficulties in reading with comprehension include challenges in decoding, linguistic comprehension, and poor phonological and semantic skills. Other difficulties may be related to problems with visual word recognition, fluency, and problems with inference making and working memory. These difficulties will now be analyzed on the basis of how they influence reading with comprehension. The lack of proper decoding skills can act as a constraint on reading with comprehension. This may happen when decoding is slow and effortful; in such a case, resources may be dedicated to word level processing. On the other hand, when decoding in the reader is automatic, then the task of comprehension may be possible. Reading comprehension can be compromised when decoding in the reader is poor (Westwood, 2004). Decoding relates to the speed of word reading; children who have poor reading comprehension skills can be slower at reading words than students with excellent reading comprehension skills. The relationship between reading comprehension and efficiency in decoding continues in a person’s lifetime. Poor reading skills and non word reading in early childhood may predict learning difficulties in reading with comprehension in secondary school years and adulthood. Linguistic comprehension can also be a source of poor reading comprehension. The simple model of reading holds that apart from def icits in decoding, poor comprehenders may also have deficits in linguistic comprehension. Readers may have difficulties in understanding the language used in a comprehension (Westwood, 2004). For example, they may not understand the actual meaning of the words used. This learning difficulty presents a challenge to the understanding of written text. In order to make meaning out of written texts, the reader should understand the language used. Thus, difficulties in understanding the actual meaning of words, phrases, and vocabulary used can be regarded as a learning difficulty in reading with comprehension. According to Allington & McGill-Franzen (2000), poor phonological skills also pose significant challenges in reading with comprehension. Phonological skills have a correlation with the development of literacy in children as well as adults. Phonological deficits may usually characterize individuals with poor reading comprehension skills. Comprehension problems on the basis of phonolo gical skills may emanate from the inability to sustain phonological representation of verbal information while reading. Phonological skills play an essential role in determining how the reader represents verbal information when reading. Thus, the inability of children to set up phonological representation leads to difficulties in reading with comprehension. Other difficulties related to phonology entail problems in word recognition.

Assignment 6.1 Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Assignment 6.1 - Case Study Example There are several types of teams which you can use, namely, problem-solving teams, self-managed teams, virtual teams and cross-functional teams. A combination of these teams would be useful for the level of customer service and support Xerox wishes to generate. Given that asset management at Xerox involves a tremendous amount of work and challenge, an effective work team should maintain an informal and relaxed atmosphere. What is more, teams should be given a high level of autonomy to complete their relevant tasks. Structural accommodation is pertinent to team effectiveness due to the changing nature of the external environment and the diversity of cultures with which Xerox interacts. Although there is need for a considerable amount of networking at any Xerox location, the smaller the team, the more one is able to achieve optimum performance. Hence, each team should comprise six to nine members. The goals and objectives of the particular work location should be well understood and accepted by each member. Notwithstanding that there will be frequent conflict and disagreements everyone should be free to express their views about the task or the team. Given the number of countries in which our products are distributed it is necessary for team members to be creative, to be risk takers and to be sensitive to the needs of each member as well as the dynamic nature of the external environment. Nonetheless, mistakes will be made and these should be viewed as a basis for learning rather than causes for punishment. In our Houston ‘family’ we are not afraid to evaluate our performance on a regular basis as such we have developed a climate of trust in which we can all grow professionally and personally. As San Francisco’s manager, you will be required to be consistent, determined and to understand how to systematically build your team eventually you will find that your group has become a team. In

Comparing Language in Baby of the Family and Black Girl Lost :: comparison compare contrast essays

Function of Language in Baby of the Family and Black Girl Lost      Ã‚   African American literature is a genre that has, in recent years, grown almost exponentially. African American novels such as Tina McElroy Ansa's Baby of the Family and Donald Goines' Black Girl Lost are increasingly becoming more popular with the public. Baby of the Family is a wonderfully written "coming of age novel" ("Reviews 2") about a young girl named Lena McPherson as she grows up and must learn to deal with her extraordinary powers. Much unlike this, Black Girl Lost is a "shocking novel" (Goines 208) about a young girl named Sandra, who is forced to live on the streets. Though each of these novels is unique in their own aspect, a common bond can be established between the two through the use of language employed in the text. Because of the various functions that language can serve in literature, it is a rather "fascinating phenomenon" (Blackshire-Belay 1) to study in reference to these two novels. In both Baby of the Family and Black Girl Lost, language is used to reflect the speech patterns of the minority culture, as a portrayal of different worlds within the novels, and acts as a mirror to the life of the main character in order to navigate plot speed.    Language can be defined as "a regularized symbolic code that connects its users in a symbiosis of substance" (Blackshire-Belay 1). Not only are we produced by language, but we produce through language (Blackshire-Belay 1). In other words, language is a very integral part of our lives, especially in literature. It can even be said that literature, "in its most profound sense, is the most complex use of language to create meaning" (Blackshire-Belay 4). Therefore, its importance should not be looked upon lightly. In both Baby of the Family and Black Girl Lost, it seems that language is being used in order to convey the minority experience to readers, whether they be of the African American race or the dominant culture. To accomplish this, each novel displays Africanisms, or qualities that are very common in the African American language. These qualities include emphatic speech such as double negatives, call and response phrases and also metaphorical language.

Let Gays Marry

Let Gays Marry Andrew Sullivan â€Å"A state cannot deem a class of persons a stranger to its laws,† declared the Supreme Court last week. It was a monumental statement. Gay men and lesbians, the conservative court said, are no longer strangers in America. They are citizens, entitled, like everyone else, to equal protection—no special rights, but simple equality. For the first time in Supreme Court history, gay men and women were seen not as some powerful lobby trying to subvert America, but as the people we truly are—the sons and daughters of countless mothers and fathers, with all the weaknesses and strengths and hopes of everybody else. And what we seek is not some special place in America but merely to be a full and equal part of America, to give back to our society without being forced to lie or hide or live as second-class citizens. That is why marriage is so central to our hopes. People ask us why we want the right to marry, but the answer is obvious. It's the same reason anyone wants the right to marry. At some point in our lives, some of us are lucky enough to meet the person we truly love. And we want to commit to that person in front of our family and country for the rest of our lives. It's the most simple, the most natural, the most human instinct in the world. How could anyone seek to oppose that? Yes, at first blush, it seems like a radical proposal, but, when you think about it some more, it's actually the opposite. Throughout American history, to be sure, marriage has been between a man and a woman, and in many ways our society is built upon that institution. But none of that need change in the slightest. After all, no one is seeking to take away anybody's right to marry, and no one is seeking to force any church to change any doctrine in any way. Particular religious arguments against same-sex marriage are rightly debated within the churches and faiths themselves. That is not the issue here: there is a separation between church and state in this country. We are only asking that when the government gives out civil marriage licenses, those of us who are gay should be treated like anybody else. Of course, some argue that marriage is by definition between a man and a woman. But for centuries, marriage was by definition a contract in which the wife was her husband's legal property. And we changed that. For centuries, marriage was by definition between two people of the same race. And we changed that. We changed these things because we recognized that human dignity is the same whether you are a man or a woman, black or white. And no one has any more of a choice to be gay than to be black or white or male or female. Some say that marriage is only about raising children, but we let childless heterosexual couples be married (Bob and Elizabeth Dole, Pat and Shelley Buchanan, for instance). Why should gay couples be treated differently? Others fear that there is no logical difference between allowing same-sex marriage and sanctioning polygamy and other horrors. But the issue of whether to sanction multiple spouses (gay or straight) is completely separate from whether, in the existing institution between two unrelated adults, the government should discriminate between its citizens. This is, in fact, if only Bill Bennett could see it, a deeply conservative cause. It seeks to change no one else's rights or marriages in any way. It seeks merely to promote monogamy, fidelity and the disciplines of family life among people who have long been cast to the margins of society. And what could be a more conservative project than that? Why indeed would any conservative seek to oppose those very family values for gay people that he or she   supports for everybody else? Except, of course, to make gay men and lesbians strangers in their own country, to forbid them ever to come home. Andrew Sullivan, â€Å"Three's a Crowd,† The New Republic (June 17, 1996). Reprinted by permission of The New Republic, (c) 1996, The New Republic, Inc. William Bennett, â€Å"Leave Marriage Alone. † From Newsweek 3 June 1996. (c) 1996,   Newsweek, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. Andrew Sullivan, â€Å"Let Gays Marry. † From Newsweek 3 June 1996. (c) 1996, Newsweek, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Biography and Inventions of Inventor Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio; the seventh and last child of Samuel and Nancy Edison. When Edison was seven his family moved to Port Huron, Michigan. Edison lived here until he struck out on his own at the age of sixteen. Edison had very little formal education as a child, attending school only for a few months. He was taught reading, writing, and arithmetic by his mother, but was always a very curious child and taught himself much by reading on his own. This belief in self-improvement remained throughout his life. Work as a Telegrapher Edison began working at an early age, as most boys did at the time. At thirteen he took a job as a newsboy, selling newspapers and candy on the local railroad that ran through Port Huron to Detroit. He seems to have spent much of his free time reading scientific, and technical books, and also had the opportunity at this time to learn how to operate a telegraph. By the time he was sixteen, Edison was proficient enough to work as a telegrapher full time. First Patent The development of the telegraph was the first step in the communication revolution, and the telegraph industry expanded rapidly in the second half of the 19th century. This rapid growth gave Edison and others like him a chance to travel, see the country, and gain experience. Edison worked in a number of cities throughout the United States before arriving in Boston in 1868. Here Edison began to change his profession from telegrapher to inventor. He received his first patent on an electric vote recorder, a device intended for use by elected bodies such as Congress to speed the voting process. This invention was a commercial failure. Edison resolved that in the future he would only invent things that he was certain the public would want. Marriage to Mary Stilwell Edison moved to New York City in 1869. He continued to work on inventions related to the telegraph, and developed his first successful invention, an improved stock ticker called the Universal Stock Printer. For this and some related inventions, Edison was paid $40,000. This gave Edison the money he needed to set up his first small laboratory and manufacturing facility in Newark, New Jersey in 1871. During the next five years, Edison worked in Newark inventing and manufacturing devices that greatly improved the speed and efficiency of the telegraph. He also found time to get married to Mary Stilwell and start a family. Move to Menlo Park In 1876 Edison sold all his Newark manufacturing concerns and moved his family and staff of assistants to the small village of Menlo Park, twenty-five miles southwest of New York City. Edison established a new facility containing all the equipment necessary to work on any invention. This research and development laboratory was the first of its kind anywhere; the model for later, modern facilities such as Bell Laboratories, this is sometimes considered to be Edisons greatest invention. Here Edison began to change the world. The first great invention developed by Edison in Menlo Park was the tin foil phonograph. The first machine that could record and reproduce sound created a sensation and brought Edison international fame. Edison toured the country with the tin foil phonograph  and was invited to the White House to demonstrate it to President Rutherford B. Hayes in April 1878. Edison next undertook his greatest challenge, the development of a practical incandescent, electric light. The idea of electric lighting was not new, and a number of people had worked on, and even developed forms of electric lighting. But up to that time, nothing had been developed that was remotely practical for home use. Edisons eventual achievement was inventing not just an incandescent electric light, but also an electric lighting system that contained all the elements necessary to make the incandescent light practical, safe, and economical.    Thomas Edison Founds an Industry Based on Electricity After one and a half years of work, success was achieved when an incandescent lamp with a filament of carbonized sewing thread burned for thirteen and a half hours. The first public demonstration of the Edisons incandescent lighting system was in December 1879, when the Menlo Park laboratory complex was electrically lighted. Edison spent the next several years creating the electric industry. In September 1882, the first commercial power station, located on Pearl Street in lower Manhattan, went into operation providing light and power to customers in a one square mile area; the electric age had begun.    Fame Wealth The success of his electric light brought Edison to new heights of fame and wealth, as electricity spread around the world. Edisons various electric companies continued to grow until in 1889 they were brought together to form Edison General Electric. Despite the use of Edison in the company title however, Edison never controlled this company. The tremendous amount of capital needed to develop the incandescent lighting industry had necessitated the involvement of investment bankers such as J.P. Morgan. When Edison General Electric merged with its leading competitor Thompson-Houston in 1892, Edison was dropped from the name, and the company became simply General Electric. Marriage to Mina Miller This period of success was marred by the death of Edisons wife Mary in 1884. Edisons involvement in the business end of the electric industry had caused Edison to spend less time in Menlo Park. After Marys death, Edison was there even less, living instead in New York City with his three children. A year later, while vacationing at a friends house in New England, Edison met Mina Miller and fell in love. The couple was married in February 1886 and moved to West Orange, New Jersey where Edison had purchased an estate, Glenmont, for his bride. Thomas Edison lived here with Mina until his death.    New Laboratory Factories When Edison moved to West Orange, he was doing experimental work in makeshift facilities in his electric lamp factory in nearby Harrison, New Jersey. A few months after his marriage, however, Edison decided to build a new laboratory in West Orange itself, less than a mile from his home. Edison possessed the both the resources and experience by this time to build, the best equipped and largest laboratory extant and the facilities superior to any other for rapid and cheap development of an invention. The new laboratory complex consisting of five buildings opened in November 1887. A three story main laboratory building contained a power plant, machine shops, stock rooms, experimental rooms and a large library. Four smaller one story buildings built perpendicular to the main building contained a physics lab, chemistry lab, metallurgy lab, pattern shop, and chemical storage. The large size of the laboratory not only allowed Edison to work on any sort of project, but also allowed him to work on as many as ten or twenty projects at once. Facilities were added to the laboratory or modified to meet Edisons changing needs as he continued to work in this complex until his death in 1931. Over the years, factories to manufacture Edison inventions were built around the laboratory. The entire laboratory and factory complex eventually covered more than twenty acres and employed 10,000 people at its peak during World War One (1914-1918). After opening the new laboratory, Edison began to work on the phonograph again, having set the project aside to develop the electric light in the late 1870s. By the 1890s, Edison began to manufacture phonographs for both home, and business use. Like the electric light, Edison developed everything needed to have a phonograph work, including records to play, equipment to record the records, and equipment to manufacture the records and the machines. In the process of making the phonograph practical, Edison created the recording industry. The development and improvement of the phonograph was an ongoing project, continuing almost until Edisons death.    The Movies While working on the phonograph, Edison began working on a device that, does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear, this was to become motion pictures. Edison first demonstrated motion pictures in 1891, and began commercial production of movies two years later in a peculiar looking structure, built on the laboratory grounds, known as the Black Maria. Like the electric light and phonograph before it, Edison developed a complete system, developing everything needed to both film and show motion pictures. Edisons initial work in motion pictures was pioneering and original. However, many people became interested in this third new industry Edison created, and worked to further improve on Edisons early motion picture work. There were therefore many contributors to the swift development of motion pictures beyond the early work of Edison. By the late 1890s, a thriving new industry was firmly established, and by 1918 the industry had become so competitive that Edison got out of the movie business all together.    Even a Genius Can have a Bad Day 1890sgreatest failure    A Profitable Product alkaline battery . By 1911, Thomas Edison had built a vast industrial operation in West Orange. Numerous factories had been built through the years around the original laboratory, and the staff of the entire complex had grown into the thousands. To better manage operations, Edison brought all the companies he had started to make his inventions together into one corporation, Thomas A. Edison Incorporated, with Edison as president and chairman. Aging Gracefully In the 1915, Edison was asked to head the Naval Consulting Board. With the United States inching closer towards the involvement in World War One, the Naval Consulting Board was an attempt to organize the talents of the leading scientists and inventors in the United States for the benefit of the American armed forces. Edison favored preparedness, and accepted the appointment. The Board did not make a notable contribution to the final allied victory, but did serve as a precedent for future successful cooperation between scientists, inventors and the United States military. During the war, at age seventy, Edison spent several months on Long Island Sound in a borrowed navy vessel experimenting on techniques for detecting submarines. Honoring a Lifetime of Achievement Edisons role in life began to change from inventor and industrialist to cultural icon, a symbol of American ingenuity, and a real life Horatio Alger story. In 1928, in recognition of a lifetime of achievement, the United States Congress voted Edison a special Medal of Honor. In 1929 the nation celebrated the golden jubilee of the incandescent light. The celebration culminated at a banquet honoring Edison given by Henry Ford at Greenfield Village, Fords new American history museum, which included a complete restoration of the Menlo Park Laboratory. Attendees included President Herbert Hoover and many of the leading American scientists and inventors. The last experimental work of Edisons life was done at the request of Edisons good friends Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone in the late 1920s. They asked Edison to find an alternative source of rubber for use in automobile tires. The natural rubber used for tires up to that time came from the rubber tree, which does not grow in the United States. Crude rubber had to be imported and was becoming increasingly expensive. With his customary energy and thoroughness, Edison tested thousands of different plants to find a suitable substitute, eventually finding a type of Goldenrod weed that could produce enough rubber to be feasible. Edison was still working on this at the time of his death. A Great Man Dies During the last two years of his life Edison was in increasingly poor health. Edison spent more time away from the laboratory, working instead at Glenmont. Trips to the family vacation home in Fort Myers, Florida became longer. Edison was past eighty and suffering from a number of ailments. In August 1931 Edison collapsed at Glenmont. Essentially house bound from that point, Edison steadily declined until at 3:21 am on October 18, 1931 the great man died.