American inventor of the phonograph, a long-lasting light bulb and early film cameras. Chinese schoolbooks tell of his many failed tries at the bulb and quote his line that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.
Chinese posts often claim textbooks cut his line short and that it really ends 但那百分之一的灵感是最重要的, 'but that 1% inspiration matters most'. No recorded version says this; Edison stood by the plain line in 1927 and 1932.