His invention was the invention laboratory funded by venture capital.
His first successful invention was the stock market ticker-tape!
This led to branch offices for Wall Street...
Ticker tape parades...
Bucket shops...
BTW, Smith was the inventor of the tungsten wire bulb.
Edison was notorious for ripping off his own staff -- and his financial backers.
That's how Thomas Edison's General Electric Company became simply General Electric Company: the board members kicked Edison out the door and he demanded that they take his name off the building.
