Insull: The Rise and Fall of a Billionaire Utility Tycoon - Softcover

McDonald, Forrest

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1587982439 ISBN 13: 9781587982439

Publisher: Beard Books, 2004

Synopsis

This is a reprint of a previosly published work. It dewals with Samuel Insull, who was Thomas Edison's private secretary and founded the business of centralized electric supply. He organized the Edison General Electric Company.

About this title

About the Author

Forrest McDonald retired in 2002 as Distinguished University Research Professor at the University of Alabama after a teaching career at Brown University, Wayne State University, and the University of Alabama spanning more than 40 years. He is the author of numerous books. He has five children, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. He lives with his wife Ellen on a farm outside Coker, Alabama.

From the Inside Flap

An astute businessman, he practiced "mass production" and "selling at the lowest possible cost" long before those ideas became popular. In addition, he successfully applied the concepts of load and diversity on a large scale -- factors on which all utility rates are based. On the financial side, his innovativeness in devising ways to market securities made possible gigantic modern corporations owned by anonymous millions and therefore owned by nobody.

Insull was instrumental in acquiring effective governmental regulation of public utilities. He pioneered welfare programs long before labor or even government became aware of their importance and encouraged the growth of labor unions.

Edition details

• Publisher: Beard Books
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1587982439
• ISBN 13: 9781587982439
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400