 |
| Thomas Alva Edison |
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial research laboratory. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park" (now Edison, New Jersey) by a newspaper reporter, he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large teamwork to the process of invention, and therefore is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory.
Edison is the fourth most prolific inventor in history, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He is credited with numerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications. These included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures. His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his early care
Edison is the fourth most prolific inventor in history, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He is credited with numerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications. These included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures. His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his early care
Thomas Edison was born in MilanOhio, and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. He was the seventh andlast child of Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. (1804–96, born in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia, Canada) and NancyMatthews Elliott (1810–1871, born in Chenango County, New York).His father had toescape from Canada because he took part in the unsuccessful Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837.Edison consideredhimself to be of Dutch ancestry.
In school, the young Edison's mind often wandered, and his teacher, theReverend Engle, was overheard calling him "addled".This ended Edison's three months of official schooling. Edison recalled later,"My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me; and Ifelt I had something to live for, someone I must not disappoint." Hismother homeschooled him. Much of his education came from reading R.G. Parker's School of Natural Philosophy and The Cooper Union.
Edison developed hearing problems at an early age. The cause of hisdeafness has been attributed to a bout of scarlet feverduring childhood and recurring untreated middle-ear infections. Around themiddle of his career Edison attributed the hearing impairment to being struckon the ears by a train conductor when his chemical laboratory in a boxcarcaught fire and he was thrown off the train in Smiths Creek, Michigan, along with hisapparatus and chemicals. In his later years he modified the story to say theinjury occurred when the conductor, in helping him onto a moving train, liftedhim by the ears.
Edison's family was forced to move to Port Huron,Michigan, when the railroad bypassed Milan in 1854, but his life there was bittersweet. He sold candy and newspapers on trains runningfrom Port Huron to Detroit, and he sold vegetables to supplement his income. Healso studied qualitative analysis, and conducted chemical experiments on thetrain until an accident caused the prohibition of further work of the kind. Heobtained the exclusive right of selling newspapers on the road, and, with theaid of four assistants, he set in type and printed the Grand Trunk Herald,which he sold with his other papers.This began Edison's long streak of entrepreneurial ventures as he discoveredhis talents as a businessman. These talents eventually led him to found 14companies, including General Electric, which is still in existenceas one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world.
Telegrapher
Edison became a telegraph operator after he saved three-year-old JimmieMacKenzie from being struck by a runaway train. Jimmie's father, station agentJ.U. MacKenzie of Mount Clemens, Michigan, was so grateful thathe trained Edison as a telegraph operator. Edison's first telegraphy job awayfrom Port Huron was at Stratford Junction, Ontario,on the Grand Trunk Railway.In 1866, at the age of 19, Thomas Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where, as an employee of Western Union,he worked the Associated Press bureau news wire.Edison requested the night shift, which allowed him plenty of time to spend athis two favorite pastimes-reading and experimenting. Eventually, the latterpre-occupation cost him his job. One night in 1867, he was working with a lead-acid battery when he spilled sulfuric acidonto the floor. It ran between the floorboards and onto his boss's desk below.The next morning Edison was fired.
One of his mentors during those early years was a fellow telegrapher andinventor named Franklin Leonard Pope, who allowed theimpoverished youth to live and work in the basement of his Elizabeth, New Jersey home. Some of Edison'searliest inventions were related to telegraphy, including a stock ticker. Hisfirst patent was for the electric vote recorder, (U.S. Patent 90,646),which was granted on June 1, 1869.
