Thomas Edison: The Life And Life Of Thomas Alva Edison

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On February 11, 1847, in a town called Milan in Ohio, Thomas Alva Edison was born hearing to parents Samuel Ogden Edison Junior and Nancy Elliott Edison. It was not until later that Edison became deaf. He was born the youngest of Samuel and Nancy’s seven children, although three weeks after his mother died in 1871, his father began a relationship with Mary Sharlow, who was the housekeeper, and they went on to have three daughters (National Park Service). Although born in Ohio, much of his childhood was spent in Port Huron, Michigan. Edison moved there when he was about seven years old. Due to illness, Edison was unable to attend school right away. Once he did begin school, his schoolmaster decided that he was slow and stupid so his mother took him out and began teaching him at home. Edison’s mother exposed him to advanced material that far surpassed other students of his age, and by the age of eleven, he had set up a laboratory in his parent’s basement (Rogers and Shaffer). If not for his mother believing in him and teaching him like she did Edison might not have been the man he was. At age twelve, instead of continuing school, Edison took a job at a railroad selling food and newspapers to passengers on board a …show more content…

The crowning achievement of his work in this field was the Pearl St. plant (1881-82) in New York City, the first permanent central electric-light power plant in the world. He also built and operated (1880) an experimental electric railroad, and produced a superior storage battery of iron and nickel with an alkaline electrolyte (The Columbia Encyclopedia). For the people of that time, life had been altered in a positive way. Deaf, hearing, hard of hearing, no matter the hearing status, this made a difference in their

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