Biography of Thomas Edison

His mother was a former schoolteacher; his father was a jack-of-all-trades - from running a grocery store to real estate. When Thomas was seven years old, his family moved to Port Huron, Michigan. He was a very curious child who asked a lot of questions. "Edison began school in Port Huron, Michigan when he was seven. His teacher, the Reverend G. B. Engle considered Thomas to be a dull student."(Allen pg.

Edison is most famous for the development of the first electric light bulb. Like I said Edison was born into a time where America wasn’t very developed. He was born, and electricity had not been developed. But thanks to Edison when he had passed away on October 18, 1931 whole cities were lit up in electricity. For electricity, much of the credit goes to Edison.

He was the seventh child of Samuel and Nancy Edison. When Thomas was 7, his family was forced to move to Port Huron, Michigan because of financial problems. As might be expected, Edison there attended school. His teacher, the Reverend G. B. Engle considered Thomas to be a dull student. Thomas especially did not like math.

The teachers thought he was a mixed up kid so he dropped out and was home schooled by his mother. By age nine he was an excellent reader and loved to experiment from the things he read in the science books. His mother was his biggest supporter. From the ages nine through twelve he had read many chemistry books one in particular was called a school compendium of natural and experimental philosophy he also proceeded to read all the books in the town library pertaining in science and chemistry . Anther book that influenced him throughout his life was called the age of reason (Dolan 20).

The Edison’s were forced to move to Port Huron, where he first began his education. When he was only seven years old his teacher, the Reverend G.B. Engle considered Thomas to be a dull student, and was terrible in math. After three months of school his teacher called him "addled," which means confused or mixed up. Thomas stormed home.

The lack of financial stability caused the Edison family to move to Port Huron, Michigan in 1855. In Port Huron, Edison started to attend school, but was often ridiculed by his teachers, causing his mother to remove him from school and teach Edison herself. While being homeschooled, Edison developed a passion for chemistry. He had built a laboratory in his family’s basement and would often spend his spare money on buying chemicals from a local pharmacy (Jeffrey). Later in 1859, when Edison turned twelve, he got a job on the Grand Trunk Railway selling newspaper and snacks to the passengers.

He ended up dropping out of school and was home schooled by his mother. Thomas Edison had two loves: experimenting and reading. At his first job as a telegrapher, he would want the night shift so he could have time to read his books and do his experiments. Out of these experiments came his first patented invention, the electric vote recorder. This was the first patent out of many that started Thomas Edison’s career as a brilliant inventor.

He didn’t learn that much in school, but he became a very famous and wealthy inventor. “By the time of his death in 1931, Edison had received 1,093 U.S. patents, a total still untouched by any other inventor. Even more important, he created a model for modern industrial research.” (Thomas Alva Edison Biography, p.4, par.6) In conclusion, Thomas Edison was a significant figure in American history because he invented the lightbulb and helped Americans see in the dark. Many people started creating other advanced inventions using his inventions. He started the electrical age.

His obsession of proving him wrong got so bad that his father often got letters from different professor... ... middle of paper ... ...nsive. Tesla did not get the money need to fund the project and a stock market crash only increased prices for the towers materials. So in 1905 Tesla and his team had to abandon the project. Tesla died in a New York hotel penniless in January 7, 1943 from a heart attack. During this time much of his work on a peace ray, also known as a death ray, disappeared, most believe that the US government took it.

On the 11th of February 1847, Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio. As he was claimed to be ‘a failure’ by his teachers, Edison was sent for home-schooling by his mother (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012, para. 2). According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2012), Edison decided to become a full-fledged inventor in 1869 and received his first patent for an electric voting machine. However, the invention did not sell well and he made a promise to never invent a product that might... ... middle of paper ... ...after his death (Kleinman, 2013).