Edison, Thomas Alva, American inventor, whose development of a practical electric light bulb, electric generating system, sound-recording device, and motion picture projector had profound effects on the shaping of modern society. Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, on February 11, 1847. He attended school for only three months, in Port Huron, Michigan. When he was 12 years old he began selling newspapers on the Grand Trunk Railway, devoting his spare time mainly to experimentation with printing presses and with electrical and mechanical apparatus. The train left Port Huron about 7:00 in the morning and returned at 9:00 or 9:30 at night. The trip included a six-hour layover in Detroit, during which time he claims to have read "the entire public library." He was an omnivorous reader and loved to experiment with chemicals and machinery. He constantly wanted to investigate how things worked and liked to see if he could make things better. On the train he was allowed a table in an empty baggage car on which to work. He even brought a broken printing press, repaired it and taught himself to print. He may have produced the first newspaper printed on a moving train. Edison began noticing a loss of hearing around this time, which increased throughout his life. In 1862 he published a weekly, known as the Grand Trunk Herald, printing it in a freight car that also served as his laboratory. For saving the life of a station official's child, he was rewarded by being taught telegraphy. While working as a telegraph operator, he made his first important invention, a telegraphic repeating instrument that enabled messages to be transmitted automatically over a second line without the presence of an operator. Edison next secured employment in Boston and devoted all his spare time there to research. He invented a vote recorder that, although possessing many merits, was not sufficiently practical to warrant its adoption. He also devised and partly completed a stock-quotation printer. Later, while employed by the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company of New York City he greatly improved their apparatus and service. By the sale of telegraphic appliances, Edison earned $40,000, and with this money he established his own laboratory in 1876. Afterward he devised an automatic telegraph system that made possible a greater speed and range of transmission. Edison's crowning achievement in telegraphy was his invention of machines that made possible simultaneous transmission of several messages on one line and thus greatly increased the usefulness of existing telegraph lines.
Edison got his idea for the recorder when he worked as a telegraph operator at the Western Union office in Indianapolis. He figured out that during a night shift he could couple together two old Morse registers to capture incoming codes for later retrieval. He could sleep during his shift and catch up on messages later. (RCA Online 2)
He was never a president of the United States, nor did he lead any army in a battle. He had no talent in public speaking, preferring to write out his thoughts on paper and for them to be read aloud by others. Yet in his day he was certainly one of the most well known celebrities, beloved in both the United States and through most of Europe. He is Benjamin Franklin, and he has become a symbol of American civilization.
One of the most well known technological innovator and manufacturer was Thomas Alva Edison. He invented many devices which are still being used today, with some modifications. He even built a vote-recording device before he was twenty-one. Some inventions were the phonograph, incandescent light bulb, and the kinetoscope, which was much like a motion picture camera. In total, he has patented 1,093 inventions. He earned the nickname “The Wizard of Menlo Park”.
When Thomas became thirteen he asked his parents if he could get a job, they let him. He took the job of becoming a newsboy and “candy butcher” on the trains of the Grand Trunk Railway, running between Port Huron and Detroit. While having a job was fun for Thomas, he spent much of his free time reading scientific and technical books, he also spent some of this time learning how to operate a telegraph. In 1862, when he was fifteen, he printed and published the first ever newspaper to be typeset and printed on a moving train, The Weekly Herald. The London Times featured him and his paper in one of their stories, giving him his first exposure to international notoriety. Around the same time Thomas Edison had saved the son of J.U. Mackenzie, a station agent at Mount Clemens, Michigan. As a sign of gratitude, the child’s father taught him telegraphy. A few months later, when he was close to the age of sixteen, he hung a telegraph line from the Port Huron railway station to the Port Huron village and worked in the local telegraph office. By the time he was really at the age of sixteen, he was skilled enough to work as a telegrapher full time. (Beals,
Some of his inventions include the photograph, the motion picture the electrographic vote recorder, and his most famous invention the light bulb. Thomas edison started working on his igea of a light bulb in 1878. He envisioned it as a oil and gas based light that would be longlasting that could be used indoors instead of having to use the outdoor light. He based his ideas on other people's inventions such as Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans. He found that there were many flaws with where light sources and planned on creating a whole different approach to building his light build that would fix all on the problems. Thomas Edison light bulb consisted of a carbon filament. It took him many tries before he successfully tested his lightbulb which lasted thirteen and a half hours. His carbon light bulb became a patent on November 4, 1879. Even though the light bulb was already patent Thomas Edison still found more ways to improve it. He discovered that carbonized bamboo filament could last 1,200 hours, so Edison decided to form the Edison Electric Light Company where he could publicly sell his new light bulbs and have access to new supplies where he can improve and manufacture his carbon light bulbs. Thomas edison created a whole new way of access to working and living environments that impacted history in a great
He built an industrial research laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, and this was the main research laboratory for the lighting company. He spent all of his time here until he realized it all could not be all done by one person. Thomas never stopped inventing or working. He became a well-known business man. He still invented throughout his later years. He had a major impact on this world and the economy. Thomas and his second wife spent the rest of their lives at their winter retreat in Fort Meyers, Florida. Thomas Edison passed away October 18, 1931 at the age of 84 years old. Now you can see that Thomas had a very good child and was a hard worker as a teenager. His invention of the universal stock printer was a popular and much needed invention and as you all know the lightbulb has been one of the most important inventions in
A year later he opened his first industrial laboratory, where he would conduct several different experiments. His next major invention was the Quadruplex telegraph for Western Union, which was capable of transmitting two signals in two directions on a single wire. Jay Gould, the railroad industrialist, bought the rights of the telegraph and offered Edison a sum of $100000 dollars for his invention.
After he was done with his telegraph job, on October 11th, 1868 he got his first patented invention for an electrical vote recorder. To Edison's surprise it wasn't popular enough among the people. After this incident, Edison became more determined towards making certain there was a strong public demand for anything he was going to invent. He improved the original stock ticker and invented the Universal Stock Ticker and the Unison Device. I...
From this invention Edison started the Edison Speaking Phonograph Company in 1878. Edison had received $10,000 for the sales and manufacturing rights plus 20% of the profits from this company. The machine had a variety of uses including dictation, creating listening books, a sort of a “family record” which had precious recorded memories of the family like last words, teaching elocution, adn other uses as well
“I find out what the world needs. Then I go ahead and try to invent it (Sullivan 5).” These are the word that Thomas Alva Edison lived his life by. This is why he is known as the greatest inventor in Americas history. Thomas was granted 1093 patents over his life time. Some of the main inventions that changed the world are the electric light bulb, phonograph and movie camera and projector and much more(Jenkins 1). Thomas Edison is well known for his invention of electricity but he has made many more contributions to society.
Edison invented and improved upon things that changed our world. Some of the things he invented, he did by himself. Some he did with other people. Just about all his inventions are still around today and are commonly used. It was important to Edison that he created and invented things that people could use in their everyday life.
Thomas Alva Edison is a very well-known American inventor. He invented about 1093 devices that influenced us greatly, such as light bulb, microphone, telephone receiver, universal stock ticker, phonograph, kinetoscope (used to view moving pictures), storage battery, electric pen, and mimeograph. Edison also improved many other existing devices as well. In the period from 1878 to 1880, Thomas Edison began serious research into developing a practical incandescent lamp. Edison and his associates worked on at least three thousand different theories to develop an efficient incandescent lamp. In 1878, Edison built his first high resistance incandescent electric light. Incandescent lamps make light by using electricity to heat a thin strip of material (called a filament) until it gets hot enough to glow. Many inventors had tried to perfect incandescent lamps to "sub-divide" electric light or make it smaller and weaker than it was in the existing arc lamps, which were too bright to be used for small spaces such as the rooms of a house.Edison's lamp would consist of a filament ho...
Thomas Edison is widely regarded as one of the most influential inventors and innovators of the Twentieth Century. Edison’s efforts ushered in a new era of technology; a world in which electricity would be harnessed and made to bow before man’s will. Walter Lippman wrote, “It is impossible to measure the importance of Edison by adding up the specific inventions with which his name is associated” (qtd. in Baldwin 409). Edison’s decades long career was a synergistic melding of his success as an inventor and his prowess as a promoter and businessman. He exemplified the ideals of intelligence married to hard work and perseverance. He forever changed the landscape of American invention and the limits of technological change (Baldwin 409).
Nikola Tesla is regarded as one of the most brilliant inventors in history. His work provided the basis for the modern alternating current power system, as well as having developed both radio and the fluorescent light bulb. He worked with Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, among others. He was also widely misunderstood by his peers and the public at large.
Thomas Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan Ohio. Thomas Edison was one of most famous American inventor and businessman in nineteenth century. He invented many great and remarkable devices during that period. His most famous inventions such as the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and electric incandescent light bulb. Those inventions bring great influences around the world; also his inventions improve the society. During Thomas Edison’s entire life, he created more than 2000 inventions as well he acquired 1093 patents in the Untied States. Also Thomas Edison became a successful businessman. He manufactures his inventions and selling them to the markets.