Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio. His father was a shingle maker and his mother was a school teacher. When Edison was seven, he moved to Port Huron, Michigan. He would ask lots of questions in school and this irritated his teachers. His teachers told his mother that he was mentally retarded and could never learn. He would not stay focused and was too active to learn. He only went to school for three months and the rest of the time his mother taught him at home. He was taught reading, writing, and arithmetic by his mother, but was always a very curious child and taught himself much by reading on his own. Thomas Edison loved to read. His favorite books were science books that involved chemistry information. Since he was young, he liked to do chemistry experiments. When he was 14, Thomas Edison became a newsboy on the Grand Trunk railroad. While he worked there, an accident caused Thomas Edison to lose most of his hearing which only got worse through his lifetime. At 15, he learned how to be a telegraph operator. He learned the Morse code and became skilled in sending and taking messages. Thomas Edison was the foremost expert in electricity because of the many inventions and millions of dollars that he used and invested with electricity. From the invention of the light bulb, to the invention of the phonograph, Thomas Edison made electricity a reality for the world. Among his most notable inventions are the microphone, the phonograph, the electric lamp and light bulb, and the motion picture machine. He was the first to observe that electrons are emitted from a heated cathode, which was then called the "Edison Effect." Thomas Edison is no doubt considered one of the greatest inventors in the world because of the numerous contributions he made to modern technology. Thomas Edison registered more than 1,300 patents for new inventions during his lifetime. Thomas Edison had a great influence because of his inventions; he is one of the best inventors in the world. The phonograph is considered to be Edison’s first great invention and it was his life-long favorite. The phonograph would record the spoken voice and play it back.When speaking into the receiver; the sound vibration of the voice would cause a needle to create indentations on a drum wrapped with tin foil. Later Edison would adopt cylinders and discs to permanently record music. The first recorded message was of Thomas Edison speaking “Mary had a little lamb”, which greatly delighted and surprised Edison and his staff when they first heard it played back to them. Thomas Edison is most well known for his invention of the light bulb. Contrary to popular belief, Edison did not invent the light bulb; it had been around for a number of years. The electric lights at the time, however, were unreliable, expensive, and short-lived. Over twenty distinct efforts by other inventors the world over were already underway when Edison entered the light bulb invention race. By creating a vacuum inside the bulb, finding the right filament to use, and running lower voltage through the bulb, Edison was able to achieve a light bulb that lasted for many hours. This was a substantial improvement, and one that led with more improvements, to making the light bulb practical and economical. Edison also later invented the entire electric utility system so he could power all those light bulbs, motors and other appliances that soon followed. Edison’s initial work in motion pictures (1888-89) was inspired by Muybridge’s analysis of motion. The first Edison device resembled his phonograph, with a spiral arrangement of 1/16 inch photographs made on a cylinder. Viewed with a microscope, these first motion pictures were rather crude, and hard to focus. Working with W. K. L. Dickson, Edison then developed the Strip Kinetograph, using George Eastman’s improved 35 mm celluloid film. Cut into continuous strips and perforated along the edges, the film was moved by sprockets in a stop-and-go motion behind the shutter. In Edison’s movie studio, technically known as a Kinetographic Theater, but nicknamed “The Black Maria” (1893), Edison and his staff filmed short movies for later viewing with his peep hole Kinetoscopes (1894). One-person at a time could view the movies via the Kinetoscope. Each Kinetoscope was about 4 feet tall, 20 inches square, and had a peep hole magnifier that allowed the patron to view 50 feet of film in about 20 seconds. A battery-operated lamp allowed the film to be illuminated. Thomas Edison’s first invention was the Electrographic Vote Recorder. He was 22 years old and working as a telegrapher when he filed his first patent for the recorder. The device was made with the goal of helping legislators in the US Congress record their votes in a quicker fashion than the voice vote system. To work, a voting device was connected to a clerk’s desk where the names of the legislators were embedded. The legislators would move a switch to either yes or no, sending electric current to the device at the clerks desk. Yes and No wheels kept track of the votes and tabulated the final results. Thomas Edison’s Magnetic Iron Ore Separator. Thomas Edison experimented during the 1880′s and 1890′s with using magnets to separate iron ore from low grade, unusable ores. His giant mine project in northwestern NJ consumed huge amounts of money as experimentation plodded forward. Engineering problems and a decline in the price of iron ore lead this invention to be abandoned. But later, Edison used what he learned with rock grinding to make his own robust version of Portland Cement, Edison Portland Cement, a very good product that built Yankee Stadium. Along the way, Edison totally revolutionized the cement kiln industry. In 1874 Edison had his first big financial success with his quadruplex telegraph system. This was a way of sending more than one message in one direction over a single wire. Telegraph companies were eager for such a scheme because it let them send more messages over fewer wires, increasing their profits while cutting their costs. Thomas Edison approached the Western Union Telegraph Company with the quadruplex telegraph system he had just completed. Western Union offered him $40,000 and it allowed him to fulfill his wish to become a full time inventor. Edison built a laboratory complex at Menlo Park with the money he received from Western Union and nicknamed it "The Invention Factory! He had a large staff of specialists, ranging from machinists to physicists, who helped turn his ideas into realities. The complex consisted of a laboratory, machine shop, office, and a library. The Menlo Park Laboratory was equipped with 2,500 bottles of chemicals lining the wall and a pipe organ at the back, which was the focal point for after hours singing and beer drinking. Many times the various scientists and technicians would stay up all night inventing, working and munching on ham, crackers, beer, soda, and cheese. About midnight, Edison himself would sit down at the pipe organ and everyone would join in for a sing along. Many years later his employees would say that these were the happiest years of their lives.
Edison's most famous invention to come out of Menlo Park was the light bulb. Edison didn't invent electric lights--there were arc lights already, which were similar to today's street lights. They were very, very bright so people didn't want them inside their houses. At home, people used gas lights, but their open flames were dangerous and they flickered a lot. Edison didn't just invent a light bulb, either. He put together what he knew about electricity with what he knew about gas lights and invented a whole system of electric lighting. This meant light bulbs, electricity generators, wires to get the electricity from the power station to the homes, fixtures (lamps, sockets, switches) for the light bulbs, and more. It was like a big jigsaw puzzle--and Edison made up the pieces as well as fitted them together. One tough piece was finding the right material for the filament--that little wire inside the light bulb. He filled more than 40,000 pages with notes before he finally had a bulb that withstood a 40 hour test in his laboratory. (10) In 1879, after testing more that 1600 materials for the right filament, including coconut fiber, fishing line, and even hairs from a friend's beard, Edison and his workers finally figured out what to use for the filament--carbonized bamboo. The first large-scale test of the system in the United States took place when Edison’s Pearl Street station in New York City’s financial district sent electricity to lights in 25 buildings on September 4, 1882. Throughout his career Edison received many awards and accolades. His finest moment came in 1928, when he was awarded the congressional Gold Medal for “development and application of inventions that have revolutionized civilization in the last century”. The President of the Third French Republic designated Edison with the distinction of an “Officer of the Legion of Honour” on November 10, 1881. He also named a Chevalier in 1879, and a Commander in 1889. In 1887, Edison won the Matteucci Medal. In 1890, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The Philadelphia City Council named Edison the recipient of the John Scott Medal in 1889. In 1899, Edison was awarded the Edward Longstreth Medal of The Franklin Institute. He was named an Honorable Consulting Engineer at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's fair in 1904. In 1908, Edison received the American Association of Engineering Societies John Fritz Medal. In 1915, Edison was awarded Franklin Medal of The Franklin Institute for discoveries contributing to the foundation of industries and the well-being of the human race. In 1920, The United States Navy department awarded him the Navy Distinguished Service Medal. In 1923, The American Institute of Electrical Engineers created the Edison Medal and he was its first recipient. In 1927, he was granted membership in the National Academy of Sciences. In 1983, the United States Congress designated February 11, Edison's birthday, as National Inventor's Day. Edison was ranked thirty-fifth on Michael H. Hart's 1978 book The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, a list of the most influential figures in history. Life magazine (USA), in a special double issue in 1997, placed Edison first in the list of the "100 Most Important People in the Last 1000 Years", noting that the light bulb he promoted "lit up the world". In 2008, Edison was inducted in the New Jersey Hall of Fame. In 2010, Edison was honored with a Technical Grammy Award. In 2011, Edison was inducted into the Entrepreneur Walk of Fame, and named a Great Floridian by the Florida Governor and Cabinet. Although he had a brilliant mind, Thomas Edison himself admitted that the majority of his discoveries came about through sheer hard work. He couldn't understand how other people could give up on a problem so easily. His main ambition in life was to make the world a better place to live in, and he undoubtedly achieved that to a great extent. He was one of the great inventors. Thomas Edison had a great influence on the society and the people of his time. All his inventions were dedicated to make a society better. He changed the lives of the people dramatically through his inventions. Edison dedicated his life to science, technology and inventions Much of the world we live in today is a legacy of Edison and of his devotion to science. He established the first investor-owned electric utility in 1882. His phonograph launched a global recorded-music industry that is worth nearly $150 billion today. Edison's most lasting contribution might be in the system of industrial invention he helped pioneer. Edison had the ability to bring mass brainpower to the process of invention and then market the resulting devices. Using a sizable team of skilled assistants who had expertise in different fields, he developed the foundation for research and development as it is practiced in the United States and increasingly around the world The importance of Thomas Edison’s inventions cannot be overstated. His inventions created new industries. Edison’s inventions using electricity and electronics spawned the electronics industry and later-era computers, information technology and mobile telephony/communications industries. Edison’s influence on American ingenuity coupled with federal government funding, defense sector-sponsored programs and university research initiatives have created a system that spurs innovation, leads to significant breakthroughs and encourages research and development activities for new inventions. Thomas Edison's record 1,093 patents and filing of patents at timely intervals by numerous American inventors, technologists and engineers kept America at the forefront of new scientific revolutions and attendant commercial applications in science, engineering and technology throughout the 20th century. Thomas Edison’s invention factory in Menlo Park began a new era in utilizing a variety of work force talent. New industries resulting from Edison’s inventions created a demand for millions of manufacturing, production, service, customer support and other jobs. Thomas Edison’s inventions and discoveries have brought about dramatic changes in communication, transportation and improved standards of living. Thomas Alva Edison died in West Orange, New Jersey on October 18, 1931. At the time of this death, he was experimenting on rubber from goldenrod. When Edison died at the age of 84, he had patented 1,093 inventions. After his death, Edison became a folk hero of legendary status. His inventions had truly and profoundly affected the shaping of modern society. “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” Thomas A. Edison