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Early years

• The phonograph
• The electric light
• The Edison laboratory

How did Thomas Edison become famous?

• When was the telephone patented?

Thomas Edison

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• Library of Congress - Digital Collections - Life of Thomas Alva Edison
• Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation - Thomas Edison's Inventive Life
• National Park Service - Biography of Thomas Edison
• National Academy of Sciences - Biographical Memoirs - "Thomas Alva Edison"
• Energy.gov - Top 8 Things You Didn’t Know About Thomas Alva Edison
• The Franklin Institute - Case Files: Thomas A. Edison
• Official Site of Edison Innovation Foundation
• The National Museum of American History - Lighting A Revolution - Lamp Inventors 1880-1940: Carbon Filament Incandescent
• American Chemical Society - Biography of Thomas Edison
• Thomas Edison - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
• Thomas Edison - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
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When was thomas edison born.

Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan , Ohio , on February 11, 1847.

When did Thomas Edison die?

Thomas Edison died on October 18, 1931, in West Orange , New Jersey .

Thomas Edison unveiled the phonograph —which reproduced sounds by means of the vibration of a stylus following a groove on a rotating disc—in December 1877. The public’s amazement surrounding this invention was quickly followed by universal acclaim. Edison was projected into worldwide prominence and was dubbed the Wizard of Menlo Park.

How did Thomas Edison change the world?

Thomas Edison played a significant part in introducing the modern age of electricity . His inventions included the phonograph, the carbon-button transmitter for the telephone speaker and microphone , the incandescent lamp , the first commercial electric light and power system, an experimental electric railroad , and key elements of motion-picture equipment.

Thomas Edison (born February 11, 1847, Milan , Ohio , U.S.—died October 18, 1931, West Orange , New Jersey) was an American inventor who, singly or jointly, held a world-record 1,093 patents . In addition, he created the world’s first industrial research laboratory .

Edison was the quintessential American inventor in the era of Yankee ingenuity. He began his career in 1863, in the adolescence of the telegraph industry, when virtually the only source of electricity was primitive batteries putting out a low-voltage current . Before he died, in 1931, he had played a critical role in introducing the modern age of electricity . From his laboratories and workshops emanated the phonograph , the carbon-button transmitter for the telephone speaker and microphone , the incandescent lamp , a revolutionary generator of unprecedented efficiency , the first commercial electric light and power system, an experimental electric railroad , and key elements of motion-picture apparatus , as well as a host of other inventions.

Edison was the seventh and last child—the fourth surviving—of Samuel Edison, Jr., and Nancy Elliot Edison. At an early age he developed hearing problems, which have been variously attributed but were most likely due to a familial tendency to mastoiditis . Whatever the cause, Edison’s deafness strongly influenced his behaviour and career, providing the motivation for many of his inventions.

In 1854 Samuel Edison became the lighthouse keeper and carpenter on the Fort Gratiot military post near Port Huron , Michigan , where the family lived in a substantial home. Alva, as the inventor was known until his second marriage, entered school there and attended sporadically for five years. He was imaginative and inquisitive, but, because much instruction was by rote and he had difficulty hearing, he was bored and was labeled a misfit. To compensate, he became an avid and omnivorous reader. Edison’s lack of formal schooling was not unusual. At the time of the Civil War the average American had attended school a total of 434 days—little more than two years’ schooling by today’s standards.

In 1859 Edison quit school and began working as a trainboy on the railroad between Detroit and Port Huron. Four years earlier, the Michigan Central had initiated the commercial application of the telegraph by using it to control the movement of its trains, and the Civil War brought a vast expansion of transportation and communication . Edison took advantage of the opportunity to learn telegraphy and in 1863 became an apprentice telegrapher.

Messages received on the initial Morse telegraph were inscribed as a series of dots and dashes on a strip of paper that was decoded and read, so Edison’s partial deafness was no handicap. Receivers were increasingly being equipped with a sounding key, however, enabling telegraphers to “read” messages by the clicks. The transformation of telegraphy to an auditory art left Edison more and more disadvantaged during his six-year career as an itinerant telegrapher in the Midwest, the South, Canada , and New England . Amply supplied with ingenuity and insight, he devoted much of his energy toward improving the inchoate equipment and inventing devices to facilitate some of the tasks that his physical limitations made difficult. By January 1869 he had made enough progress with a duplex telegraph (a device capable of transmitting two messages simultaneously on one wire) and a printer, which converted electrical signals to letters, that he abandoned telegraphy for full-time invention and entrepreneurship.

Edison moved to New York City , where he initially went into partnership with Frank L. Pope, a noted electrical expert, to produce the Edison Universal Stock Printer and other printing telegraphs. Between 1870 and 1875 he worked out of Newark , New Jersey , and was involved in a variety of partnerships and complex transactions in the fiercely competitive and convoluted telegraph industry, which was dominated by the Western Union Telegraph Company . As an independent entrepreneur he was available to the highest bidder and played both sides against the middle. During this period he worked on improving an automatic telegraph system for Western Union’s rivals. The automatic telegraph, which recorded messages by means of a chemical reaction engendered by the electrical transmissions, proved of limited commercial success, but the work advanced Edison’s knowledge of chemistry and laid the basis for his development of the electric pen and mimeograph , both important devices in the early office machine industry, and indirectly led to the discovery of the phonograph . Under the aegis of Western Union he devised the quadruplex, capable of transmitting four messages simultaneously over one wire, but railroad baron and Wall Street financier Jay Gould , Western Union’s bitter rival, snatched the quadruplex from the telegraph company’s grasp in December 1874 by paying Edison more than $100,000 in cash, bonds, and stock, one of the larger payments for any invention up to that time. Years of litigation followed.

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Thomas Edison

By: History.com Editors

Updated: October 17, 2023 | Original: November 9, 2009

Thomas Edison was a prolific inventor and savvy businessman who acquired a record number of 1,093 patents (singly or jointly) and was the driving force behind such innovations as the phonograph, the incandescent light bulb, the alkaline battery and one of the earliest motion picture cameras. He also created the world’s first industrial research laboratory. Known as the “Wizard of Menlo Park,” for the New Jersey town where he did some of his best-known work, Edison had become one of the most famous men in the world by the time he was in his 30s. In addition to his talent for invention, Edison was also a successful manufacturer who was highly skilled at marketing his inventions—and himself—to the public.

Thomas Edison’s Early Life

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio. He was the seventh and last child born to Samuel Edison Jr. and Nancy Elliott Edison, and would be one of four to survive to adulthood. At age 12, he developed hearing loss—he was reportedly deaf in one ear, and nearly deaf in the other—which was variously attributed to scarlet fever, mastoiditis or a blow to the head.

Thomas Edison received little formal education, and left school in 1859 to begin working on the railroad between Detroit and Port Huron, Michigan, where his family then lived. By selling food and newspapers to train passengers, he was able to net about $50 profit each week, a substantial income at the time—especially for a 13-year-old.

Did you know? By the time he died at age 84 on October 18, 1931, Thomas Edison had amassed a record 1,093 patents: 389 for electric light and power, 195 for the phonograph, 150 for the telegraph, 141 for storage batteries and 34 for the telephone.

During the Civil War , Edison learned the emerging technology of telegraphy, and traveled around the country working as a telegrapher. But with the development of auditory signals for the telegraph, he was soon at a disadvantage as a telegrapher.

To address this problem, Edison began to work on inventing devices that would help make things possible for him despite his deafness (including a printer that would convert electrical telegraph signals to letters). In early 1869, he quit telegraphy to pursue invention full time.

Edison in Menlo Park

From 1870 to 1875, Edison worked out of Newark, New Jersey, where he developed telegraph-related products for both Western Union Telegraph Company (then the industry leader) and its rivals. Edison’s mother died in 1871, and that same year he married 16-year-old Mary Stillwell.

Despite his prolific telegraph work, Edison encountered financial difficulties by late 1875, but one year later—with the help of his father—Edison was able to build a laboratory and machine shop in Menlo Park, New Jersey, 12 miles south of Newark.

With the success of his Menlo Park “invention factory,” some historians credit Edison as the inventor of the research and development (R&D) lab, a collaborative, team-based model later copied by AT&T at Bell Labs , the DuPont Experimental Station , the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and other R&D centers.

In 1877, Edison developed the carbon transmitter, a device that improved the audibility of the telephone by making it possible to transmit voices at higher volume and with more clarity.

That same year, his work with the telegraph and telephone led him to invent the phonograph, which recorded sound as indentations on a sheet of paraffin-coated paper; when the paper was moved beneath a stylus, the sounds were reproduced. The device made an immediate splash, though it took years before it could be produced and sold commercially.

Edison and the Light Bulb

In 1878, Edison focused on inventing a safe, inexpensive electric light to replace the gaslight—a challenge that scientists had been grappling with for the last 50 years. With the help of prominent financial backers like J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilt family, Edison set up the Edison Electric Light Company and began research and development.

He made a breakthrough in October 1879 with a bulb that used a platinum filament, and in the summer of 1880 hit on carbonized bamboo as a viable alternative for the filament, which proved to be the key to a long-lasting and affordable light bulb. In 1881, he set up an electric light company in Newark, and the following year moved his family (which by now included three children) to New York.

Though Edison’s early incandescent lighting systems had their problems, they were used in such acclaimed events as the Paris Lighting Exhibition in 1881 and the Crystal Palace in London in 1882.

Competitors soon emerged, notably Nikola Tesla, a proponent of alternating or AC current (as opposed to Edison’s direct or DC current). By 1889, AC current would come to dominate the field, and the Edison General Electric Co. merged with another company in 1892 to become General Electric .

Later Years and Inventions

Edison’s wife, Mary, died in August 1884, and in February 1886 he remarried Mirna Miller; they would have three children together. He built a large estate called Glenmont and a research laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, with facilities including a machine shop, a library and buildings for metallurgy, chemistry and woodworking.

Spurred on by others’ work on improving the phonograph, he began working toward producing a commercial model. He also had the idea of linking the phonograph to a zoetrope, a device that strung together a series of photographs in such a way that the images appeared to be moving. Working with William K.L. Dickson, Edison succeeded in constructing a working motion picture camera, the Kinetograph, and a viewing instrument, the Kinetoscope, which he patented in 1891.

After years of heated legal battles with his competitors in the fledgling motion-picture industry, Edison had stopped working with moving film by 1918. In the interim, he had had success developing an alkaline storage battery, which he originally worked on as a power source for the phonograph but later supplied for submarines and electric vehicles.

In 1912, automaker Henry Ford asked Edison to design a battery for the self-starter, which would be introduced on the iconic Model T . The collaboration began a continuing relationship between the two great American entrepreneurs.

Despite the relatively limited success of his later inventions (including his long struggle to perfect a magnetic ore-separator), Edison continued working into his 80s. His rise from poor, uneducated railroad worker to one of the most famous men in the world made him a folk hero.

More than any other individual, he was credited with building the framework for modern technology and society in the age of electricity. His Glenmont estate—where he died in 1931—and West Orange laboratory are now open to the public as the Thomas Edison National Historical Park .

Thomas Edison’s Greatest Invention. The Atlantic . Life of Thomas Alva Edison. Library of Congress . 7 Epic Fails Brought to You by the Genius Mind of Thomas Edison. Smithsonian Magazine .

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Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison is credited with inventions such as the first practical incandescent light bulb and the phonograph. He held over 1,000 patents for his inventions.

(1847-1931)

Who Was Thomas Edison?

Early life and education.

Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio. He was the youngest of seven children of Samuel and Nancy Edison. His father was an exiled political activist from Canada, while his mother was an accomplished school teacher and a major influence in Edison’s early life. An early bout with scarlet fever as well as ear infections left Edison with hearing difficulties in both ears as a child and nearly deaf as an adult.

Edison would later recount, with variations on the story, that he lost his hearing due to a train incident in which his ears were injured. But others have tended to discount this as the sole cause of his hearing loss.

In 1854, Edison’s family moved to Port Huron, Michigan, where he attended public school for a total of 12 weeks. A hyperactive child, prone to distraction, he was deemed "difficult" by his teacher.

His mother quickly pulled him from school and taught him at home. At age 11, he showed a voracious appetite for knowledge, reading books on a wide range of subjects. In this wide-open curriculum Edison developed a process for self-education and learning independently that would serve him throughout his life.

At age 12, Edison convinced his parents to let him sell newspapers to passengers along the Grand Trunk Railroad line. Exploiting his access to the news bulletins teletyped to the station office each day, Edison began publishing his own small newspaper, called the Grand Trunk Herald .

The up-to-date articles were a hit with passengers. This was the first of what would become a long string of entrepreneurial ventures where he saw a need and capitalized on the opportunity.

Edison also used his access to the railroad to conduct chemical experiments in a small laboratory he set up in a train baggage car. During one of his experiments, a chemical fire started and the car caught fire.

The conductor rushed in and struck Edison on the side of the head, probably furthering some of his hearing loss. He was kicked off the train and forced to sell his newspapers at various stations along the route.

Edison the Telegrapher

While Edison worked for the railroad, a near-tragic event turned fortuitous for the young man. After Edison saved a three-year-old from being run over by an errant train , the child’s grateful father rewarded him by teaching him to operate a telegraph . By age 15, he had learned enough to be employed as a telegraph operator.

For the next five years, Edison traveled throughout the Midwest as an itinerant telegrapher, subbing for those who had gone to the Civil War . In his spare time, he read widely, studied and experimented with telegraph technology, and became familiar with electrical science.

In 1866, at age 19, Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky, working for The Associated Press. The night shift allowed him to spend most of his time reading and experimenting. He developed an unrestricted style of thinking and inquiry, proving things to himself through objective examination and experimentation.

Initially, Edison excelled at his telegraph job because early Morse code was inscribed on a piece of paper, so Edison's partial deafness was no handicap. However, as the technology advanced, receivers were increasingly equipped with a sounding key, enabling telegraphers to "read" message by the sound of the clicks. This left Edison disadvantaged, with fewer and fewer opportunities for employment.

In 1868, Edison returned home to find his beloved mother was falling into mental illness and his father was out of work. The family was almost destitute. Edison realized he needed to take control of his future.

Upon the suggestion of a friend, he ventured to Boston, landing a job for the Western Union Company . At the time, Boston was America's center for science and culture, and Edison reveled in it. In his spare time, he designed and patented an electronic voting recorder for quickly tallying votes in the legislature.

However, Massachusetts lawmakers were not interested. As they explained, most legislators didn't want votes tallied quickly. They wanted time to change the minds of fellow legislators.

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In 1871 Edison married 16-year-old Mary Stilwell, who was an employee at one of his businesses. During their 13-year marriage, they had three children, Marion, Thomas and William, who himself became an inventor.

In 1884, Mary died at the age of 29 of a suspected brain tumor. Two years later, Edison married Mina Miller, 19 years his junior.

Thomas Edison: Inventions

In 1869, at 22 years old, Edison moved to New York City and developed his first invention, an improved stock ticker called the Universal Stock Printer, which synchronized several stock tickers' transactions.

The Gold and Stock Telegraph Company was so impressed, they paid him $40,000 for the rights. With this success, he quit his work as a telegrapher to devote himself full-time to inventing.

By the early 1870s, Edison had acquired a reputation as a first-rate inventor. In 1870, he set up his first small laboratory and manufacturing facility in Newark, New Jersey, and employed several machinists.

As an independent entrepreneur, Edison formed numerous partnerships and developed products for the highest bidder. Often that was Western Union Telegraph Company, the industry leader, but just as often, it was one of Western Union's rivals.

Quadruplex Telegraph

In one such instance, Edison devised for Western Union the quadruplex telegraph, capable of transmitting two signals in two different directions on the same wire, but railroad tycoon Jay Gould snatched the invention from Western Union, paying Edison more than $100,000 in cash, bonds and stock, and generating years of litigation.

In 1876, Edison moved his expanding operations to Menlo Park, New Jersey, and built an independent industrial research facility incorporating machine shops and laboratories.

That same year, Western Union encouraged him to develop a communication device to compete with Alexander Graham Bell 's telephone. He never did.

In December 1877, Edison developed a method for recording sound: the phonograph . His innovation relied upon tin-coated cylinders with two needles: one for recording sound, and another for playback.

His first words spoken into the phonograph's mouthpiece were, "Mary had a little lamb." Though not commercially viable for another decade, the phonograph brought him worldwide fame, especially when the device was used by the U.S. Army to bring music to the troops overseas during World War I .

While Edison was not the inventor of the first light bulb, he came up with the technology that helped bring it to the masses. Edison was driven to perfect a commercially practical, efficient incandescent light bulb following English inventor Humphry Davy’s invention of the first early electric arc lamp in the early 1800s.

Over the decades following Davy’s creation, scientists such as Warren de la Rue, Joseph Wilson Swan, Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans had worked to perfect electric light bulbs or tubes using a vacuum but were unsuccessful in their attempts.

After buying Woodward and Evans' patent and making improvements in his design, Edison was granted a patent for his own improved light bulb in 1879. He began to manufacture and market it for widespread use. In January 1880, Edison set out to develop a company that would deliver the electricity to power and light the cities of the world.

That same year, Edison founded the Edison Illuminating Company—the first investor-owned electric utility—which later became General Electric .

In 1881, he left Menlo Park to establish facilities in several cities where electrical systems were being installed. In 1882, the Pearl Street generating station provided 110 volts of electrical power to 59 customers in lower Manhattan.

Later Inventions & Business

In 1887, Edison built an industrial research laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, which served as the primary research laboratory for the Edison lighting companies.

He spent most of his time there, supervising the development of lighting technology and power systems. He also perfected the phonograph, and developed the motion picture camera and the alkaline storage battery.

Over the next few decades, Edison found his role as inventor transitioning to one as industrialist and business manager. The laboratory in West Orange was too large and complex for any one man to completely manage, and Edison found he was not as successful in his new role as he was in his former one.

Edison also found that much of the future development and perfection of his inventions was being conducted by university-trained mathematicians and scientists. He worked best in intimate, unstructured environments with a handful of assistants and was outspoken about his disdain for academia and corporate operations.

During the 1890s, Edison built a magnetic iron-ore processing plant in northern New Jersey that proved to be a commercial failure. Later, he was able to salvage the process into a better method for producing cement.

Motion Picture

On April 23, 1896, Edison became the first person to project a motion picture, holding the world's first motion picture screening at Koster & Bial's Music Hall in New York City.

His interest in motion pictures began years earlier, when he and an associate named W. K. L. Dickson developed a Kinetoscope, a peephole viewing device. Soon, Edison's West Orange laboratory was creating Edison Films. Among the first of these was The Great Train Robbery , released in 1903.

As the automobile industry began to grow, Edison worked on developing a suitable storage battery that could power an electric car. Though the gasoline-powered engine eventually prevailed, Edison designed a battery for the self-starter on the Model T for friend and admirer Henry Ford in 1912. The system was used extensively in the auto industry for decades.

During World War I, the U.S. government asked Edison to head the Naval Consulting Board, which examined inventions submitted for military use. Edison worked on several projects, including submarine detectors and gun-location techniques.

However, due to his moral indignation toward violence, he specified that he would work only on defensive weapons, later noting, "I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill."

By the end of the 1920s, Edison was in his 80s. He and his second wife, Mina, spent part of their time at their winter retreat in Fort Myers, Florida, where his friendship with automobile tycoon Henry Ford flourished and he continued to work on several projects, ranging from electric trains to finding a domestic source for natural rubber.

During his lifetime, Edison received 1,093 U.S. patents and filed an additional 500 to 600 that were unsuccessful or abandoned.

He executed his first patent for his Electrographic Vote-Recorder on October 13, 1868, at the age of 21. His last patent was for an apparatus for holding objects during the electroplating process.

Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla

Edison became embroiled in a longstanding rivalry with Nikola Tesla , an engineering visionary with academic training who worked with Edison's company for a time.

The two parted ways in 1885 and would publicly clash in the " War of the Currents " about the use of direct current electricity, which Edison favored, vs. alternating currents, which Tesla championed. Tesla then entered into a partnership with George Westinghouse, an Edison competitor, resulting in a major business feud over electrical power.

Elephant Killing

One of the unusual - and cruel - methods Edison used to convince people of the dangers of alternating current was through public demonstrations where animals were electrocuted.

One of the most infamous of these shows was the 1903 electrocution of a circus elephant named Topsy on New York's Coney Island.

Edison died on October 18, 1931, from complications of diabetes in his home, Glenmont, in West Orange, New Jersey. He was 84 years old.

Many communities and corporations throughout the world dimmed their lights or briefly turned off their electrical power to commemorate his passing.

Edison's career was the quintessential rags-to-riches success story that made him a folk hero in America.

An uninhibited egoist, he could be a tyrant to employees and ruthless to competitors. Though he was a publicity seeker, he didn’t socialize well and often neglected his family.

But by the time he died, Edison was one of the most well-known and respected Americans in the world. He had been at the forefront of America’s first technological revolution and set the stage for the modern electric world.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Thomas Alva Edison
• Birth Year: 1847
• Birth date: February 11, 1847
• Birth State: Ohio
• Birth City: Milan
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Thomas Edison is credited with inventions such as the first practical incandescent light bulb and the phonograph. He held over 1,000 patents for his inventions.
• Technology and Engineering
• Astrological Sign: Aquarius
• The Cooper Union
• Interesting Facts
• Thomas Edison was considered too difficult as a child so his mother homeschooled him.
• Edison became the first to project a motion picture in 1896, at Koster & Bial's Music Hall in New York City.
• Edison had a bitter rivalry with Nikola Tesla.
• During his lifetime, Edison received 1,093 U.S. patents.
• Death Year: 1931
• Death date: October 18, 1931
• Death State: New Jersey
• Death City: West Orange
• Death Country: United States

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Thomas Edison Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/inventors/thomas-edison
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: May 13, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
• Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
• Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.
• I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill.
• I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.
• Restlessness is discontent — and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man — and I will show you a failure.
• To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.
• Hell, there ain't no rules around here! We're trying to accomplish something.
• I always invent to obtain money to go on inventing.
• The phonograph, in one sense, knows more than we do ourselves. For it will retain a perfect mechanical memory of many things which we may forget, even though we have said them.
• We know nothing; we have to creep by the light of experiments, never knowing the day or the hour that we shall find what we are after.
• Everything, anything is possible; the world is a vast storehouse of undiscovered energy.
• The recurrence of a phenomenon like Edison is not very likely... He will occupy a unique and exalted position in the history of his native land, which might well be proud of his great genius and undying achievements in the interest of humanity.” (Nikola Tesla)

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Life of thomas alva edison.

One of the most famous and prolific inventors of all time, Thomas Alva Edison exerted a tremendous influence on modern life, contributing inventions such as the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera, as well as improving the telegraph and telephone. In his 84 years, he acquired an astounding 1,093 patents. Aside from being an inventor, Edison also managed to become a successful manufacturer and businessman, marketing his inventions to the public. A myriad of business liaisons, partnerships, and corporations filled Edison's life, and legal battles over various patents and corporations were continuous. The following is only a brief sketch of an enormously active and complex life full of projects often occurring simultaneously. Several excellent biographies are readily available in local libraries to those who wish to learn more about the particulars of his life and many business ventures.

Edison's Early Years

Thomas A. Edison's forebears lived in New Jersey until their loyalty to the British crown during the American Revolution drove them to Nova Scotia, Canada. From there, later generations relocated to Ontario and fought the Americans in the War of 1812. Edison's mother, Nancy Elliott, was originally from New York until her family moved to Vienna, Canada, where she met Sam Edison, Jr., whom she later married. When Sam became involved in an unsuccessful insurrection in Ontario in the 1830s, he was forced to flee to the United States and in 1839 they made their home in Milan, Ohio.

Thomas Alva Edison was born to Sam and Nancy on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio. Known as "Al" in his youth, Edison was the youngest of seven children, four of whom survived to adulthood. Edison tended to be in poor health when young.

To seek a better fortune, Sam Edison moved the family to Port Huron, Michigan, in 1854, where he worked in the lumber business.

Edison was a poor student. When a schoolmaster called Edison "addled," his furious mother took him out of the school and proceeded to teach him at home. Edison said many years later, "My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me, and I felt I had some one to live for, some one I must not disappoint." 1 At an early age, he showed a fascination for mechanical things and for chemical experiments.

In 1859, Edison took a job selling newspapers and candy on the Grand Trunk Railroad to Detroit. In the baggage car, he set up a laboratory for his chemistry experiments and a printing press, where he started the Grand Trunk Herald , the first newspaper published on a train. An accidental fire forced him to stop his experiments on board.

Around the age of twelve, Edison lost almost all his hearing. There are several theories as to what caused his hearing loss. Some attribute it to the aftereffects of scarlet fever which he had as a child. Others blame it on a conductor boxing his ears after Edison caused a fire in the baggage car, an incident which Edison claimed never happened. Edison himself blamed it on an incident in which he was grabbed by his ears and lifted to a train. He did not let his disability discourage him, however, and often treated it as an asset, since it made it easier for him to concentrate on his experiments and research. Undoubtedly, though, his deafness made him more solitary and shy in dealings with others.

Telegraph Work

In 1862, Edison rescued a three-year-old from a track where a boxcar was about to roll into him. The grateful father, J.U. MacKenzie, taught Edison railroad telegraphy as a reward. That winter, he took a job as a telegraph operator in Port Huron. In the meantime, he continued his scientific experiments on the side. Between 1863 and 1867, Edison migrated from city to city in the United States taking available telegraph jobs.

In 1868 Edison moved to Boston where he worked in the Western Union office and worked even more on his inventions. In January 1869 Edison resigned his job, intending to devote himself fulltime to inventing things. His first invention to receive a patent was the electric vote recorder, in June 1869. Daunted by politicians' reluctance to use the machine, he decided that in the future he would not waste time inventing things that no one wanted.

Edison moved to New York City in the middle of 1869. A friend, Franklin L. Pope, allowed Edison to sleep in a room at Samuel Laws' Gold Indicator Company where he was employed. When Edison managed to fix a broken machine there, he was hired to manage and improve the printer machines.

During the next period of his life, Edison became involved in multiple projects and partnerships dealing with the telegraph. In October 1869, Edison formed with Franklin L. Pope and James Ashley the organization Pope, Edison and Co. They advertised themselves as electrical engineers and constructors of electrical devices. Edison received several patents for improvements to the telegraph. The partnership merged with the Gold and Stock Telegraph Co. in 1870. Edison also established the Newark Telegraph Works in Newark, NJ, with William Unger to manufacture stock printers. He formed the American Telegraph Works to work on developing an automatic telegraph later in the year. In 1874 he began to work on a multiplex telegraphic system for Western Union, ultimately developing a quadruplex telegraph, which could send two messages simultaneously in both directions. When Edison sold his patent rights to the quadruplex to the rival Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Co., a series of court battles followed in which Western Union won. Besides other telegraph inventions, he also developed an electric pen in 1875.

His personal life during this period also brought much change. Edison's mother died in 1871, and later that year, he married a former employee, Mary Stilwell, on Christmas Day. While Edison clearly loved his wife, their relationship was fraught with difficulties, primarily his preoccupation with work and her constant illnesses. Edison would often sleep in the lab and spent much of his time with his male colleagues. Nevertheless, their first child, Marion, was born in February 1873, followed by a son, Thomas, Jr., born on January 1876. Edison nicknamed the two "Dot" and "Dash," referring to telegraphic terms. A third child, William Leslie was born in October 1878.

Edison opened a new laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ, in 1876. This site later become known as an "invention factory," since they worked on several different inventions at any given time there. Edison would conduct numerous experiments to find answers to problems. He said, "I never quit until I get what I'm after. Negative results are just what I'm after. They are just as valuable to me as positive results." 2 Edison liked to work long hours and expected much from his employees.

In 1877, Edison worked on a telephone transmitter that greatly improved on Alexander Graham Bell's work with the telephone. His transmitter made it possible for voices to be transmitted at higer volume and with greater clarity over standard telephone lines.

Edison's experiments with the telephone and the telegraph led to his invention of the phonograph in 1877. It occurred to him that sound could be recorded as indentations on a rapidly-moving piece of paper. He eventually formulated a machine with a tinfoil-coated cylinder and a diaphragm and needle. When Edison spoke the words "Mary had a little lamb" into the mouthpiece, to his amazement the machine played the phrase back to him. The Edison Speaking Phonograph Company was established early in 1878 to market the machine, but the initial novelty value of the phonograph wore off, and Edison turned his attention elsewhere.

Edison focused on the electric light system in 1878, setting aside the phonograph for almost a decade. With the backing of financiers, The Edison Electric Light Co. was formed on November 15 to carry out experiments with electric lights and to control any patents resulting from them. In return for handing over his patents to the company, Edison received a large share of stock. Work continued into 1879, as the lab attempted not only to devise an incandescent bulb, but an entire electrical lighting system that could be supported in a city. A filament of carbonized thread proved to be the key to a long-lasting light bulb. Lamps were put in the laboratory, and many journeyed out to Menlo Park to see the new discovery. A special public exhibition at the lab was given for a multitude of amazed visitors on New Year's Eve.

Edison set up an electric light factory in East Newark in 1881, and then the following year moved his family and himself to New York and set up a laboratory there.

In order to prove its viability, the first commercial electric light system was installed on Pearl Street in the financial district of Lower Manhattan in 1882, bordering City Hall and two newspapers. Initially, only four hundred lamps were lit; a year later, there were 513 customers using 10,300 lamps. 3 Edison formed several companies to manufacture and operate the apparatus needed for the electrical lighting system: the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York, the Edison Machine Works, the Edison Electric Tube Company, and the Edison Lamp Works. This lighting system was also taken abroad to the Paris Lighting Exposition in 1881, the Crystal Palace in London in 1882, the coronation of the czar in Moscow, and led to the establishment of companies in several European countries.

The success of Edison's lighting system could not deter his competitors from developing their own, different methods. One result was a battle between the proponents of DC current, led by Edison, and AC current, led by George Westinghouse . Both sides attacked the limitations of each system. Edison, in particular, pointed to the use of AC current for electrocution as proof of its danger. DC current could not travel over as long a system as AC, but the AC generators were not as efficient as the ones for DC. By 1889, the invention of a device that combined an AC induction motor with a DC dynamo offered the best performance of all, and AC current became dominant. The Edison General Electric Co. merged with Thomson-Houston in 1892 to become General Electric Co., effectively removing Edison further from the electrical field of business.

An Improved Phonograph

Edison's wife, Mary, died on August 9, 1884, possibly from a brain tumor. Edison remarried to Mina Miller on February 24, 1886, and, with his wife, moved into a large mansion named Glenmont in West Orange, New Jersey. Edison's children from his first marriage were distanced from their father's new life, as Edison and Mina had their own family: Madeleine, born on 1888; Charles on 1890; and Theodore on 1898. Unlike Mary, who was sickly and often remained at home, and was also deferential to her husband's wishes, Mina was an active woman, devoting much time to community groups, social functions, and charities, as well as trying to improve her husband's often careless personal habits.

In 1887, Edison had built a new, larger laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey. The facility included a machine shop, phonograph and photograph departments, a library, and ancillary buildings for metallurgy, chemistry, woodworking, and galvanometer testings.

While Edison had neglected further work on the phonograph , others had moved forward to improve it. In particular, Chichester Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter developed an improved machine that used a wax cylinder and a floating stylus, which they called a graphophone. They sent representatives to Edison to discuss a possible partnership on the machine, but Edison refused to collaborate with them, feeling that the phonograph was his invention alone. With this competition, Edison was stirred into action and resumed his work on the phonograph in 1887. Edison eventually adopted methods similar to Bell and Tainter's in his own phonograph.

The phonograph was initially marketed as a business dictation machine. Entrepreneur Jesse H. Lippincott acquired control of most of the phonograph companies, including Edison's, and set up the North American Phonograph Co. in 1888. The business did not prove profitable, and when Lippincott fell ill, Edison took over the management. In 1894, the North American Phonograph Co. went into bankruptcy, a move which allowed Edison to buy back the rights to his invention. In 1896, Edison started the National Phonograph Co. with the intent of making phonographs for home amusement. Over the years, Edison made improvements to the phonograph and to the cylinders which were played on them, the early ones being made of wax. Edison introduced an unbreakable cylinder record, named the Blue Amberol, at roughly the same time he entered the disc phonograph market in 1912. The introduction of an Edison disc was in reaction to the overwhelming popularity of discs on the market in contrast to cylinders. Touted as being superior to the competition's records, the Edison discs were designed to be played only on Edison phonographs, and were cut laterally as opposed to vertically. The success of the Edison phonograph business, though, was always hampered by the company's reputation of choosing lower-quality recording acts. In the 1920s, competition from radio caused business to sour, and the Edison disc business ceased production in 1929.

Other Ventures: Ore-milling and Cement

Another Edison interest was an ore-milling process that would extract various metals from ore. In 1881, he formed the Edison Ore-Milling Co., but the venture proved fruitless as there was no market for it. In 1887, he returned to the project, thinking that his process could help the mostly depleted Eastern mines compete with the Western ones. In 1889, the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Concentrating Works was formed, and Edison became absorbed by its operations and began to spend much time away from home at the mines in Ogdensburg, New Jersey. Although he invested much money and time into this project, it proved unsuccessful when the market went down and additional sources of ore in the Midwest were found.

Edison also became involved in promoting the use of cement and formed the Edison Portland Cement Co. in 1899. He tried to promote widespread use of cement for the construction of low-cost homes and envisioned alternative uses for concrete in the manufacture of phonographs, furniture, refrigerators, and pianos. Unfortunately, Edison was ahead of his time with these ideas, as widespread use of concrete proved economically unfeasible at that time.

Motion Pictures

In 1888, Edison met Eadweard Muybridge at West Orange and viewed Muybridge's zoopraxiscope. This machine used a circular disc with still photographs of the successive phases of movement around the circumference to recreate the illusion of movement. Edison declined to work with Muybridge on the device and decided to work on his own motion picture camera at his laboratory. As Edison put it in a caveat written the same year, "I am experimenting upon an instrument which does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear." 4

The task of inventing the machine fell to Edison's associate William K. L. Dickson. Dickson initially experimented with a cylinder-based device for recording images, before turning to a celluloid strip. In October of 1889, Dickson greeted Edison's return from Paris with a new device that projected pictures and contained sound. After more work, patent applications were made in 1891 for a motion picture camera, called a Kinetograph, and a Kinetoscope, a motion picture peephole viewer.

Kinetoscope parlors opened in New York and soon spread to other major cities during 1894. In 1893, a motion picture studio, later dubbed the Black Maria (the slang name for a police paddy wagon which the studio resembled), was opened at the West Orange complex. Short films were produced using variety acts of the day. Edison was reluctant to develop a motion picture projector, feeling that more profit was to be made with the peephole viewers.

When Dickson aided competitors on developing another peephole motion picture device and the eidoloscope projection system, later to develop into the Mutoscope, he was fired. Dickson went on to form the American Mutoscope Co. along with Harry Marvin, Herman Casler, and Elias Koopman. Edison subsequently adopted a projector developed by Thomas Armat and Charles Francis Jenkins and re-named it the Vitascope and marketed it under his name. The Vitascope premiered on April 23, 1896, to great acclaim.

Competition from other motion picture companies soon created heated legal battles between them and Edison over patents. Edison sued many companies for infringement. In 1909, the formation of the Motion Picture Patents Co. brought a degree of cooperation to the various companies who were given licenses in 1909, but in 1915, the courts found the company to be an unfair monopoly.

In 1913, Edison experimented with synchronizing sound to film. A Kinetophone was developed by his laboratory which synchronized sound on a phonograph cylinder to the picture on a screen. Although this initially brought interest, the system was far from perfect and disappeared by 1915. By 1918, Edison ended his involvement in the motion picture field.

Edison's Later Years

In 1911, Edison's companies were re-organized into Thomas A. Edison, Inc. As the organization became more diversified and structured, Edison became less involved in the day-to-day operations, although he still had some decision-making authority. The goals of the organization became more to maintain market viability than to produce new inventions frequently.

A fire broke out at the West Orange laboratory in 1914, destroying 13 buildings. Although the loss was great, Edison spearheaded the rebuilding of the lot.

When Europe became involved in World War I, Edison advised preparedness, and felt that technology would be the future of war. He was named head of the Naval Consulting Board in 1915, an attempt by the government to bring science into its defense program. Although mainly an advisory board, it was instrumental in the formation of a laboratory for the Navy which opened in 1923, although several of Edison's suggestions on the matter were disregarded. During the war, Edison spent much of his time doing naval research, in particular working on submarine detection, but he felt that the navy was not receptive to many of his inventions and suggestions.

In the 1920s, Edison's health became worse, and he began to spend more time at home with his wife. His relationship with his children was distant, although Charles was president of Thomas A. Edison, Inc. While Edison continued to experiment at home, he could not perform some experiments that he wanted to at his West Orange laboratory because the board would not approve them. One project that held his fascination during this period was the search for an alternative to rubber.

Henry Ford, an admirer and friend of Edison's, reconstructed Edison's invention factory as a museum at Greenfield Village, Michigan, which opened during the 50th anniversary of Edison's electric light in 1929. The main celebration for Light's Golden Jubilee, co-hosted by Ford and General Electric, took place in Dearborn along with a huge celebratory dinner in Edison's honor attended by notables such as President Hoover, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., George Eastman, Marie Curie, and Orville Wright. Edison's health, however, had declined to the point that he could not stay for the entire ceremony.

For his last two years, a series of ailments caused his health to decline even more until he lapsed into a coma on October 14, 1931. He died on October 18, 1931, at his estate, Glenmont, in West Orange, New Jersey.

• Martin V. Melosi, Thomas A. Edison and the Modernization of America , (Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman/Little, Brown Higher Education, 1990) p. 8. [ Return to text ]
• Poster for Thomas A. Edison 150th Anniversary, 1847-1997, United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Edison National Historic Site, West Orange, New Jersey. [ Return to text ]
• Melosi, p. 73. [ Return to text ]
• Matthew Josephson, Edison: A Biography , (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1959) p. 386. [ Return to text ]

Biography of Thomas Edison, American Inventor

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Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847–October 18, 1931) was an American inventor who transformed the world with inventions including the lightbulb and the phonograph. He was considered the face of technology and progress in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Fast Facts: Thomas Edison

• Known For : Inventor of groundbreaking technology, including the lightbulb and the phonograph
• Born : February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio
• Parents : Sam Edison Jr. and Nancy Elliott Edison
• Died : October 18, 1931 in West Orange, New Jersey
• Education : Three months of formal education, homeschooled until age 12
• Published Works : Quadruplex telegraph, phonograph, unbreakable cylinder record called the "Blue Ambersol," electric pen, a version of the incandescent lightbulb and an integrated system to run it, motion picture camera called a kinetograph
• Spouse(s) : Mary Stilwell, Mina Miller
• Children : Marion Estelle, Thomas Jr., William Leslie by Mary Stilwell; and Madeleine, Charles, and Theodore Miller by Mina Miller

Thomas Alva Edison was born to Sam and Nancy on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio, the son of a Canadian refugee and his schoolteacher wife. Edison's mother Nancy Elliott was originally from New York until her family moved to Vienna, Canada, where she met Sam Edison, Jr., whom she later married. Sam was the descendant of British loyalists who fled to Canada at the end of the American Revolution, but when he became involved in an unsuccessful revolt in Ontario in the 1830s he was forced to flee to the United States. They made their home in Ohio in 1839. The family moved to Port Huron, Michigan, in 1854, where Sam worked in the lumber business.

Education and First Job

Known as "Al" in his youth, Edison was the youngest of seven children, four of whom survived to adulthood, and all of them were in their teens when Edison was born. Edison tended to be in poor health when he was young and was a poor student. When a schoolmaster called Edison "addled," or slow, his furious mother took him out of the school and proceeded to teach him at home. Edison said many years later, "My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me, and I felt I had someone to live for, someone I must not disappoint." At an early age, he showed a fascination for mechanical things and chemical experiments.

In 1859 at the age of 12, Edison took a job selling newspapers and candy on the Grand Trunk Railroad to Detroit. He started two businesses in Port Huron, a newsstand and a fresh produce stand, and finagled free or very low-cost trade and transport in the train. In the baggage car, he set up a laboratory for his chemistry experiments and a printing press, where he started the "Grand Trunk Herald," the first newspaper published on a train. An accidental fire forced him to stop his experiments on board.

Loss of Hearing

Around the age of 12, Edison lost almost all of his hearing. There are several theories as to what caused this. Some attribute it to the aftereffects of scarlet fever, which he had as a child. Others blame it on a train conductor boxing his ears after Edison caused a fire in the baggage car, an incident Edison claimed never happened. Edison himself blamed it on an incident in which he was grabbed by his ears and lifted to a train. He did not let his disability discourage him, however, and often treated it as an asset since it made it easier for him to concentrate on his experiments and research. Undoubtedly, though, his deafness made him more solitary and shy in dealing with others.

Telegraph Operator

In 1862, Edison rescued a 3-year-old from a track where a boxcar was about to roll into him. The grateful father, J.U. MacKenzie, taught Edison railroad telegraphy as a reward. That winter, he took a job as a telegraph operator in Port Huron. In the meantime, he continued his scientific experiments on the side. Between 1863 and 1867, Edison migrated from city to city in the United States, taking available telegraph jobs.

Love of Invention

In 1868, Edison moved to Boston where he worked in the Western Union office and worked even more on inventing things. In January 1869 Edison resigned from his job, intending to devote himself full time to inventing things. His first invention to receive a patent was the electric vote recorder, in June 1869. Daunted by politicians' reluctance to use the machine, he decided that in the future he would not waste time inventing things that no one wanted.

Edison moved to New York City in the middle of 1869. A friend, Franklin L. Pope, allowed Edison to sleep in a room where he worked, Samuel Laws' Gold Indicator Company. When Edison managed to fix a broken machine there, he was hired to maintain and improve the printer machines.

During the next period of his life, Edison became involved in multiple projects and partnerships dealing with the telegraph. In October 1869, Edison joined with Franklin L. Pope and James Ashley to form the organization Pope, Edison and Co. They advertised themselves as electrical engineers and constructors of electrical devices. Edison received several patents for improvements to the telegraph. The partnership merged with the Gold and Stock Telegraph Co. in 1870.

American Telegraph Works

Edison also established the Newark Telegraph Works in Newark, New Jersey, with William Unger to manufacture stock printers. He formed the American Telegraph Works to work on developing an automatic telegraph later in the year.

In 1874 he began to work on a multiplex telegraphic system for Western Union, ultimately developing a quadruplex telegraph, which could send two messages simultaneously in both directions. When Edison sold his patent rights to the quadruplex to the rival Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Co. , a series of court battles followed—which Western Union won. Besides other telegraph inventions, he also developed an electric pen in 1875.

Marriage and Family

His personal life during this period also brought much change. Edison's mother died in 1871, and he married his former employee Mary Stilwell on Christmas Day that same year. While Edison loved his wife, their relationship was fraught with difficulties, primarily his preoccupation with work and her constant illnesses. Edison would often sleep in the lab and spent much of his time with his male colleagues.

Nevertheless, their first child Marion was born in February 1873, followed by a son, Thomas, Jr., in January 1876. Edison nicknamed the two "Dot" and "Dash," referring to telegraphic terms. A third child, William Leslie, was born in October 1878.

Mary died in 1884, perhaps of cancer or the morphine prescribed to her to treat it. Edison married again: his second wife was Mina Miller, the daughter of Ohio industrialist Lewis Miller, who founded the Chautauqua Foundation. They married on February 24, 1886, and had three children, Madeleine (born 1888), Charles (1890), and Theodore Miller Edison (1898).

Edison opened a new laboratory in Menlo Park , New Jersey, in 1876. This site later become known as an "invention factory," since they worked on several different inventions at any given time there. Edison would conduct numerous experiments to find answers to problems. He said, "I never quit until I get what I'm after. Negative results are just what I'm after. They are just as valuable to me as positive results." Edison liked to work long hours and expected much from his employees .

In 1879, after considerable experimentation and based on 70 years work of several other inventors, Edison invented a carbon filament that would burn for 40 hours—the first practical incandescent lightbulb .

While Edison had neglected further work on the phonograph, others had moved forward to improve it. In particular, Chichester Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter developed an improved machine that used a wax cylinder and a floating stylus, which they called a graphophone . They sent representatives to Edison to discuss a possible partnership on the machine, but Edison refused to collaborate with them, feeling that the phonograph was his invention alone. With this competition, Edison was stirred into action and resumed his work on the phonograph in 1887. Edison eventually adopted methods similar to Bell and Tainter's in his phonograph.

Phonograph Companies

The phonograph was initially marketed as a business dictation machine. Entrepreneur Jesse H. Lippincott acquired control of most of the phonograph companies, including Edison's, and set up the North American Phonograph Co. in 1888. The business did not prove profitable, and when Lippincott fell ill, Edison took over the management.

In 1894, the North American Phonograph Co. went into bankruptcy, a move which allowed Edison to buy back the rights to his invention. In 1896, Edison started the National Phonograph Co. with the intent of making phonographs for home amusement. Over the years, Edison made improvements to the phonograph and to the cylinders which were played on them, the early ones being made of wax. Edison introduced an unbreakable cylinder record, named the Blue Amberol, at roughly the same time he entered the disc phonograph market in 1912.

The introduction of an Edison disc was in reaction to the overwhelming popularity of discs on the market in contrast to cylinders. Touted as being superior to the competition's records, the Edison discs were designed to be played only on Edison phonographs and were cut laterally as opposed to vertically. The success of the Edison phonograph business, though, was always hampered by the company's reputation of choosing lower-quality recording acts. In the 1920s, competition from radio caused the business to sour, and the Edison disc business ceased production in 1929.

Ore-Milling and Cement

Another Edison interest was an ore milling process that would extract various metals from ore. In 1881, he formed the Edison Ore-Milling Co., but the venture proved fruitless as there was no market for it. He returned to the project in 1887, thinking that his process could help the mostly depleted Eastern mines compete with the Western ones. In 1889, the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Concentrating Works was formed, and Edison became absorbed by its operations and began to spend much time away from home at the mines in Ogdensburg, New Jersey. Although he invested much money and time into this project, it proved unsuccessful when the market went down, and additional sources of ore in the Midwest were found.

Edison also became involved in promoting the use of cement and formed the Edison Portland Cement Co. in 1899. He tried to promote the widespread use of cement for the construction of low-cost homes and envisioned alternative uses for concrete in the manufacture of phonographs, furniture, refrigerators, and pianos. Unfortunately, Edison was ahead of his time with these ideas, as the widespread use of concrete proved economically unfeasible at that time.

Motion Pictures

In 1888, Edison met Eadweard Muybridge at West Orange and viewed Muybridge's Zoopraxiscope. This machine used a circular disc with still photographs of the successive phases of movement around the circumference to recreate the illusion of movement. Edison declined to work with Muybridge on the device and decided to work on his motion picture camera at his laboratory. As Edison put it in a caveat written the same year, "I am experimenting upon an instrument which does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear."

The task of inventing the machine fell to Edison's associate William K. L. Dickson. Dickson initially experimented with a cylinder-based device for recording images, before turning to a celluloid strip. In October 1889, Dickson greeted Edison's return from Paris with a new device that projected pictures and contained sound. After more work, patent applications were made in 1891 for a motion picture camera, called a Kinetograph, and a Kinetoscope, a motion picture peephole viewer.

Kinetoscope parlors opened in New York and soon spread to other major cities during 1894. In 1893, a motion picture studio, later dubbed the Black Maria (the slang name for a police paddy wagon which the studio resembled), was opened at the West Orange complex. Short films were produced using a variety of acts of the day. Edison was reluctant to develop a motion picture projector, feeling that more profit was to be made with the peephole viewers.

When Dickson assisted competitors on developing another peephole motion picture device and the eidoscope projection system, later to develop into the Mutoscope, he was fired. Dickson went on to form the American Mutoscope Co. along with Harry Marvin, Herman Casler, and Elias Koopman. Edison subsequently adopted a projector developed by Thomas Armat and Charles Francis Jenkins and renamed it the Vitascope and marketed it under his name. The Vitascope premiered on April 23, 1896, to great acclaim.

Patent Battles

Competition from other motion picture companies soon created heated legal battles between them and Edison over patents. Edison sued many companies for infringement. In 1909, the formation of the Motion Picture Patents Co. brought a degree of cooperation to the various companies who were given licenses in 1909, but in 1915, the courts found the company to be an unfair monopoly.

In 1913, Edison experimented with synchronizing sound to film. A Kinetophone was developed by his laboratory and synchronized sound on a phonograph cylinder to the picture on a screen. Although this initially brought interest, the system was far from perfect and disappeared by 1915. By 1918, Edison ended his involvement in the motion picture field.

In 1911, Edison's companies were re-organized into Thomas A. Edison, Inc. As the organization became more diversified and structured, Edison became less involved in the day-to-day operations, although he still had some decision-making authority. The goals of the organization became more to maintain market viability than to produce new inventions frequently.

A fire broke out at the West Orange laboratory in 1914, destroying 13 buildings. Although the loss was great, Edison spearheaded the rebuilding of the lot.

World War I

When Europe became involved in World War I, Edison advised preparedness and felt that technology would be the future of war. He was named the head of the Naval Consulting Board in 1915, an attempt by the government to bring science into its defense program. Although mainly an advisory board, it was instrumental in the formation of a laboratory for the Navy that opened in 1923. During the war, Edison spent much of his time doing naval research, particularly on submarine detection, but he felt the Navy was not receptive to many of his inventions and suggestions.

Health Issues

In the 1920s, Edison's health became worse and he began to spend more time at home with his wife. His relationship with his children was distant, although Charles was president of Thomas A. Edison, Inc. While Edison continued to experiment at home, he could not perform some experiments that he wanted to at his West Orange laboratory because the board would not approve them. One project that held his fascination during this period was the search for an alternative to rubber.

Death and Legacy

Henry Ford , an admirer and a friend of Edison's, reconstructed Edison's invention factory as a museum at Greenfield Village, Michigan, which opened during the 50th anniversary of Edison's electric light in 1929. The main celebration of Light's Golden Jubilee, co-hosted by Ford and General Electric, took place in Dearborn along with a huge celebratory dinner in Edison's honor attended by notables such as President Hoover , John D. Rockefeller, Jr., George Eastman , Marie Curie , and Orville Wright . Edison's health, however, had declined to the point that he could not stay for the entire ceremony.

During the last two years of his life, a series of ailments caused his health to decline even more until he lapsed into a coma on October 14, 1931. He died on October 18, 1931, at his estate, Glenmont, in West Orange, New Jersey.

• Israel, Paul. "Edison: A Life of Invention." New York, Wiley, 2000.
• Josephson, Matthew. "Edison: A Biography." New York, Wiley, 1992.
• Stross, Randall E. "The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World." New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007.
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Thomas Edison Inventions

Thomas Edison's record  1,093 patented inventions have greatly improved the world we know today. In fact, Edison is recognized as one of the greatest inventors of all time. His key inventions include the light bulb and electric utility system, recorded sound, motion pictures, R&D labs, and the alkaline family of storage batteries. His 4,000 invention notebooks chronicle the invention challenges of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, telling a vivid story of man's progress to a technological society.

Thomas Edison’s Light Bulb

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.

Of course, Edison also later invented the entire electric utility system so he could power all those light bulbs, motors and other appliances that soon followed.

Thomas Edison’s Phonograph

Considered to be the first great Thomas Edison invention, and 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’s Motion Picture

Edison’s initial work in motion pictures (1888-89) was inspired byMuybridge’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 Electrographic Vote Recorder

Edison was 22 years old and working as a telegrapher when he filed his first patent for the Electrographic Vote 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 [the discovery of the Mesabi iron rich ore deposits near the Great Lakes] all 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.

Thomas Edison’s Electric Pen

In 1876, Thomas Edison invented the first electric copy machine to create copies of his notes. Using a small motor, the pen makes a tiny needle go up and down that produce a series of holes (50 per second) that are later gone over with a roller to press ink through the holes to create many copies of the document. Edison claimed that over 5000 copies could be made at once. This lesser known invention would not only be a precursor to the copy machine, but the tattoo pen as well.

Thomas Edison’s Carbon Transmitter

Thomas Edison improved Alexander Graham Bell's system with his carbon transmitter, by elongating how far apart phones could be. This invention used a battery and carbon to vary the resistance and control the strength of the current on the phone line. His design used a transmitter with lampblack carbon behind the diaphragm in the phone so that when sound waves moved it, they would also change the pressure on the carbon. He later improved by using granules made from coal instead and this basic design was commonly used until the 1980s.

Thomas Edison’s Automatic Telegraph

Thomas Edison worked on automatic telegraphs between 1870 and 1874. The invention embossed special indents into a rotating cardboard disc with a needle powered by an electromagnet. It would then would form a recorded message that could be transmitted without an operator. 

Edison later invented the Quadruplex Telegraph to send two messages at the same time on the same wire and a Wireless Telegraph for radio communications between ships that worked using a vibrator magnet instead of a electromagnetic waves, 

Discover the  all of Thomas Edison's Patents

While Edison was famous for a few inventions above, he also holds the record for creating 1096 U.S. Patents throughout his life. However, it is important to note that not all of these patents were for inventions that he personally created. Edison had a large team of researchers and inventors who helped him in his lab, and many of his patents were for improvements or refinements to existing technologies rather than entirely new inventions.

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Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio. He experienced hearing loss at an early age. He was an imaginative and curious child. He did poorly in school, though, perhaps because he could not hear his teacher. His mother then educated him at home.

When Thomas was a teenager he became a telegraph operator. Telegraphy was one of the nation’s most important communication systems at the time. Thomas was good at sending and taking messages in Morse code. He loved tinkering with telegraphic instruments, and he developed several improvements for them. By early 1869 he had quit his telegraphy job to become a full-time inventor.

Although most of his life was devoted to his work, Edison’s family was also important to him. He married twice and had six children. Edison died on October 18, 1931.

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GALLERIES > Science > Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison

History of Thomas Edison

Born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio, Thomas Edison was a notable inventor and businessman. As a child, Edison received minimal education, but his curiosity and determination to learn about the fields of science and technology ultimately led him to become one of America’s most notable inventors. Thomas Edison’s commitment to communication and technology is one of the reasons we are able to enjoy modern technology.

Edison’s ambitious journey began in 1876 when he established his first laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ. This facility became the birthplace of several groundbreaking inventions, most notably, the phonograph, which was patented in 1878. This invention revolutionized the music industry by enabling sound recording and playback.

In 1879, Edison invented the practical electric lightbulb, which changed the course of the future and transformed the way we live. His steadfast efforts to develop a reliable and commercially viable incandescent lightbulb led to the establishment of the Edison Electric Light Company. Edison’s innovation laid the groundwork for the modern electric utility industry, as his electric light company extended to the development of an electrical distribution system, including power plants and electrical grids.

Thomas Edison’s innovations extended beyond light and sound technology. Edison held over 1,000 patents in various fields, including telegraphy, motion pictures, and storage batteries. The invention of the motion picture device known as the Kinetoscope was a pivotal moment for the film industry, as it allowed for the projection of moving images.

Aside from his technical achievements, Edison also had remarkable business acumen. He established the Edison General Electric Company (now known as General Electric) in 1889, merging his various businesses to create a powerful corporation. Edison’s ability to develop and commercialize his inventions made him a high-profile figure in the industrial landscape of his time.

DID YOU KNOW?

Edison held over 1,000 patents in various fields, including telegraphy, motion pictures, and storage batteries.

Thomas Edison’s passion for innovation and knowledge led to his numerous contributions, earning him international recognition. Edison was the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, most notably, the French Legion of Honor in 1881 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1928. His lasting legacy of creativity and modernization remains an influence on inventors worldwide.

Thomas Edison’s noteworthy history displays his exceptional capabilities as an inventor. His entrepreneurial spirit has an indelible impact on the world. Edison’s inventions are a foundation for the growing world of technology we know today. Edison’s relentless quest for innovation serves as a reminder of the power of curiosity, perseverance, and dedication to shaping the course of history.

Fun Facts About Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison’s family called him Al, which is an abbreviation of his middle name, Alva.

Thomas Edison’s first two children were nicknamed Dot and Dash, inspired by the telegraph.

Thomas Edison conducted his first experiments as a child in his parent’s home.

Thomas Edison experienced partial deafness.

Thomas Edison’s first invention was an electric vote recorder.

Thomas Edison had 1,093 patents, which is one of the highest numbers of patents held on record.

The first record of Thomas Edison’s voice on the phonograph is his recitation of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

Thomas Edison built a laboratory on a train in his adolescence.

One of Thomas Edison’s developments was a talking doll said to have been unsettling.

Early Life of Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison is an iconic figure in American history. He was an inventor and entrepreneur who achieved significant success. Edison’s work laid the foundation for modern technology and raised the bar for other scientists and inventors.

From a young age, Thomas Edison had a demanding need for knowledge, and his natural curiosity led him into the fields of science and technology. His monumental success can be attributed to his need to learn, as it was his motivation behind the numerous experiments and inventions he completed in his lifetime. Around the age of 10, Thomas Edison built a small lab in his parent’s basement, where he would conduct his experiments and tinker, developing his understanding of electricity.

By the age of 12, Thomas Edison held a job as a newsboy on a train. This role sharpened his skills in entrepreneurship, and he began publishing his own newspaper called the Grand Trunk Herald. Edison set up shop on the train with a printing press and began selling his newspaper to passengers. His success as a newsboy and publisher initiated his lifelong career as an inventor and businessman.

Edison’s quest for knowledge continued as he read books to educate himself on an array of subjects, including engineering, mathematics, and science. He did not receive a formal education, which made it necessary for Edison to study independently and conduct hands-on experiments for a well-rounded expertise.

At the age of 27, Thomas Edison invented and patented the quadruplex telegraph, an enhancement of existing telegraph technology that produced a significant advancement in the way people communicate. The quadruplex telegraph was created in 1874 and had a system that enabled multiple messages to be transmitted simultaneously over a single wire. Edison later sold the rights to this device to Western Union, sealing his reputation as a master inventor and businessman.

Thomas Edison did not receive a formal education, which made it necessary for him to study independently...

Two years after Thomas Edison invented the quadruplex telegraph, he founded his first true laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ. Edison often referred to his lab as the “Invention Factory,” as it was at the heart of his innovation and experimentation. In 1877, the phonograph was invented in the Invention Factory. This device could record and play back sound and became a defining moment in the audio technology industry.

It was in his early years that Thomas Edison developed the device that would make him a household name. Edison spent several years researching and conducting experiments to develop an incandescent lightbulb. The electric lightbulb was invented in 1879 and transformed lives all over the world with a safe, reliable, and efficient source of light.

Thomas Edison was a pioneer in the technology industry, and his revolutionary contributions to science left a lasting legacy. He became one of the most prominent figures in history, as his inventions paved the path for further advancement in modern technology.

Inventions and Accomplishments of Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison submitted his first patent application in 1868 for a device called the electric vote recorder.

Thomas Edison’s 1874 invention of the quadruplex telegraph, with the ability to simultaneously transmit messages for four individuals over a single wire, was a momentous breakthrough in telegraphic communications.

Thomas Edison began work on the carbon telephone transmitter in 1876. Upon completion, this device became an integral part of telegraphic communications. The carbon telephone transmitter was a microphone that enhanced the clarity and quality of sounds.

The phonograph was invented in 1877 and paved the way for the advancement of audio technology. The phonograph was crucial for the development of recording and playing back audio.

Thomas Edison became a household name in 1879 after applying for a patent for the commercial incandescent lightbulb.

Thomas Edison demonstrated the capabilities of the electric power distribution system by powering a square block of commercial and industrial businesses, as well as some private residences, in Manhattan in 1882.

Thomas Edison first publicly presented the Kinetoscope and Kinetograph, which became revolutionary for the motion picture (film) industry, in 1893.

In addition to his contributions to the realm of electricity, Thomas Edison invented the Kinetograph, one of the early motion picture cameras, thanks to which we can enjoy the visual entertainment of the 21st century.

Thomas Edison worked extensively and significantly contributed to early developments in X-ray technology.

One of Thomas Edison’s most significant contributions was his work improving the rechargeable battery.

Late in Life

Thomas Edison passed away on October 18, 1931, at the age of 84. Edison was a renowned inventor and businessman who left a lasting legacy of significant achievements in the fields of science and technology. Many of his inventions have influenced the technology that we enjoy today.

Edison created an astonishing number of inventions in his lifetime. Thomas Edison began conducting his experiments around the age of 10, and by the age of 22, he completed his first invention, the electric vote recorder. His steadfast quest for knowledge and innovation established Edison as one of the greatest inventors of all time, even earning him the nickname “The Wizard of Menlo Park.”

When people think of Thomas Edison, they think of the lightbulb. Edison spent several years developing the incandescent lightbulb, an invention that changed the future of illumination. The lightbulb soon replaced the use of gas and oil lamps, which also improved fire safety. Edison’s invention of the lightbulb also led to electrical lighting systems.

Edison further advanced the electrical power industry by developing a system for electrical power distribution. The first instance of electric power distribution was built in Manhattan and successfully supplied electricity to dozens of businesses, residences, streetlights, theaters, and other entertainment venues. This advancement was a revolutionary invention and led to the development of all homes receiving power through an electrical grid system.

Throughout his lifetime, Thomas Edison continued to gift the world with revolutionary inventions. Other than the lightbulb, one of his most notable inventions was the phonograph, which allowed the recording and playback of sound. Edison also invented the Kinetograph, which was a device for recording motion pictures. These two inventions are responsible for the creation and success of today’s entertainment industry.

Other than the lightbulb, two of Edison's most notable inventions were the phonograph and Kinetograph.

Thomas Edison’s inventions significantly impacted the world. Edison faced many setbacks and failed experiments but continued on, demonstrating determination and resilience. His gift for entrepreneurialism aided in monetizing his inventions and later establishing the Edison General Electric Company, now known as General Electric. Edison’s advancements in the electric utility industry are a direct result of his innovation and business acumen.

By the time of his death, Thomas Edison had transformed the world and received several honors and awards for his revolutionary contributions. From his dedication and innovation to his advancements for the modern world, Edison’s legacy continues to influence inventors, scientists, and entrepreneurs.

When was Thomas Edison born?

Thomas Edison was born on February 11, 1847.

When did Thomas Edison die?

Thomas Edison died on October 18, 1931.

How did Thomas Edison become famous?

Thomas Edison became famous through his innovative inventions that would later transform the way the world uses electricity. He is best known for his incandescent lightbulb, the phonograph, and for advancing electrical power distribution.

How did Thomas Edison change the world?

Thomas Edison’s influence on the world cannot be overstated. A majority of everyday things are possible because of Thomas Edison’s inventions and contributions to science. Some of his inventions that you would easily recognize include electrical lighting, sound recording, and motion pictures.

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Thomas Alva Edison I (1847 - 1931)

Thomas Edison was an American inventor and businessman.

Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio on February 11, 1847. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] , [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] He was the seventh and final child of Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. and Nancy Matthews Elliott . When he was seven, the family moved to Port Huron, Michigan. [3] He was soon kicked out of school, because the teacher supposedly did not have a liking for him. His mother proceeded to homeschool him until he was 12. Young Thomas then stopped going to school and landed his first job was a " candy butcher " on the Grand Trunk Railroad. It was at the railroad where he would learn how to use the telegraph from the stationmaster. He worked as a telegraph operator from the age of 16 until he turned 21.

On 25 Dec 1871 in Newark, Passaic, New Jersey, USA Thomas was wed to Mary Jane Stillwell . [14] [5] Their children were Marion Estelle Edison [15] [5] , Thomas Alva Edison II [16] [5] , and William Leslie Edison [17] [5] .

His second marriage came 24 February 1886 in Summit, Ohio when he was wed to Mina Miller . [18] [8] [6] [11] [12] [19] [20] Their children included Madeleine Edison [8] [9] , Charles Edison [21] [8] [9] [19] , and Theodore Miller Edison [8] [9] [19] [10] .

In 1876, Thomas established the world's first invention factory located in Menlo Park, New Jersey. [5] [8] [9] [10] [11] [6] He developed the phonograph and the first light bulb in this factory. His had problems finding long-lasting filaments for his first bulbs, but with his great intelligence, he made carbonized Bristol board. Thomas also made an electrical system, which contributed most to the electrical system and light bulb systems in use today.

Thomas was always thinking of new ways to improve things. He was famously nicknamed the "Wizard of Menlo Park".

• "My main purpose in life is to make enough money to create ever more inventions... The dove is my emblem... I want to save and advance human life, not destroy it... I am proud of the fact that I have never invented weapons to kill..."
• "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

Near the time of his death, Thomas was spending time in Fort Myers, Florida. [12] Thomas Edison died on October 18, 1931 in West Orange, Essex County, New Jersey from complications of diabetes. [13] He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery, Orange New Jersey. He and Mina's remains were later exhumed and moved to Thomas' Glenmont Estate, now part of the Edison National Historic Site. [22]

• ↑ U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925: Author: Ancestry.com: Publication: Online publication - Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007.Original data - Passport Applications, 1795-1905; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1372, 694 rolls); General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59 Ancestry Record uspassports #143095 Birth date: 11 February 1847 Birth place: Milan, Erie County, Ohio Residence date: Residence place: United States
• ↑ 1850 United States Federal Census : Author: Ancestry.com: Publication: Online publication - Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data - Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls) Year: 1850; Census Place: Milan, Erie, Ohio; Roll: M432_676; Page: 92B Ancestry Record 1850usfedcenancestry #13541751 Birth date: abt 1847; Birth place: Ohio; Residence date: 1850; Residence place: Milan, Erie, Ohio
• ↑ 3.0 3.1 1860 United States Federal Census "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MWDY-6LM  : 14 December 2017), Alvah Edison in entry for Samuel Edison, 1860. Year: 1860; Census Place: Port Huron Ward 3, St Clair, Michigan; Ancestry Record 1860usfedcenancestry #45272325
• ↑ New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 : "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1891," database with images, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVR3-2DVZ  : 11 March 2018), Thomas A Edison, 1873; citing Immigration, New York City, New York, United States, NARA microfilm publication M237 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 175,733. Ancestry Record nypl #14110937 Birth date: abt 1847 Birth place: Origin date: Origin place: United States of AmericaArrival date: 25 June 1873 Arrival place: New York Departure place: Liverpool, England and Queenstown, Ireland Destination place: United States of America
• ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 1880 United States Federal Census : database with images, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MN8K-9S1  : 12 August 2017), Thomas A Edison, East New Brunswick, Middlesex, New Jersey, United States; citing enumeration district ED 132, sheet 279C, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,254,790. Ancestry Record 1880usfedcen #36113160
• ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925," database with images, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q24F-HKMJ  : 16 March 2018), Thomas Alva Edison, 1889; citing Passport Application, New York, United States, source certificate #, Passport Applications, 1795-1905., 338, NARA microfilm publications M1490 and M1372 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
• ↑ "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1891," database with images, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVSL-LD3C  : 11 March 2018), Thomas A Edison, 1889; citing Immigration, New York City, New York, United States, NARA microfilm publication M237 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,027,775.
• ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 1900 United States Federal Census : database with images, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M9J8-NRX  : accessed 10 October 2019), Thomas Edison, District 2 West Orange town, Essex, New Jersey, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 184, sheet 20A, family 379, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,240,968. Ancestry Record 1900usfedcen #31475017
• ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 1910 United States Federal Census , database with images, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MKY7-8T6  : accessed 10 October 2019), Thomas A Edison, West Orange Ward 2, Essex, New Jersey, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 225, sheet 22A, family 473, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 884; FHL microfilm 1,374,897. Ancestry Record 1910uscenindex #16297760
• ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 1920 United States Federal Census , database with images, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4RH-SQ3  : accessed 10 October 2019), Thomas A Edison, West Orange Ward 2, Essex, New Jersey, United States; citing ED 320, sheet 1A, line 22, family 4, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 1038; FHL microfilm 1,821,038. Ancestry Record 1920usfedcen #18731823
• ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 1930 United States Federal Census : database with images, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X464-2S9  : accessed 10 October 2019), Thomas A Edison, West Orange, Essex, New Jersey, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 631, sheet 13A, line 7, family 248, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 1344; FHL microfilm 2,341,079. Ancestry Record 1930usfedcen #19627925
• ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 1930 United States Federal Census : database with images, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SY3P-DW2  : accessed 10 October 2019), Thomas A Edison, Fort Myers, Lee, Florida, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 10, sheet 3B, line 92, family 83, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 323; FHL microfilm 2,340,058. Ancestry Record 1930usfedcen #103117870
• ↑ 13.0 13.1 Ohio Obituary Index, 1830s-2009, Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center: Author: Ancestry.com: Publication: Online publication - Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.Original data - Hayes Presidential Center Obituary Indexers and Volunteers. Ohio Obituary Index. Database. Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center. https://www.rbhayes.org/main/ohio-obituary-index/ Ancestry Record ohobit #44566 Birth date: 11 Feb 1847 Birth place: Death date: 18 October 1931 Death place: West Orange, New Jersey
• ↑ Ancestry Family Trees: Publication: Online publication - Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. Ancestry Profile Cited in the family tree "Davis/Collins Family Tree" created by "ddavis59_10" Ancestry Profile Ancestry Profile
• ↑ "New Jersey, Births, 1670-1980," database, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2SZ-VL95  : 10 March 2018), Thomas H Edson in entry for Marion Edson, 18 Feb 1873; citing Newark, Essex, New Jersey, United States, Division of Archives and Record Management, New Jersey Department of State, Trenton; FHL microfilm 494,172.
• ↑ "New Jersey, Births, 1670-1980," database, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FC5C-SL2  : 10 March 2018), Thos. A. Edison in entry for Edison, 10 Jan 1876; citing Newark, Essex, New Jersey, United States, Division of Archives and Record Management, New Jersey Department of State, Trenton; FHL microfilm 494,179.
• ↑ "New Jersey, Births, 1670-1980," database, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FC2R-489  : 10 March 2018), Thos. A. Edison in entry for Edison, 26 October 1878; citing Newark, Essex, New Jersey, United States, Division of Archives and Record Management, New Jersey Department of State, Trenton; FHL microfilm 494,186.
• ↑ "Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2013," database with images, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VN3B-KH9  : 26 August 2019), T.A. Edison and Mina Miller, 24 February 1886; citing Marriage, Summit, Ohio, United States, v 5Pg 176, #1, Franklin County Genealogical & Historical Society, Columbus; FHL microfilm.
• ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 "New Jersey State Census, 1915," database with images, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV9Q-8D5Q  : 15 March 2018), Thomas A Edison, West Orange, 2 ward, Essex, New Jersey, United States; citing sheet #22A, household 447, line #9, New Jersey State Library, Trenton; FHL microfilm 1,465,525.
• ↑ "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949," database, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WY7-X4K  : 10 February 2018), Thomas A. Edison in entry for Mina Miller Edison, 24 August 1947; citing Death, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 2,133,779.
• ↑ "New Jersey Births and Christenings, 1660-1980," database, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCRC-Y4G  : 10 March 2018), Thomas A. Edison in entry for Chas. Edison, 3 August 1890; citing Orange, Essex, New Jersey, reference p 448; FHL microfilm 494,216.
• ↑ Find A Grave, database and images ( https://www.findagrave.com  : accessed 10 October 2019), memorial page for Thomas Alva Edison (11 Feb 1847–18 Oct 1931), Find A Grave: Memorial #1630 , citing Edison National Historic Site, West Orange, Essex County, New Jersey, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave .
• Wikipedia: Thomas Edison
• Family Group Sheets Author: Ed Doré-122 Publication: Xerox sheets, No date Record ID Number: 284
• Edison Home Movies National Park Service and Library of Congress Collaborate to Digitize Footage https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlOO90OfRDXMw3ujJ7_ltO5M61oyOXZ23

• Is anyone closer to Thomas Edison than I am? Oct 22, 2019.
• Which side of "The Current War" are you on? DC or AC? Oct 22, 2019.

"It Interests Them" in Pittsburg Dispatch. Pittsburg [Pa., 27 Sept. 1889. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024546/1889-09-27/ed-1/seq-2/

Retrieved from Rumble (Here;) Accessed 15 July 2022.

Not only is this the first ever film of a blizzard in the Big Apple, it is probably the first ever film of any American blizzard ever.

Who made this? Edison Manufacturing Company. Their Manhattan studio was nearby, at 41 East 21st Street.

Madison Square Park, Manhattan February 17, 1902 - Edison Manufacturing Co.

The film opens with a steam pump fire engine racing past the camera followed by two more fire wagons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05zmWW-sDvU

Sherie S. McLeRoy, Dr. Roy Renfro, Grape Man of Texas: The Life of Thomas Volney Munson, 2004.

We'll be featuring Thomas in the connection finder the beginning of October in anticipation of the new movie coming out featuring his work. I'll be by closer to Oct 1 to do some tweaking and sprucing to his profile, which you are most welcome to do as well.

Thanks! Abby The WikiTree Team

He is buried at Edison National Historic Site, West Orange, Essex, NJ - Memorial # 1630

This week's featured connections are Exercise Gurus : Thomas is 19 degrees from Richard Simmons, 25 degrees from Billy Blanks, 21 degrees from John Dunlop, 18 degrees from Jack LaLanne, 19 degrees from Pehr Henric Ling, 23 degrees from Davina McCall, 18 degrees from R. Tait McKenzie, 19 degrees from Olivia Newton-John, 20 degrees from William Orban, 19 degrees from Arnold Schwarzenegger, 18 degrees from Suzanne Somers and 16 degrees from Raquel Welch on our single family tree . Login to see how you relate to 33 million family members.

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Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 - October 18, 1931) was an American inventor , who invented many things. Thomas Edison developed one of the first practical light bulbs, but contrary to popular belief did not invent the light bulb . Edison's 1093 patents were the most granted to any inventor in his time. [1]

• 1 Early life
• 3 Personal life
• 4 References
• 5 Other websites

Early life [ edit | edit source ]

Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio. When Edison was seven years old, he moved with his family to Port Huron, Michigan . Edison started school late because of an illness. Three months later, Edison was removed from school, because he could not pay attention to his teacher. His mother, who was a teacher in Canada , taught Edison at home. Edison's mother helped him become motivated for learning, and he was a good student to her.

When Edison was twelve years old, he contracted scarlet fever . The effects of the fever, as well as getting picked up by the ears by a train conductor, caused Edison to become completely deaf in his left ear, and 80 percent deaf in the other. He learned Morse code of the telegraph , and began a job as a "brass pounder" (telegraph operator). At age sixteen, Edison invented his first invention, which was called an "automatic repeater." It sent telegraph signals between unmanned stations, allowing almost anyone to translate code easily and precisely at one's own speed and convenience.

Career [ edit | edit source ]

In 1868, Edison moved East and began to work for the Western Union Company in Boston, Massachusetts as a telegraph operator. He worked twelve hours a day, six days a week, and continued to "moonlight" on his own projects. Within six months, he had applied for and received his first patent for an electric vote recorder. It made the voting process faster but he couldn't find buyers. Then, Edison moved to New York and began to work for a company fixing their machines. At night, he continued to work on his projects.

In 1876 Edison used the money from his inventions to start his own laboratory in New Jersey . In 1877~78, he invented there the carbon microphone , which made the sound for Alexander Graham Bell 's new telephone invention louder. In 1877, Edison invented the phonograph , the first machine that could record and play sound. The phonograph made him internationally famous. In 1879, Edison made a light bulb that lasted longer. Another invention, the electric power distribution network, lasted even longer. He liked chocolate.

Personal life [ edit | edit source ]

He married Mary Stilwell in 1871. He had three children in that marriage: Marion Estelle Edison (also called Dot), Thomas Alva Edison, Jr. (also called Dash) and William Leslie Edison. Mary Stilwell died in 1884. Thomas Edison bought some land in Florida and built a house. When he was thirty-nine, Edison married Mina Miller, who was 19. He had 3 children in that marriage: Madeleine Edison, Charles Edison (who took over the company when his father died and was later elected Governor of New Jersey ), and Theodore Miller Edison. He had a difficult life.

References [ edit | edit source ]

• ↑ "Thomas Edison, patent champion? (Photos)" . Examiner.com . http://www.examiner.com/article/thomas-edison-patent-champion . Retrieved 16 August 2013 .

Other websites [ edit | edit source ]

• Biography of Edison
• Works by Thomas Edison at Project Gutenberg
• Edison cylinder recordings , from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.
• 4-disc DVD set containing over 140 films produced by the Thomas Edison Company .
• Complete list of 1,093 patents .
• American inventors
• American scientists
• 1847 births
• 1931 deaths

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Thomas Edison

In the film National Treasure , Benjamin Gates stated that Thomas Edison discovered hundreds of ways not to make a light bulb before knowing the one way to make said invention work. He was also mentioned a few times by Phileas Fogg in Disney 's 2004 live-action movie Around the World in 80 Days . Additionally, he was mentioned by Oscar Diggs in the 2013 fantasy film Oz the Great and Powerful , in an episode of Stuck in the Middle , the Spider-Man episodes "Take Two" and "Bring on the Bad Guys" part 4, and in the I Didn't Do It episode "Lindy & Logan Get Psyched".

A wax statue of him appeared in the Gravity Falls episode " Headhunters ". An animated version of him appeared in the Schoolhouse Rock! song " Mother Necessity ".

In the film Tomorrowland , he is identified as one of the founders of Plus Ultra .

In the Pixar film Soul , he does not appear in person, but he was one of 22 's failed mentors and his name badge can be seen in 22's boxhome.

Gallery [ ]

• 3 The Emotions

Nikola Tesla vs Caster (Thomas Edison)

Nikola Tesla vs Thomas Edison is a What-If? Death Battle written by hade , featuring the fictional Nikola Tesla from Record of Ragnarok series and Thomas Edison from Fate series in a fight between humanity's greatest inventors who aspire to help everyone in the world with their intelligence and power.

• 1 Interlude
• 2 Nikola Tesla will never stop creating in DEATH BATTLE!
• 3 Thomas Edison brings true American power into DEATH BATTLE!
• 5.1 Comparison
• 5.2 Nikola Tesla
• 5.3 Thomas Edison

Interlude [ ]

Nikola Tesla will never stop creating in DEATH BATTLE! [ ]

Thomas Edison brings true American power into DEATH BATTLE! [ ]

DEATH BATTLE! [ ]

Post-analysis [ ], comparison [ ], nikola tesla [ ], thomas edison [ ], gallery [ ].