Thomas Edison is often thought of as one of the greatest inventors who ever lived. He is commonly categorized as the man who invented the first practical incandescent light bulb. Equally important are Edison’s 1,093 patents, more than any other individual. His inventions revolutionized our world and changed lives even today. Some of his inventions were improvements on other inventions, like the telephone. On the other hand, some of his inventions he deliberately tried to invent, like the light bulb and the movie projector. However, some inventions he stumbled upon, like the phonograph. Edison invented and improved upon things that transformed our world. Some things he invented by himself. Some things he invented with other people. More importantly, just about all his inventions are things we still use in some form today.
Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio on February 11, 1847. He was the seventh child of Samuel and Nancy Edison. When Thomas was 7, his family was forced to move to Port Huron, Michigan because of financial problems. As might be expected, Edison there attended school. His teacher, the Reverend G. B. Engle considered Thomas to be a dull student. Thomas especially did not like math. And he asked too many questions. After three months of school, the teacher called Thomas, "addled," which means confused or mixed up. The teacher told his mother that Thomas couldn't learn. Nancy consequently took Thomas out of school and decided to home-school him. It appears he briefly attended two more schools. However, his school attendance was not very good. So nearly all his childhood learning took place at home(Swezy).
Thomas Edison set up his first lab in his basement to perform experiments after learning physics. When Edison was 12 years old, he took a job as a trainboy on the Grand Trunk Railway. The train traveled from Port Huron, to Detroit, and back to Port Huron in one day. Thomas sold newspapers and candy to passengers(www.hfmgv.org/ histories/ edison/ tae.html). He also printed a weekly newspaper, the Weekly Herald. He spent all he earned on books and equipment for his chemical laboratory. When trying to hop aboard a moving train, a trainman helped him aboard by pulling his ears. This in turn, led to the inventors deafness. His deafness could have been cured by an operation.
Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13,1743 in Shadwell, Virginia. He was born into a family that had status, wealth, and tradition of public service. Jefferson was the third child in the family and grew up with six sisters and one brother. Thomas Jefferson was well educated; he attended private schools and at the age of seventeen he attended the College of William and Mary. Thomas Jefferson was interested in being a scientist, after learning that there was no opportunity for a career in science in Virginia he then studied law. In 1767, Thomas Jefferson was admitted to the bar in 1769, when Jefferson public career started he already owned more than twenty-five hundred acres that he inherited from his father who died in 1757. After marring his wife Martha Wayles Skelton whom was a young widow his property doubled. After the death of Martha’s parents, his property doubled again.
On April 13, 1743, in Shadwell, Virginia, Thomas Jefferson was born. His father, Peter Jefferson, was very successful as a farmer and surveyor. His mother, Jane Randolph, came from a very well known family in Virginia. As a young boy, Jefferson enjoyed reading books and playing the violin. At age nine, he attended a local private school. The school, ran by the Reverend William Douglas, allowed Jefferson to study Latin and
Thomas Edison is also an inventor. He invented a lightbulb that banished the darkness. In the video it shows that Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb which was the first lightbulb. This shows that Thomas Edison invented something that changed the world by banishing the darkness, so just like the first telephone and the even better telephones changed the world by banishing the silence because people can now talk for hours without going anywhere. Also in the video, Thomas Edison invented something that not only changed the world but benefited all. This proves that the lightbulb is a product that lets everybody see in the dark. So now inventors try to invent something that would change the world and also benefits
Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 on his family’s plantation in Shadwell, Virginia. The third of six children his parents raised him modestly and his father schooled him to be a gentleman. The young Jefferson suffered an emotional shock, when at the age of 14 his father Peter Jefferson died. The young Jefferson was the first male of the family and so he received the bulk of his father’s assets, leaving him with a sizable fortune.
One of the most well known technological innovator and manufacturer was Thomas Alva Edison. He invented many devices which are still being used today, with some modifications. He even built a vote-recording device before he was twenty-one. Some inventions were the phonograph, incandescent light bulb, and the kinetoscope, which was much like a motion picture camera. In total, he has patented 1,093 inventions. He earned the nickname “The Wizard of Menlo Park”.
Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio on February 11, 1847. He spent a few years of his life in Milan, but when he turned seven him and his family moved to Michigan. Thomas Edison's parents are Samuel Ogden Edison Jr. and Nancy Matthews Elliott. His mother was a former teacher and his dad was a shopkeeper. Edison was the youngest out of seven children. Edison attended school for a short period of time but later became home schooled. Being homeschooled allowed Edison to do more things like experimenting in his basement, crate his habit of reading and make his own newspapers. At a young age Thomas Edison started developing problems with his hearing which was caused by untreated middle-ear infections and scarlet fever he received in his childhood.
When Thomas became thirteen he asked his parents if he could get a job, they let him. He took the job of becoming a newsboy and “candy butcher” on the trains of the Grand Trunk Railway, running between Port Huron and Detroit. While having a job was fun for Thomas, he spent much of his free time reading scientific and technical books, he also spent some of this time learning how to operate a telegraph. In 1862, when he was fifteen, he printed and published the first ever newspaper to be typeset and printed on a moving train, The Weekly Herald. The London Times featured him and his paper in one of their stories, giving him his first exposure to international notoriety. Around the same time Thomas Edison had saved the son of J.U. Mackenzie, a station agent at Mount Clemens, Michigan. As a sign of gratitude, the child’s father taught him telegraphy. A few months later, when he was close to the age of sixteen, he hung a telegraph line from the Port Huron railway station to the Port Huron village and worked in the local telegraph office. By the time he was really at the age of sixteen, he was skilled enough to work as a telegrapher full time. (Beals,
That same year he sat up his very first laboratory and manufacturing facility in Newark, New Jersey where he was able to employ several civilians. This facility was well known for developing products for the highest bidders. One of his employers, Mary Stirrell was a hard worker and Thomas quickly noticed this and they began dating one another and by 1871 they had gotten married. Six years later he moved his expanding operations to Mento Park, New Jersey. He also built an independent industrial research facility majoring in machine shops and laboratories. Western Union encouraged him to develop an invention that would compete with Alexander Bell telephone. Thomas never came up with anything, but he came up with the Phonograph; which was capable of recording
At the age of nine Thomas Jefferson began his schooling, which his mother and father both felt was important. His parents sent Jefferson off to a boarding school with Reverend William Douglas in Northam, Virginia. Although Jefferson was not fond of his teacher he continued with schooling learning manners as well as Greek, Latin, and French. At the age of fourteen while Jefferson was still in schooling his father was stricken with an illness and died
From a young age, Edison was always very enamored by the thought of the telegraph. This was an electric machine that was used to send messages back and forth in the form of dots and dashes. Longer or shorter dashes stood for different letters, and put together, they created words (Barnham). Though Edison had started out with simple jobs that didn’t take much time or effort, he eventually became a professional telegrapher. Only later on did he realize his real calling in life was to become an inventor.
Edison was born on February 11, 1887 in Malian, Ohio. He had seven siblings and he was the youngest. When he was born he was very sick and had a very big head. The doctor thought he was infected with brain fever but he survived and was a very intelligent and active child. He question ever thing from the time he could walk always wondering how and why things worked. Edison was a poor student in school the only thing he enjoyed doing was reading science books and self exploring. The teachers thought he was a mixed up kid so he dropped out and was home schooled by his mother. By age nine he was an excellent reader and loved to experiment from the things he read in the science books. His mother was his biggest supporter. From the ages nine through
Thomas (Alva) Edison was one of America’s most important and famous inventors. Edison was born into a time and place where there wasn’t much technological advancements. His inventions helped a lot of things quickly change in the world. His inventions contributed to many inventions today such as the night light, movies, telephones, and records and CDs.
Thomas Edison is widely regarded as one of the most influential inventors and innovators of the Twentieth Century. Edison’s efforts ushered in a new era of technology; a world in which electricity would be harnessed and made to bow before man’s will. Walter Lippman wrote, “It is impossible to measure the importance of Edison by adding up the specific inventions with which his name is associated” (qtd. in Baldwin 409). Edison’s decades long career was a synergistic melding of his success as an inventor and his prowess as a promoter and businessman. He exemplified the ideals of intelligence married to hard work and perseverance. He forever changed the landscape of American invention and the limits of technological change (Baldwin 409).
During Thomas Edison’s entire life, he created more than 2000 inventions and acquired 1093 patents in the United States. Thomas Edison became a successful businessman. He manufactures his inventions and sells them to the markets. Thomas Edison’s father was Samuel Ogden Edison. Samuel Edison lived in Vienna, Ontario, where he met his wife Nancy Mathews Elliot and his four children were born.
From a discovery made by one of his associates, he patented the Edison effect (now called thermionic diode), which is the basis for all electron tubes. Edison will forever be remembered for his contributions to the incandescent light bulb. Even though he didn't dream up the first light bulb ever crafted, and technology continues to change every day, Edison's work with light bulbs was a spark of brilliance on the timeline of invention.