Thomas Edison: A Brief Biography of a Genius

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Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio. He was named Thomas after his father’s brother and Alva after his father’s friend Captain Alva Bradley. His family called him Al.
Al was a handful. He was very curious about a group of large grain elevators; he once fell in and disappeared under the grain. He was pulled out before he suffocated. Al also fell in the Milan creek many times. One time Al was found trying to hatch a handful of chicken and goose eggs on a nest of his own that he made.
Al was really curious about a nearby work shop owned by a man named Sam Winchester. The town’s people called Sam the “Mad Miller of Milan”. Winchester was rejecting his flour milling business to make a passenger balloon which his neighbors thought was unbelievable. He had already burnt down his first mill trying to generate hydrogen gas for an earlier experiment.
Al’s father told him to stay away from Winchester’s shop, even after his father whipped him with a hand switch Al still went back to Winchester’s again and again. One day Sam Winchester’s big balloon actually inflated! The happy miller floated out over Lake Erie and was never seen again. His neighbors thought Al was odd, just like Sam Winchester, because of the foolish questions he had asked.
After the railroad system came in, the Milan Canal started to shrivel up. Al’s dad could no longer ship enough goods out to support his family so they moved to Port Huron, Michigan. After they moved Al went to school for the first time. After three months his teacher said he couldn’t be taught. With hurt feeling he went home and that was the end of his formal schooling. His mom got mad and decided to teach him herself. Al liked to read and soon became a rapid reader.
At age ...

... middle of paper ...

...ad of the Naval Consulting Board. He was offered a service medal after the war, but he refused it. With his wife still at his side Tom started inventing again. The world began to realize Tom’s health was declining. Awards and honors started pouring in. Thomas Alva Edison died on October 18, 1931.
Tom brought in an age of science and technology, of light, electricity, and recorded sound. He modernized the car, concrete, and research institutions. Edison is with us every time we turn on a light, type an e-mail, and listen to music.
Thomas Edison had many famous quotes, and these were some of the ones I found at www.thomasedison.com: “The dove is my emblem”; “The memory of my mother will be everlasting to me”; and “Life’s most soothing things are a child’s goodnight sleep and sweet music.”

Works Cited

Adkins, Jan. (2009). Thomas Edison. New York, NY: DK Publishing.

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