Thomas Edison Inventions Essay

There are many inventions in the world that people use every single day, but they never stop to wonder where it came from or who invented it. Some of the greatest inventors of all time are Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo Da Vinci, the Wright Brothers and one of the most important, Thomas Edison. Some of the products Thomas Edison had invented were the lightbulb and the phonograph. We use Thomas Edison’s products everyday and they have had a great impact on the World. Thomas Edison was the last of the seven children in his family. He didn’t learn to talk until he was at least four years old. Many people believe that Thomas Edison was born into poverty in a backwater mid-western town, but he was actually born to middle-class parents on February

Luckily, Thomas saw him and saved his life. The father of the young boy was so grateful that he taught Thomas how to master the use of Morse Code and the telegraph. This was one of the most important events of his life. The Morse Code is a method of sending text messages by keying in a series of electronic pulses - ”what”. By the time Thomas was 15, he had pretty much mastered the basics of his new career. Thomas got a job as the replacement for one of the thousands of telegraph operators who had gone to serve in the Civil War. At age 16, he had worked in a variety of telegraph offices where he had performed numerous experiments. Thomas finally came up with his first authentic invention. It was called an “automatic repeater”, that transmitted telegraph signals between unmanned stations. Unfortunately, the initial version of his idea was never patented. Thomas went home with no money and his parents in even worse predicament. His mother was showing signs of insanity, his father just quit his job, and the bank was about to foreclose their family homestead. Thomas knew that it was time to try and make some serious money. Shortly after, he accepted the suggestion of Billy Adams to go east and apply for a permanent job as a telegrapher with the Western Union Company in

There he built an “Independent Industrial Research Facility” that had machine shops and laboratories. That same year, the Western Union Company challenged him to create a communication device that could compete with Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone. Although he never did, in December 1877, Thomas Edison created a way to record sound: the phonograph. Even though his invention wouldn’t work for another decade, it brought him worldwide fame. Humphry Davy, an english inventor, came up with the first early electric arc lamp. Thomas was also encouraged to create a commercially practical, incandescent light bulb. After making improvements to his design, he was given a patent for his own light bulb in 1879. Thomas automatically began to manufacture and market his lightbulb. He then set out to develop a company that would deliver electricity to cities all around the world. That same year, Thomas became the founder of the Edison Illuminating Company which later became the General Electric Corporation. Thomas later left Menlo Park in 1881 to establish facilities in cities that had electrical systems being