Thomas Edison Inventor
He was known as the Wizard of Menlo Park, but most people today just know him as Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb. Thomas Edison had 1,093 patents for inventions that he had made. These patents were not only in the United States but in England, Germany and France. A couple of the lesser known patients were for the phonograph and the carbon telephone transmitter. Edison did many things in his life, and was a great contribution to technology today.
Thomas Edison was born February 11, 1847 in Ohio. He was the youngest of six siblings. Thomas did not do well in school, and he never paid attention. He was in school for a total of three months before he was home schooled by his mother. Edison later became deaf because of scarlet fever. Then later in his life, his hearing faded even more when a boxcar caught fire and he was hit in the ear by a train conductor. Later he changed his story of how he lost his hearing too; the train conductor lifted him by the ears to help him on the train. Edison later moved to Michigan in 1854 where he sold newspapers, vegetables, and candy on trains to make money. Thomas Edison once saved a three year old little boy from being hit by a train. The boy's father was so grateful to Thomas that he trained him on how to be a telegraph operator. When he was 19 years old, he moved to Kentucky where he had taken the job of working with Western Union in the Associated Press bureau wire. In 1867, Edison was using a battery when he spilled acid on the floor. The acid leaked through to the floor below and onto his boss's desk. He was fired. Thomas's first patent that he ever submitted was the patent for the electric vote recorder on June 1, 1869. When Edison was 24, he married Mary Stilwell, who was only 16 years old. They had three children. Their names were Marion, Thomas, and William. Edison's wife died 13 years later. Two years after that, at the age of 39, Thomas married Mina Miller, who was only 19 years old. They had three children as well. Their names were Madeleine, Charles, and Theodore.
Edison went to New Jersey in 1877 to start a new career. He had just invented an automatic repeater. The invention that everyone knew him for at this time in his life, was the phonograph. His invention of the phonograph was so out of ordinary to the people, that they said it was magical. This was how Thomas became known as the “Wizard of Menlo Park”. However, his when he first invented the phonograph he used tin foil, which didn't work very well. In the 1880's three other inventors changed his idea from tinfoil to wax coated cardboard cylinders, which worked much better and lasted for more than a few uses. One of these inventors was Alexander Graham Bell.
Edison had many innovative ideas in his lifetime. One of the most life changing was the idea for an industrial research lab, which he opened in Menlo Park, New Jersey. There were many employees that had input with ideas and inventions but Edison was the major contributor to most inventions that came out of this lab. The truth of the matter is that Edison did not actually invent the first light bulb but invented the first commercially practical incandescent light.
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