Thomas Edison Biography – The Life of an Inventor and Scientist

Thomas Alva Edison was an American Inventor and Scientist who illuminated the world with the invention of the electric bulb. He has patented 1093 inventions, which is a world record. Also famous for the Edison effect, he has contributed much to modern life with his prolific inventions.

PHOTO BY THOMAS EDISON

Thomas Edison - The Life of an Inventor

Born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio, to Samuel Ogden Edison and Nancy Matthews Elliott, Thomas Edison was homeschooled. He spent his childhood selling newspapers and candies in trains, and conducted chemical experiments at a laboratory set up by himself in a baggage car. The baggage car also served as a printing press, where Edison started "Grand Trunk Herald", the first newspaper published on a train. During this period, he learnt a lot about telegraph technology and worked as a travelling telegrapher. Following an accidental fire, Edison was forced to discontinue his experiments, as the accident impaired his hearing abilities. By moving to Boston in 1868, Edison worked more on his inventions.

Edison Phonograph

Being first of his major inventions, phonograph marks a new beginning in the life of this great inventor. The interfering signals in telegraph instruments and telephones made Edison experiment on them and resulted in the invention of phonograph in the year 1977 at his own laboratory at Menlo Park. The Edison phonograph could record sounds and play them back, and was made with a tinfoil-coated cylinder, diaphragm and needle. Despite the establishment of The Edison Speaking Phonograph Company in 1878 to market the machine, and failing in the venture, Edison shifted his attention to other inventions and started another laboratory in West Orange. However, the intervention of others in improving the phonograph made Edison resume his attention on phonograph in 1887 and presented to the world, a new Edison phonograph that recorded on wax cylinders.

Inventions - the Milestones

Vote recorder was Thomas Edison’s very first invention. The other famous inventions apart from telegraph and incandescent bulb are electric pen, stock ticker, telephone transmitter, phonograph, dynamo, electric motor, projecting kinetoscope, flat disc, fireside record player, searchlight, talking doll, DC alkaline batteries and electric car.Until death, Edison was friends with the automobile magnate Henry Ford. He married twice and had six children. Edison died on October 18, 1931 in New Jersey after staying in a state of coma for 4 days.Picture source: flickr.com / thsant