thomas edison full biography

Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison is credited with inventions such as the first practical incandescent light bulb and the phonograph. He held over 1,000 patents for his inventions.

(1847-1931)

Who Was Thomas Edison?

Early life and education.

Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio. He was the youngest of seven children of Samuel and Nancy Edison. His father was an exiled political activist from Canada, while his mother was an accomplished school teacher and a major influence in Edison’s early life. An early bout with scarlet fever as well as ear infections left Edison with hearing difficulties in both ears as a child and nearly deaf as an adult.

Edison would later recount, with variations on the story, that he lost his hearing due to a train incident in which his ears were injured. But others have tended to discount this as the sole cause of his hearing loss.

In 1854, Edison’s family moved to Port Huron, Michigan, where he attended public school for a total of 12 weeks. A hyperactive child, prone to distraction, he was deemed "difficult" by his teacher.

His mother quickly pulled him from school and taught him at home. At age 11, he showed a voracious appetite for knowledge, reading books on a wide range of subjects. In this wide-open curriculum Edison developed a process for self-education and learning independently that would serve him throughout his life.

At age 12, Edison convinced his parents to let him sell newspapers to passengers along the Grand Trunk Railroad line. Exploiting his access to the news bulletins teletyped to the station office each day, Edison began publishing his own small newspaper, called the Grand Trunk Herald .

The up-to-date articles were a hit with passengers. This was the first of what would become a long string of entrepreneurial ventures where he saw a need and capitalized on the opportunity.

Edison also used his access to the railroad to conduct chemical experiments in a small laboratory he set up in a train baggage car. During one of his experiments, a chemical fire started and the car caught fire.

The conductor rushed in and struck Edison on the side of the head, probably furthering some of his hearing loss. He was kicked off the train and forced to sell his newspapers at various stations along the route.

Edison the Telegrapher

While Edison worked for the railroad, a near-tragic event turned fortuitous for the young man. After Edison saved a three-year-old from being run over by an errant train , the child’s grateful father rewarded him by teaching him to operate a telegraph . By age 15, he had learned enough to be employed as a telegraph operator.

For the next five years, Edison traveled throughout the Midwest as an itinerant telegrapher, subbing for those who had gone to the Civil War . In his spare time, he read widely, studied and experimented with telegraph technology, and became familiar with electrical science.

In 1866, at age 19, Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky, working for The Associated Press. The night shift allowed him to spend most of his time reading and experimenting. He developed an unrestricted style of thinking and inquiry, proving things to himself through objective examination and experimentation.

Initially, Edison excelled at his telegraph job because early Morse code was inscribed on a piece of paper, so Edison's partial deafness was no handicap. However, as the technology advanced, receivers were increasingly equipped with a sounding key, enabling telegraphers to "read" message by the sound of the clicks. This left Edison disadvantaged, with fewer and fewer opportunities for employment.

In 1868, Edison returned home to find his beloved mother was falling into mental illness and his father was out of work. The family was almost destitute. Edison realized he needed to take control of his future.

Upon the suggestion of a friend, he ventured to Boston, landing a job for the Western Union Company . At the time, Boston was America's center for science and culture, and Edison reveled in it. In his spare time, he designed and patented an electronic voting recorder for quickly tallying votes in the legislature.

However, Massachusetts lawmakers were not interested. As they explained, most legislators didn't want votes tallied quickly. They wanted time to change the minds of fellow legislators.

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In 1871 Edison married 16-year-old Mary Stilwell, who was an employee at one of his businesses. During their 13-year marriage, they had three children, Marion, Thomas and William, who himself became an inventor.

In 1884, Mary died at the age of 29 of a suspected brain tumor. Two years later, Edison married Mina Miller, 19 years his junior.

Thomas Edison: Inventions

In 1869, at 22 years old, Edison moved to New York City and developed his first invention, an improved stock ticker called the Universal Stock Printer, which synchronized several stock tickers' transactions.

The Gold and Stock Telegraph Company was so impressed, they paid him $40,000 for the rights. With this success, he quit his work as a telegrapher to devote himself full-time to inventing.

By the early 1870s, Edison had acquired a reputation as a first-rate inventor. In 1870, he set up his first small laboratory and manufacturing facility in Newark, New Jersey, and employed several machinists.

As an independent entrepreneur, Edison formed numerous partnerships and developed products for the highest bidder. Often that was Western Union Telegraph Company, the industry leader, but just as often, it was one of Western Union's rivals.

Quadruplex Telegraph

In one such instance, Edison devised for Western Union the quadruplex telegraph, capable of transmitting two signals in two different directions on the same wire, but railroad tycoon Jay Gould snatched the invention from Western Union, paying Edison more than $100,000 in cash, bonds and stock, and generating years of litigation.

In 1876, Edison moved his expanding operations to Menlo Park, New Jersey, and built an independent industrial research facility incorporating machine shops and laboratories.

That same year, Western Union encouraged him to develop a communication device to compete with Alexander Graham Bell 's telephone. He never did.

In December 1877, Edison developed a method for recording sound: the phonograph . His innovation relied upon tin-coated cylinders with two needles: one for recording sound, and another for playback.

His first words spoken into the phonograph's mouthpiece were, "Mary had a little lamb." Though not commercially viable for another decade, the phonograph brought him worldwide fame, especially when the device was used by the U.S. Army to bring music to the troops overseas during World War I .

While Edison was not the inventor of the first light bulb, he came up with the technology that helped bring it to the masses. Edison was driven to perfect a commercially practical, efficient incandescent light bulb following English inventor Humphry Davy’s invention of the first early electric arc lamp in the early 1800s.

Over the decades following Davy’s creation, scientists such as Warren de la Rue, Joseph Wilson Swan, Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans had worked to perfect electric light bulbs or tubes using a vacuum but were unsuccessful in their attempts.

After buying Woodward and Evans' patent and making improvements in his design, Edison was granted a patent for his own improved light bulb in 1879. He began to manufacture and market it for widespread use. In January 1880, Edison set out to develop a company that would deliver the electricity to power and light the cities of the world.

That same year, Edison founded the Edison Illuminating Company—the first investor-owned electric utility—which later became General Electric .

In 1881, he left Menlo Park to establish facilities in several cities where electrical systems were being installed. In 1882, the Pearl Street generating station provided 110 volts of electrical power to 59 customers in lower Manhattan.

Later Inventions & Business

In 1887, Edison built an industrial research laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, which served as the primary research laboratory for the Edison lighting companies.

He spent most of his time there, supervising the development of lighting technology and power systems. He also perfected the phonograph, and developed the motion picture camera and the alkaline storage battery.

Over the next few decades, Edison found his role as inventor transitioning to one as industrialist and business manager. The laboratory in West Orange was too large and complex for any one man to completely manage, and Edison found he was not as successful in his new role as he was in his former one.

Edison also found that much of the future development and perfection of his inventions was being conducted by university-trained mathematicians and scientists. He worked best in intimate, unstructured environments with a handful of assistants and was outspoken about his disdain for academia and corporate operations.

During the 1890s, Edison built a magnetic iron-ore processing plant in northern New Jersey that proved to be a commercial failure. Later, he was able to salvage the process into a better method for producing cement.

Motion Picture

On April 23, 1896, Edison became the first person to project a motion picture, holding the world's first motion picture screening at Koster & Bial's Music Hall in New York City.

His interest in motion pictures began years earlier, when he and an associate named W. K. L. Dickson developed a Kinetoscope, a peephole viewing device. Soon, Edison's West Orange laboratory was creating Edison Films. Among the first of these was The Great Train Robbery , released in 1903.

As the automobile industry began to grow, Edison worked on developing a suitable storage battery that could power an electric car. Though the gasoline-powered engine eventually prevailed, Edison designed a battery for the self-starter on the Model T for friend and admirer Henry Ford in 1912. The system was used extensively in the auto industry for decades.

During World War I, the U.S. government asked Edison to head the Naval Consulting Board, which examined inventions submitted for military use. Edison worked on several projects, including submarine detectors and gun-location techniques.

However, due to his moral indignation toward violence, he specified that he would work only on defensive weapons, later noting, "I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill."

By the end of the 1920s, Edison was in his 80s. He and his second wife, Mina, spent part of their time at their winter retreat in Fort Myers, Florida, where his friendship with automobile tycoon Henry Ford flourished and he continued to work on several projects, ranging from electric trains to finding a domestic source for natural rubber.

During his lifetime, Edison received 1,093 U.S. patents and filed an additional 500 to 600 that were unsuccessful or abandoned.

He executed his first patent for his Electrographic Vote-Recorder on October 13, 1868, at the age of 21. His last patent was for an apparatus for holding objects during the electroplating process.

Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla

Edison became embroiled in a longstanding rivalry with Nikola Tesla , an engineering visionary with academic training who worked with Edison's company for a time.

The two parted ways in 1885 and would publicly clash in the " War of the Currents " about the use of direct current electricity, which Edison favored, vs. alternating currents, which Tesla championed. Tesla then entered into a partnership with George Westinghouse, an Edison competitor, resulting in a major business feud over electrical power.

Elephant Killing

One of the unusual - and cruel - methods Edison used to convince people of the dangers of alternating current was through public demonstrations where animals were electrocuted.

One of the most infamous of these shows was the 1903 electrocution of a circus elephant named Topsy on New York's Coney Island.

Edison died on October 18, 1931, from complications of diabetes in his home, Glenmont, in West Orange, New Jersey. He was 84 years old.

Many communities and corporations throughout the world dimmed their lights or briefly turned off their electrical power to commemorate his passing.

Edison's career was the quintessential rags-to-riches success story that made him a folk hero in America.

An uninhibited egoist, he could be a tyrant to employees and ruthless to competitors. Though he was a publicity seeker, he didn’t socialize well and often neglected his family.

But by the time he died, Edison was one of the most well-known and respected Americans in the world. He had been at the forefront of America’s first technological revolution and set the stage for the modern electric world.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Thomas Alva Edison
• Birth Year: 1847
• Birth date: February 11, 1847
• Birth State: Ohio
• Birth City: Milan
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Thomas Edison is credited with inventions such as the first practical incandescent light bulb and the phonograph. He held over 1,000 patents for his inventions.
• Technology and Engineering
• Astrological Sign: Aquarius
• The Cooper Union
• Interesting Facts
• Thomas Edison was considered too difficult as a child so his mother homeschooled him.
• Edison became the first to project a motion picture in 1896, at Koster & Bial's Music Hall in New York City.
• Edison had a bitter rivalry with Nikola Tesla.
• During his lifetime, Edison received 1,093 U.S. patents.
• Death Year: 1931
• Death date: October 18, 1931
• Death State: New Jersey
• Death City: West Orange
• Death Country: United States

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CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Thomas Edison Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/inventors/thomas-edison
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: May 13, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
• Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
• Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.
• I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill.
• I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.
• Restlessness is discontent — and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man — and I will show you a failure.
• To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.
• Hell, there ain't no rules around here! We're trying to accomplish something.
• I always invent to obtain money to go on inventing.
• The phonograph, in one sense, knows more than we do ourselves. For it will retain a perfect mechanical memory of many things which we may forget, even though we have said them.
• We know nothing; we have to creep by the light of experiments, never knowing the day or the hour that we shall find what we are after.
• Everything, anything is possible; the world is a vast storehouse of undiscovered energy.
• The recurrence of a phenomenon like Edison is not very likely... He will occupy a unique and exalted position in the history of his native land, which might well be proud of his great genius and undying achievements in the interest of humanity.” (Nikola Tesla)

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Thomas Edison

By: History.com Editors

Updated: October 17, 2023 | Original: November 9, 2009

Thomas Edison was a prolific inventor and savvy businessman who acquired a record number of 1,093 patents (singly or jointly) and was the driving force behind such innovations as the phonograph, the incandescent light bulb, the alkaline battery and one of the earliest motion picture cameras. He also created the world’s first industrial research laboratory. Known as the “Wizard of Menlo Park,” for the New Jersey town where he did some of his best-known work, Edison had become one of the most famous men in the world by the time he was in his 30s. In addition to his talent for invention, Edison was also a successful manufacturer who was highly skilled at marketing his inventions—and himself—to the public.

Thomas Edison’s Early Life

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio. He was the seventh and last child born to Samuel Edison Jr. and Nancy Elliott Edison, and would be one of four to survive to adulthood. At age 12, he developed hearing loss—he was reportedly deaf in one ear, and nearly deaf in the other—which was variously attributed to scarlet fever, mastoiditis or a blow to the head.

Thomas Edison received little formal education, and left school in 1859 to begin working on the railroad between Detroit and Port Huron, Michigan, where his family then lived. By selling food and newspapers to train passengers, he was able to net about $50 profit each week, a substantial income at the time—especially for a 13-year-old.

Did you know? By the time he died at age 84 on October 18, 1931, Thomas Edison had amassed a record 1,093 patents: 389 for electric light and power, 195 for the phonograph, 150 for the telegraph, 141 for storage batteries and 34 for the telephone.

During the Civil War , Edison learned the emerging technology of telegraphy, and traveled around the country working as a telegrapher. But with the development of auditory signals for the telegraph, he was soon at a disadvantage as a telegrapher.

To address this problem, Edison began to work on inventing devices that would help make things possible for him despite his deafness (including a printer that would convert electrical telegraph signals to letters). In early 1869, he quit telegraphy to pursue invention full time.

Edison in Menlo Park

From 1870 to 1875, Edison worked out of Newark, New Jersey, where he developed telegraph-related products for both Western Union Telegraph Company (then the industry leader) and its rivals. Edison’s mother died in 1871, and that same year he married 16-year-old Mary Stillwell.

Despite his prolific telegraph work, Edison encountered financial difficulties by late 1875, but one year later—with the help of his father—Edison was able to build a laboratory and machine shop in Menlo Park, New Jersey, 12 miles south of Newark.

With the success of his Menlo Park “invention factory,” some historians credit Edison as the inventor of the research and development (R&D) lab, a collaborative, team-based model later copied by AT&T at Bell Labs , the DuPont Experimental Station , the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and other R&D centers.

In 1877, Edison developed the carbon transmitter, a device that improved the audibility of the telephone by making it possible to transmit voices at higher volume and with more clarity.

That same year, his work with the telegraph and telephone led him to invent the phonograph, which recorded sound as indentations on a sheet of paraffin-coated paper; when the paper was moved beneath a stylus, the sounds were reproduced. The device made an immediate splash, though it took years before it could be produced and sold commercially.

Edison and the Light Bulb

In 1878, Edison focused on inventing a safe, inexpensive electric light to replace the gaslight—a challenge that scientists had been grappling with for the last 50 years. With the help of prominent financial backers like J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilt family, Edison set up the Edison Electric Light Company and began research and development.

He made a breakthrough in October 1879 with a bulb that used a platinum filament, and in the summer of 1880 hit on carbonized bamboo as a viable alternative for the filament, which proved to be the key to a long-lasting and affordable light bulb. In 1881, he set up an electric light company in Newark, and the following year moved his family (which by now included three children) to New York.

Though Edison’s early incandescent lighting systems had their problems, they were used in such acclaimed events as the Paris Lighting Exhibition in 1881 and the Crystal Palace in London in 1882.

Competitors soon emerged, notably Nikola Tesla, a proponent of alternating or AC current (as opposed to Edison’s direct or DC current). By 1889, AC current would come to dominate the field, and the Edison General Electric Co. merged with another company in 1892 to become General Electric .

Later Years and Inventions

Edison’s wife, Mary, died in August 1884, and in February 1886 he remarried Mirna Miller; they would have three children together. He built a large estate called Glenmont and a research laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, with facilities including a machine shop, a library and buildings for metallurgy, chemistry and woodworking.

Spurred on by others’ work on improving the phonograph, he began working toward producing a commercial model. He also had the idea of linking the phonograph to a zoetrope, a device that strung together a series of photographs in such a way that the images appeared to be moving. Working with William K.L. Dickson, Edison succeeded in constructing a working motion picture camera, the Kinetograph, and a viewing instrument, the Kinetoscope, which he patented in 1891.

After years of heated legal battles with his competitors in the fledgling motion-picture industry, Edison had stopped working with moving film by 1918. In the interim, he had had success developing an alkaline storage battery, which he originally worked on as a power source for the phonograph but later supplied for submarines and electric vehicles.

In 1912, automaker Henry Ford asked Edison to design a battery for the self-starter, which would be introduced on the iconic Model T . The collaboration began a continuing relationship between the two great American entrepreneurs.

Despite the relatively limited success of his later inventions (including his long struggle to perfect a magnetic ore-separator), Edison continued working into his 80s. His rise from poor, uneducated railroad worker to one of the most famous men in the world made him a folk hero.

More than any other individual, he was credited with building the framework for modern technology and society in the age of electricity. His Glenmont estate—where he died in 1931—and West Orange laboratory are now open to the public as the Thomas Edison National Historical Park .

Thomas Edison’s Greatest Invention. The Atlantic . Life of Thomas Alva Edison. Library of Congress . 7 Epic Fails Brought to You by the Genius Mind of Thomas Edison. Smithsonian Magazine .

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Biography of Thomas Edison, American Inventor

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Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847–October 18, 1931) was an American inventor who transformed the world with inventions including the lightbulb and the phonograph. He was considered the face of technology and progress in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Fast Facts: Thomas Edison

• Known For : Inventor of groundbreaking technology, including the lightbulb and the phonograph
• Born : February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio
• Parents : Sam Edison Jr. and Nancy Elliott Edison
• Died : October 18, 1931 in West Orange, New Jersey
• Education : Three months of formal education, homeschooled until age 12
• Published Works : Quadruplex telegraph, phonograph, unbreakable cylinder record called the "Blue Ambersol," electric pen, a version of the incandescent lightbulb and an integrated system to run it, motion picture camera called a kinetograph
• Spouse(s) : Mary Stilwell, Mina Miller
• Children : Marion Estelle, Thomas Jr., William Leslie by Mary Stilwell; and Madeleine, Charles, and Theodore Miller by Mina Miller

Thomas Alva Edison was born to Sam and Nancy on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio, the son of a Canadian refugee and his schoolteacher wife. Edison's mother Nancy Elliott was originally from New York until her family moved to Vienna, Canada, where she met Sam Edison, Jr., whom she later married. Sam was the descendant of British loyalists who fled to Canada at the end of the American Revolution, but when he became involved in an unsuccessful revolt in Ontario in the 1830s he was forced to flee to the United States. They made their home in Ohio in 1839. The family moved to Port Huron, Michigan, in 1854, where Sam worked in the lumber business.

Education and First Job

Known as "Al" in his youth, Edison was the youngest of seven children, four of whom survived to adulthood, and all of them were in their teens when Edison was born. Edison tended to be in poor health when he was young and was a poor student. When a schoolmaster called Edison "addled," or slow, his furious mother took him out of the school and proceeded to teach him at home. Edison said many years later, "My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me, and I felt I had someone to live for, someone I must not disappoint." At an early age, he showed a fascination for mechanical things and chemical experiments.

In 1859 at the age of 12, Edison took a job selling newspapers and candy on the Grand Trunk Railroad to Detroit. He started two businesses in Port Huron, a newsstand and a fresh produce stand, and finagled free or very low-cost trade and transport in the train. In the baggage car, he set up a laboratory for his chemistry experiments and a printing press, where he started the "Grand Trunk Herald," the first newspaper published on a train. An accidental fire forced him to stop his experiments on board.

Loss of Hearing

Around the age of 12, Edison lost almost all of his hearing. There are several theories as to what caused this. Some attribute it to the aftereffects of scarlet fever, which he had as a child. Others blame it on a train conductor boxing his ears after Edison caused a fire in the baggage car, an incident Edison claimed never happened. Edison himself blamed it on an incident in which he was grabbed by his ears and lifted to a train. He did not let his disability discourage him, however, and often treated it as an asset since it made it easier for him to concentrate on his experiments and research. Undoubtedly, though, his deafness made him more solitary and shy in dealing with others.

Telegraph Operator

In 1862, Edison rescued a 3-year-old from a track where a boxcar was about to roll into him. The grateful father, J.U. MacKenzie, taught Edison railroad telegraphy as a reward. That winter, he took a job as a telegraph operator in Port Huron. In the meantime, he continued his scientific experiments on the side. Between 1863 and 1867, Edison migrated from city to city in the United States, taking available telegraph jobs.

Love of Invention

In 1868, Edison moved to Boston where he worked in the Western Union office and worked even more on inventing things. In January 1869 Edison resigned from his job, intending to devote himself full time to inventing things. His first invention to receive a patent was the electric vote recorder, in June 1869. Daunted by politicians' reluctance to use the machine, he decided that in the future he would not waste time inventing things that no one wanted.

Edison moved to New York City in the middle of 1869. A friend, Franklin L. Pope, allowed Edison to sleep in a room where he worked, Samuel Laws' Gold Indicator Company. When Edison managed to fix a broken machine there, he was hired to maintain and improve the printer machines.

During the next period of his life, Edison became involved in multiple projects and partnerships dealing with the telegraph. In October 1869, Edison joined with Franklin L. Pope and James Ashley to form the organization Pope, Edison and Co. They advertised themselves as electrical engineers and constructors of electrical devices. Edison received several patents for improvements to the telegraph. The partnership merged with the Gold and Stock Telegraph Co. in 1870.

American Telegraph Works

Edison also established the Newark Telegraph Works in Newark, New Jersey, with William Unger to manufacture stock printers. He formed the American Telegraph Works to work on developing an automatic telegraph later in the year.

In 1874 he began to work on a multiplex telegraphic system for Western Union, ultimately developing a quadruplex telegraph, which could send two messages simultaneously in both directions. When Edison sold his patent rights to the quadruplex to the rival Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Co. , a series of court battles followed—which Western Union won. Besides other telegraph inventions, he also developed an electric pen in 1875.

Marriage and Family

His personal life during this period also brought much change. Edison's mother died in 1871, and he married his former employee Mary Stilwell on Christmas Day that same year. While Edison loved his wife, their relationship was fraught with difficulties, primarily his preoccupation with work and her constant illnesses. Edison would often sleep in the lab and spent much of his time with his male colleagues.

Nevertheless, their first child Marion was born in February 1873, followed by a son, Thomas, Jr., in January 1876. Edison nicknamed the two "Dot" and "Dash," referring to telegraphic terms. A third child, William Leslie, was born in October 1878.

Mary died in 1884, perhaps of cancer or the morphine prescribed to her to treat it. Edison married again: his second wife was Mina Miller, the daughter of Ohio industrialist Lewis Miller, who founded the Chautauqua Foundation. They married on February 24, 1886, and had three children, Madeleine (born 1888), Charles (1890), and Theodore Miller Edison (1898).

Edison opened a new laboratory in Menlo Park , New Jersey, in 1876. This site later become known as an "invention factory," since they worked on several different inventions at any given time there. Edison would conduct numerous experiments to find answers to problems. He said, "I never quit until I get what I'm after. Negative results are just what I'm after. They are just as valuable to me as positive results." Edison liked to work long hours and expected much from his employees .

In 1879, after considerable experimentation and based on 70 years work of several other inventors, Edison invented a carbon filament that would burn for 40 hours—the first practical incandescent lightbulb .

While Edison had neglected further work on the phonograph, others had moved forward to improve it. In particular, Chichester Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter developed an improved machine that used a wax cylinder and a floating stylus, which they called a graphophone . They sent representatives to Edison to discuss a possible partnership on the machine, but Edison refused to collaborate with them, feeling that the phonograph was his invention alone. With this competition, Edison was stirred into action and resumed his work on the phonograph in 1887. Edison eventually adopted methods similar to Bell and Tainter's in his phonograph.

Phonograph Companies

The phonograph was initially marketed as a business dictation machine. Entrepreneur Jesse H. Lippincott acquired control of most of the phonograph companies, including Edison's, and set up the North American Phonograph Co. in 1888. The business did not prove profitable, and when Lippincott fell ill, Edison took over the management.

In 1894, the North American Phonograph Co. went into bankruptcy, a move which allowed Edison to buy back the rights to his invention. In 1896, Edison started the National Phonograph Co. with the intent of making phonographs for home amusement. Over the years, Edison made improvements to the phonograph and to the cylinders which were played on them, the early ones being made of wax. Edison introduced an unbreakable cylinder record, named the Blue Amberol, at roughly the same time he entered the disc phonograph market in 1912.

The introduction of an Edison disc was in reaction to the overwhelming popularity of discs on the market in contrast to cylinders. Touted as being superior to the competition's records, the Edison discs were designed to be played only on Edison phonographs and were cut laterally as opposed to vertically. The success of the Edison phonograph business, though, was always hampered by the company's reputation of choosing lower-quality recording acts. In the 1920s, competition from radio caused the business to sour, and the Edison disc business ceased production in 1929.

Ore-Milling and Cement

Another Edison interest was an ore milling process that would extract various metals from ore. In 1881, he formed the Edison Ore-Milling Co., but the venture proved fruitless as there was no market for it. He returned to the project in 1887, thinking that his process could help the mostly depleted Eastern mines compete with the Western ones. In 1889, the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Concentrating Works was formed, and Edison became absorbed by its operations and began to spend much time away from home at the mines in Ogdensburg, New Jersey. Although he invested much money and time into this project, it proved unsuccessful when the market went down, and additional sources of ore in the Midwest were found.

Edison also became involved in promoting the use of cement and formed the Edison Portland Cement Co. in 1899. He tried to promote the widespread use of cement for the construction of low-cost homes and envisioned alternative uses for concrete in the manufacture of phonographs, furniture, refrigerators, and pianos. Unfortunately, Edison was ahead of his time with these ideas, as the widespread use of concrete proved economically unfeasible at that time.

Motion Pictures

In 1888, Edison met Eadweard Muybridge at West Orange and viewed Muybridge's Zoopraxiscope. This machine used a circular disc with still photographs of the successive phases of movement around the circumference to recreate the illusion of movement. Edison declined to work with Muybridge on the device and decided to work on his motion picture camera at his laboratory. As Edison put it in a caveat written the same year, "I am experimenting upon an instrument which does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear."

The task of inventing the machine fell to Edison's associate William K. L. Dickson. Dickson initially experimented with a cylinder-based device for recording images, before turning to a celluloid strip. In October 1889, Dickson greeted Edison's return from Paris with a new device that projected pictures and contained sound. After more work, patent applications were made in 1891 for a motion picture camera, called a Kinetograph, and a Kinetoscope, a motion picture peephole viewer.

Kinetoscope parlors opened in New York and soon spread to other major cities during 1894. In 1893, a motion picture studio, later dubbed the Black Maria (the slang name for a police paddy wagon which the studio resembled), was opened at the West Orange complex. Short films were produced using a variety of acts of the day. Edison was reluctant to develop a motion picture projector, feeling that more profit was to be made with the peephole viewers.

When Dickson assisted competitors on developing another peephole motion picture device and the eidoscope projection system, later to develop into the Mutoscope, he was fired. Dickson went on to form the American Mutoscope Co. along with Harry Marvin, Herman Casler, and Elias Koopman. Edison subsequently adopted a projector developed by Thomas Armat and Charles Francis Jenkins and renamed it the Vitascope and marketed it under his name. The Vitascope premiered on April 23, 1896, to great acclaim.

Patent Battles

Competition from other motion picture companies soon created heated legal battles between them and Edison over patents. Edison sued many companies for infringement. In 1909, the formation of the Motion Picture Patents Co. brought a degree of cooperation to the various companies who were given licenses in 1909, but in 1915, the courts found the company to be an unfair monopoly.

In 1913, Edison experimented with synchronizing sound to film. A Kinetophone was developed by his laboratory and synchronized sound on a phonograph cylinder to the picture on a screen. Although this initially brought interest, the system was far from perfect and disappeared by 1915. By 1918, Edison ended his involvement in the motion picture field.

In 1911, Edison's companies were re-organized into Thomas A. Edison, Inc. As the organization became more diversified and structured, Edison became less involved in the day-to-day operations, although he still had some decision-making authority. The goals of the organization became more to maintain market viability than to produce new inventions frequently.

A fire broke out at the West Orange laboratory in 1914, destroying 13 buildings. Although the loss was great, Edison spearheaded the rebuilding of the lot.

World War I

When Europe became involved in World War I, Edison advised preparedness and felt that technology would be the future of war. He was named the head of the Naval Consulting Board in 1915, an attempt by the government to bring science into its defense program. Although mainly an advisory board, it was instrumental in the formation of a laboratory for the Navy that opened in 1923. During the war, Edison spent much of his time doing naval research, particularly on submarine detection, but he felt the Navy was not receptive to many of his inventions and suggestions.

Health Issues

In the 1920s, Edison's health became worse and he began to spend more time at home with his wife. His relationship with his children was distant, although Charles was president of Thomas A. Edison, Inc. While Edison continued to experiment at home, he could not perform some experiments that he wanted to at his West Orange laboratory because the board would not approve them. One project that held his fascination during this period was the search for an alternative to rubber.

Death and Legacy

Henry Ford , an admirer and a friend of Edison's, reconstructed Edison's invention factory as a museum at Greenfield Village, Michigan, which opened during the 50th anniversary of Edison's electric light in 1929. The main celebration of Light's Golden Jubilee, co-hosted by Ford and General Electric, took place in Dearborn along with a huge celebratory dinner in Edison's honor attended by notables such as President Hoover , John D. Rockefeller, Jr., George Eastman , Marie Curie , and Orville Wright . Edison's health, however, had declined to the point that he could not stay for the entire ceremony.

During the last two years of his life, a series of ailments caused his health to decline even more until he lapsed into a coma on October 14, 1931. He died on October 18, 1931, at his estate, Glenmont, in West Orange, New Jersey.

• Israel, Paul. "Edison: A Life of Invention." New York, Wiley, 2000.
• Josephson, Matthew. "Edison: A Biography." New York, Wiley, 1992.
• Stross, Randall E. "The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World." New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007.
• Thomas Edison's Greatest Inventions
• The Failed Inventions of Thomas Alva Edison
• What Was Menlo Park?
• Thomas Edison's 'Muckers'
• History of Electricity
• Major Innovators of Early Motion Pictures
• Famous Thomas Edison Quotes
• A Timeline for the Invention of the Lightbulb
• Notable American Inventors of the Industrial Revolution
• History and Timeline of the Battery
• Biography of Granville T. Woods, American Inventor
• Reginald Fessenden and the First Radio Broadcast
• The Most Important Inventions of the Industrial Revolution
• Biography of Lewis Latimer, Noted Black Inventor
• Biography of Thomas Adams, American Inventor
• History of Electric Christmas Tree Lights

Biography Online

Thomas Edison Biography

Thomas Edison (1847 – 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who developed and made commercially available – many key inventions of modern life. His Edison Electric company was a pioneering company for delivering DC electricity directly into people’s homes. He filed over 1,000 patents for a variety of different inventions. Crucially, he used mass-produced techniques to make his inventions available at low cost to households across America. His most important inventions include the electric light bulb, the phonograph, the motion picture camera, an electric car and the electric power station.

“None of my inventions came by accident. I see a worthwhile need to be met and I make trial after trial until it comes. What it boils down to is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.”

– Thomas Edison, interview 1929

Short Biography Thomas Edison

As a youngster, he tried various odd jobs to earn a living. This including selling candy, vegetables and newspapers. He had a talent for business, and he successfully printed the Grand Trunk Herald along with his other newspapers. This included selling photos of his hero, Abraham Lincoln . He was able to spend his extra income on a growing chemistry set.

Unfortunately, from an early age, Edison developed a severe deafness, which ultimately left him almost 90% deaf. He would later refuse any medical treatment, saying it would be too difficult to retrain his thinking process. He seemed to take his deafness in his stride, and never saw it as a disability.

From childhood, Edison loved to experiment, especially with chemicals. However, these experiments often got Edison into difficulties. A chemistry experiment once exploded on a train, and when working on a night shift at Western Union, his lead-acid battery leaked sulphuric acid through the floor onto his boss’ desk. Edison was fired the next day.

However Edison was undimmed and, despite scrapping by in impoverished conditions for the next few years, he was able to spend most of his time working on inventions. He received his first patent on June 1, 1869, for the stock ticker. This would later earn him a considerable sum.

In the 1870s, he sold the rights to the quadruplex telegraph to Western Union for $10,000. This gave him the financial backing to establish a proper research laboratory and extend his experiments and innovations. Edison once described his invention methods as involving a lot of hard work and repeated trial and error until a method was successful.

“During all those years of experimentation and research, I never once made a discovery. All my work was deductive, and the results I achieved were those of invention, pure and simple. I would construct a theory and work on its lines until I found it was untenable. … I speak without exaggeration when I say that I have constructed 3,000 different theories in connection with the electric light, each one of them reasonable and apparently likely to be true. Yet only in two cases did my experiments prove the truth of my theory.”

– “Talks with Edison” by G.P Lathrop in Harper’s magazine, Vol. 80 (Feb. 1890), p. 425

By 1877, he had developed the phonograph (an early form of the gramophone player) This received widespread interest, and people were astonished at one of the first audio recording devices. This unique invention earned Edison the nickname ‘The Wizard of Menlo Park ‘ Edison’s device would later be improved upon by others, but he made a big step in creating the first recording device.

With William Joseph Hammer, Edison started producing the electric light bulb, and it was a great commercial success. Edison’s great advance was to use a carbonised bamboo filament that could last over 1,000 hours. In 1878, he formed the Edison Electric light Company to profit from this invention. Edison successfully predicted that he could make electric light so cheap, it would soon come universal. To capitalise on the success of the electric light bulb, he also worked on electricity distribution. His first power station was able to distribute DC current to 59 customers in lower Manhattan.

Edison’s studios now took up two blocks, and it was able to stock a huge range of natural resources, meaning that almost anything and everything could be used in trying to improve designs. This was a big factor in enabling Edison to be so successful in this era of innovation.

During the fledgeling years of electricity generation, Edison became involved in a battle between his DC current system and the AC (alternative current) system favoured by George Westinghouse (and developed by Nikola Tesla , who worked for Edison for two years before leaving in a pay dispute.)

This became known as the ‘current war’ and both sides were desperate to show the superiority of their system. The Edison company even, on occasion, electrocuted animals to show how dangerous the rival AC current was.

During World War One, Edison was asked to serve as a naval consultant, but Edison only wanted to work on defensive weapons. He was proud that he made no invention that could be used to kill. He maintained a strong belief in non-violence.

“Nonviolence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.”

Edison was also a great admirer of the Enlightenment thinker Thomas Paine . He wrote a book praising Paine in 1925; he also shared similar religious beliefs to Thomas Paine – no particular religion, but belief in a Supreme Being.

Edison made many important inventions and development in media. These included the Kinetoscope (or peephole view), the first motion pictures and improved photographic paper.

After the death of his first wife, Mary Stilwell in 1884, Edison left Menlo Park and moved to West Orange, New Jersey. In 1886, he remarried Mina Miller. In West Orange, he became friends with the industrial magnate, Henry Ford and was an active participant in the Civitan club – which involved doing things for the local community. His pace of invention slowed down in these final years, but he still kept busy, such as trying to find a domestic source of natural rubber. He was also involved in the first electric train to depart from Hoboken in 1930.

Throughout his life, he took an active interest in finding the optimal diet and believed a good diet could play a large role in improving health. In 1903, he was quoted as saying:

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will instruct his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.”

He had six children, three from each marriage. Edison died of diabetes on October 18, 1931.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “ Biography of Thomas Edison” , Oxford, UK – www.biographyonline.net   Published 17th July 2013. Last updated 5 March 2018.

Quotes by Thomas Edison

“Through all the years of experimenting and research, I never once made a discovery. I start where the last man left off. … All my work was deductive, and the results I achieved were those of invention pure and simple.”

As quoted in Makers of the Modern World: The Lives of Ninety-two Writers, Artists, Scientists, Statesmen, Inventors, Philosophers, Composers, and Other Creators who Formed the Pattern of Our Century (1955) by Louis Untermeyer, p. 227

“We don’t know a millionth of one percent about anything.”

As quoted in Golden Book (April 1931), according to Stevenson’s Book of Quotations (Cassell 3rd edition 1938) by Burton Egbert Stevenson

“If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.”

As quoted in Motivating Humans: Goals, Emotions, and Personal Agency Beliefs (1992) by Martin E. Ford, p. 17

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.”

As quoted in Behavior-Based Robotics (1998) by Ronald C. Arkin. p. 8

“Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.”

“Everyone steals in commerce and industry. I’ve stolen a lot, myself. But I know how to steal! They don’t know how to steal!”

As quoted in Tesla: The Modern Sorcerer (1999) by Daniel Blair Stewart, p. 411

“I consider Paine our greatest political thinker. As we have not advanced, and perhaps never shall advance, beyond the Declaration and Constitution, so Paine has had no successors who extended his principles.”

The Philosophy of Paine (1925)

“In ‘Common Sense’ Paine flared forth with a document so powerful that the Revolution became inevitable. Washington recognized the difference, and in his calm way said that matters never could be the same again..”

The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World

The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World at Amazon

Related pages

• Top 10 Inventors
• Greatest modern inventions
• Americans who changed the world
• 100 most influential people

External links

•  Thomas Edison homepage

Thomas Edison

By jake rossen | oct 24, 2019.

SCIENTISTS (1847–1931); MILAN, OHIO

Thomas Alva Edison was an inventor unlike any throughout history—and his impact can still be felt in your everyday life. Born in Milan, Ohio, on February 11, 1847, Edison's inventions, which included perfecting the light bulb and phonograph, radically transformed modern civilization and helped make the 20th century one of the most technologically progressive eras ever.

1. Thomas Edison's list of inventions includes more than just the light bulb.

While Thomas Edison's most enduring contribution to modern life will forever remain the incandescent light bulb, he took out a total of 1093 patents that both he and his staff brought to life. Some of Thomas Edison's inventions included:

• The phonograph, the very first machine that could capture and play back sound.
• The stencil-pen, a writing instrument powered by electricity and that is thought to be the predecessor to the tattoo gun.
• The carbon transmitter, which improved the volume and clarity of voices on the telephone.
• He also helped improve existing inventions, such as the stock ticker and the automatic telegraph.

2. Thomas Edison's six children had a lot to live up to, and Thomas Alva Edison Jr. had a lot to live down.

Across two marriages , the first to Mary Stilwell from 1871 to her death in 1884 and the second to Mina Miller in 1886, Edison had six children:

• Marion Estelle Edison (with Stilwell)
• Thomas Alva Edison Jr. (with Stilwell)
• William Leslie Edison (with Stilwell)
• Madeleine Edison (with Miller)
• Charles Edison (with Miller)
• Theodore Miller Edison (with Miller)

Edison attempted to instill a love of knowledge in each of his children, though his methods were not always kind. Admonishing daughter Madeline to answer homework questions at breakfast, Edison would touch her with a hot spoon on her hand if she answered too slowly or incorrectly.

This environment was apparently too hostile for one of his sons, Thomas Alva Edison Jr. , who dropped out of prep school at age 17 and was later chastised by the press for marketing dubious inventions like the Vitalizer, a piece of headgear that promised to make the wearer think faster. In 1904, the post office charged the Vitalizer's distributor with postal fraud. In order to prevent his son from further besmirching the family name, Edison began giving his son an allowance to keep him out of the spotlight.

3. Thomas Edison has a controversial association with an elephant named Topsy.

In the 1890s, Edison's direct current (DC) electrical power was vying for supremacy with Nikola Tesla's alternating current (AC) power. During this time, Edison and his supporters argued that AC was dangerous and tried to prove it by electrocuting animals. Of course, DC could kill just as easily. In 1903, electricity was famously used to kill Topsy, a circus elephant who had been marked for execution after she had killed a spectator. Though Edison is often mentioned in conjunction with the animal's execution, a 2017 Smithsonian article claims he did not witness it and may not have even heard of the story. However, a company working under the Edison Manufacturing banner was on hand to film the sad display, and people erroneously assumed the inventor had something to do with it. But by that point, the Tesla vs. Edison war was long over, and the more versatile AC power had won out.

4. Thomas Edison's Menlo Park property was a site of both triumph and tragedy.

When Edison was 28, he purchased a housing development in Raritan Township, New Jersey, and used the property as the site for his house and laboratory. It was there that, over the course of a decade, Edison and his staff invented more than 400 items. But the site was also home to tragedy. Edison's first wife, Mary, died of a morphine overdose in 1884 while trying to manage pain following the birth of their third child. Edison distanced himself from the area after that, destroying his house and facilities. The township was renamed Edison, New Jersey, in 1954. Today, it's the site of the Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park, where visitors can get a glimpse of Edison's many inventions.

5. Some of Thomas Edison's siblings suffered unfortunate fates.

Thomas Edison had six siblings:

• William Pitt
• Harriet Ann ("Tannie")

When Edison was born in Milan, Ohio in 1847, he was the seventh and last child of parents Samuel Edison and Nancy Elliott Edison. Unfortunately, Edison didn't get a chance to know all of his siblings. Of his parents' seven children (Marion, William Pitt, Harriet Ann, Carlile, Samuel, Eliza, and Thomas) only four survived . Carlile, Samuel, and Eliza all died in childhood.

6. The Civil War inspired Thomas Edison's interest in invention.

When Thomas Edison was 7 years old, his family relocated to Port Huron, Michigan. Edison, who went by "Al," short for his middle name of Alva, was a disinterested school student and was eventually taught at home by his mother. At 15, he decided to travel across the country, sending and receiving messages over the telegraph for trains and the Union Army during the Civil War. The experience inspired his lifelong passion for invention.

7. Thomas Edison credited a longtime physical ailment as a key factor in his success.

Beginning in childhood, Edison suffered from profound hearing loss. No one is exactly sure what caused it, though Edison himself blamed it on a train conductor who once picked him up by the ears, causing damage. More likely, ear infections affected his ability to hear. However it happened, Edison said his hearing loss led to his incredible ability to concentrate and to deeply focus on whatever task was at hand.

8. Thomas Edison's final breaths before death became a museum piece.

During his career, Edison became friends with automobile pioneer Henry Ford. As Edison's health began to deteriorate and he was eventually relegated to a wheelchair, Ford bought one for himself so that they could race. When, in 1931, it seemed as if Edison's final days were numbered, some believe that Ford asked Edison's son Charles to try and capture his father's last breath in a test tube. While Charles did not do that, Edison's room did contain test tubes during his final moments that were close to his bed. Charles asked that they be sealed with paraffin and he gave one to Ford. Labeled "Edison's Last Breath?" it's currently located at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

Most Notable Thomas Edison Inventions:

• Incandescent light bulb
• Electric vote recorder
• Carbon telephone transmitter
• Alkaline battery
• Electric pen

Famous Thomas Edison Quotes:

• "Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration."
• "The value of an idea lies in the using of it."
• "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Thomas Edison Inventions

Thomas Edison's record  1,093 patented inventions have greatly improved the world we know today. In fact, Edison is recognized as one of the greatest inventors of all time. His key inventions include the light bulb and electric utility system, recorded sound, motion pictures, R&D labs, and the alkaline family of storage batteries. His 4,000 invention notebooks chronicle the invention challenges of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, telling a vivid story of man's progress to a technological society.

Thomas Edison’s Light Bulb

Thomas Edison is most well known for his invention of the light bulb. Contrary to popular belief, Edison did not invent the light bulb; it had been around for a number of years. The electric lights at the time, however, were unreliable, expensive, and short-lived. Over twenty distinct efforts by other inventors the world over were already underway when Edison entered the light bulb invention race.

By creating a vacuum inside the bulb, finding the right filament to use, and running lower voltage through the bulb, Edison was able to achieve a light bulb that lasted for many hours. This was a substantial improvement, and one that led with more improvements, to making the light bulb practical and economical.

Of course, Edison also later invented the entire electric utility system so he could power all those light bulbs, motors and other appliances that soon followed.

Thomas Edison’s Phonograph

Considered to be the first great Thomas Edison invention, and his life-long favorite, the phonograph would record the spoken voice and play it back.

When speaking into the receiver, the sound vibration of the voice would cause a needle to create indentations on a drum wrapped with tin foil. Later Edison would adopt cylinders and discs to permanently record music.

The first recorded message was of Thomas Edison speaking “Mary had a little lamb”, which greatly delighted and surprised Edison and his staff when they first heard it played back to them.

Thomas Edison’s Motion Picture

Edison’s initial work in motion pictures (1888-89) was inspired byMuybridge’s analysis of motion. The first Edison device resembled his phonograph, with a spiral arrangement of 1/16 inch photographs made on a cylinder. Viewed with a microscope, these first motion pictures were rather crude, and hard to focus. Working with W. K. L. Dickson, Edison then developed the Strip Kinetograph, using George Eastman’s improved 35 mm celluloid film. Cut into continuous strips and perforated along the edges, the film was moved by sprockets in a stop-and-go motion behind the shutter.

In Edison’s movie studio, technically known as a Kinetographic Theater, but nicknamed “The Black Maria” (1893), Edison and his staff filmed short movies for later viewing with his peep hole Kinetoscopes (1894). One-person at a time could view the movies via the Kinetoscope. Each Kinetoscope was about 4 feet tall, 20 inches square, and had a peep hole magnifier that allowed the patron to view 50 feet of film in about 20 seconds. A battery-operated lamp allowed the film to be illuminated.

Thomas Edison’s Electrographic Vote Recorder

Edison was 22 years old and working as a telegrapher when he filed his first patent for the Electrographic Vote Recorder.

The device was made with the goal of helping legislators in the US Congress record their votes in a quicker fashion than the voice vote system.

To work, a voting device was connected to a clerk’s desk where the names of the legislators were embedded. The legislators would move a switch to either yes or no, sending electric current to the device at the clerks desk. Yes and No wheels kept track of the votes and tabulated the final results.

Thomas Edison’s Magnetic Iron Ore Separator

Thomas Edison experimented during the 1880′s and 1890′s with using magnets to separate iron ore from low grade, unusable ores. His giant mine project in northwestern NJ consumed huge amounts of money as experimentation plodded forward.

Engineering problems and a decline in the price of iron ore [the discovery of the Mesabi iron rich ore deposits near the Great Lakes] all lead this invention to be abandoned.

But later, Edison used what he learned with rock grinding to make his own robust version of Portland Cement, Edison Portland Cement, a very good product that built Yankee Stadium. Along the way, Edison totally revolutionized the cement kiln industry.

Thomas Edison’s Electric Pen

In 1876, Thomas Edison invented the first electric copy machine to create copies of his notes. Using a small motor, the pen makes a tiny needle go up and down that produce a series of holes (50 per second) that are later gone over with a roller to press ink through the holes to create many copies of the document. Edison claimed that over 5000 copies could be made at once. This lesser known invention would not only be a precursor to the copy machine, but the tattoo pen as well.

Thomas Edison’s Carbon Transmitter

Thomas Edison improved Alexander Graham Bell's system with his carbon transmitter, by elongating how far apart phones could be. This invention used a battery and carbon to vary the resistance and control the strength of the current on the phone line. His design used a transmitter with lampblack carbon behind the diaphragm in the phone so that when sound waves moved it, they would also change the pressure on the carbon. He later improved by using granules made from coal instead and this basic design was commonly used until the 1980s.

Thomas Edison’s Automatic Telegraph

Thomas Edison worked on automatic telegraphs between 1870 and 1874. The invention embossed special indents into a rotating cardboard disc with a needle powered by an electromagnet. It would then would form a recorded message that could be transmitted without an operator. 

Edison later invented the Quadruplex Telegraph to send two messages at the same time on the same wire and a Wireless Telegraph for radio communications between ships that worked using a vibrator magnet instead of a electromagnetic waves, 

Discover the  all of Thomas Edison's Patents

While Edison was famous for a few inventions above, he also holds the record for creating 1096 U.S. Patents throughout his life. However, it is important to note that not all of these patents were for inventions that he personally created. Edison had a large team of researchers and inventors who helped him in his lab, and many of his patents were for improvements or refinements to existing technologies rather than entirely new inventions.

Most realized that, even though he was far from being a perfect human being - and may not have really had the always amiable and avuncular  personality that was so often ascribed to him by myth makers -Thomas Edison was an essentially good man with a powerful mission.  

Driven by a superhuman desire to fulfill the promise of objective persistent research and create things to serve and uplift all of mankind, no one did more to help realize our founders dream of creating a brand new country that - at its best - would be seen by everyone as "a shining new city upon a hill, whose light would be going out to the world...."

Because of the peculiar voids that Edison sometime evinced in areas such as  cognition, speech, grammar, etc., a number of medical authorities have argued  that he may have been plagued by a fundamental learning disability that went well beyond mere deafness....  A few of have conjectured that this mysterious ailment - along with his lack of a formal education - may account for why he always seemed to "think so differently" compared to others of his time: "Always tenaciously clinging to those unique methods of analysis and experimentation with which he alone alwaya seemed to feel so comfortable...."  Whatever the impetus for his unique personality and traits, his incredible ability to come up with a meaningful new patent every two weeks throughout his working career "added more to the collective wealth of the world - and had more impact upon shaping modern civilization - than the accomplishments of any figure since Gutenberg...." Accordingly, most serious science and technology historians grant that he was indeed "The most influential figure of our millennium."  

Notes: In 1929, Edison's close friend, Henry Ford, completed the task of moving Edison's original Menlo Park laboratory to the Greenfield Village museum in Dearborn, Mich. In 1962 his existing laboratory and home in West Orange, N.J. were designated as National Historic Sites.

Copyright © Gerald Beals June, 1999. All rights registered and reserved.  Please Note: Absolutely no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form - or stored by any means in a database or retrieval system - without the prior written and express permission of the author.  

Please note :  Infringements will be (in fact  one is currently being) prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

gerrybeals@ verizon.net

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Thomas Edison: America's Inventor

Thomas edison, america's most famous inventor, received 1,093 patents during his life time. edison learned early in life that a successful invention needed to have a practical use..

By Museum of Innovation & Science

Thomas Edison's birthplace in Milan, Ohio. He lived there until the age of seven. (1850/1900) by Edison, Thomas Museum of Innovation & Science

Edison as a Boy

Edison was born in 1847 in Milan, Ohio. His family moved to Port Huron, Michigan when he was a young boy. As a young boy in Port Huron, Michigan, Edison was interested in learning about the world around him- he explored nature and read all his family's science books. He was fascinated by this new form of communication, the telegraph.   Edison's family was poor and he needed to work to help support his family. He got a job in the baggage car on the local railroad. He found a small printing press and printed and sold a small newspaper. And in his free time he set up a chemistry lab int the baggage car. He was fired from the job after his lab caught on fire and damaged the baggage car.   Edison continued to hang around the train station, and saved the life of a young boy. The boy's father, the local telegraph operator, offered Edison his choice of a reward. Edison, remembering his love of his the telegraph, asked to learn about the telegraph.   The telegraph was Edison's first experience with electricity. He became one of the top operators in the country. He learned everything he could about the telegraph, and still wanted to learn more and improve the telegraph. This is the moment he became an inventor.

Thomas Edison at about fourteen years of age. At this time he was employed in the baggage car of the Grand Trunk Railroad out of Port Huron, Michigan, and ran a printing press in his spare time.

Weekly newspaper printed and sold by Thomas Edison at the age of 14. Edison had taken a job in the baggage car of the Grand Trunk Railroad. With free time while the train was moving, he acquired an old printing press and began publishing a weekly newspaper, for the price of eight cents per month.

Second page of "The Weekly Herald," a newspaper published by Thomas Edison at the age of 14, while he worked on the Grand Trunk Railroad in Port Huron, Michigan. Edison's publishing career ended when his chemistry laboratory caught fire and burned the baggage car, damaging his printing press. Edison was fired from his job in the baggage car.

Edison’s first patented invention, the Electrographic Vote Recorder. (1868/1868) by Edison, Thomas Museum of Innovation & Science

Edison the Inventor

Edison's first invention, the vote recorder. Thomas Edison's first invention was a failure. In 1868 Edison was 21 and living in Boston and working as a telegraph operator. He invented an automatic vote recorder that allowed legislatures to vote faster. Edison, proud of his new invention, brought it to Congress. Several Congressmen told him they did not like his invention - they liked the way they voted just fine. Edison left, disappointed. But he learned a valuable lesson - before creating an invention, he made sure people were interested in it. 

Thomas Edison demonstrates his early work with the telegraph.

In 1873, Edison's workshop was located in Newark, NJ.

Edison's electric pen was later developed into the mimeograph machine.

Edison lost the race for the invention of the telephone to Alexander Graham Bell. He did develop a major improvement to the telephone, the carbon microphone, that helped make the telephone commercially successful. Edison's experience working with carbon proved useful when he began his lighting research.

Menlo Park laboratory, 1879 (1879/1879) by General Electric Company Museum of Innovation & Science

Edison's early inventions focused on improving his own job - telegraph operator. These new machines, including a telegraph that could send and record multiple messages, an electric pen that allowed the user to make multiple copies at once, and the stock ticker, a special telegraph used by the stock market, gave Edison the funds to become a full time inventor and allowed him to set up his own research laboratory at Menlo Park in 1876.

Edison built the Menlo Park complex in early 1876. With expanded operations in New York City, Edison left Menlo Park. In 1886 Edison built his new laboratory complex in nearby West Orange, New Jersey.

Edison is in the white shirt at the far right.

Edison is sitting in the center, holding a straw hat.

Sketch of Edison's first phonograph (1877/1877) by General Electric Company Museum of Innovation & Science

The Phonograph

At Menlo Park, Edison assembled a whole team of inventors- scientists, engineers and mathematicians. Their work began to veer off into new uses for electricity. Edison was one of the inventors racing to invent the telephone - transmitting the human voice using electrical impulses. Edison lost that race to Alexander Graham Bell, but Edison's invention of the carbon microphone made the telephone a useful invention.   Edison's next invention made him the most famous inventor in the world - the phonograph. During the telephone experiments, Edison noticed a faint recording. This led him and his team to invent the phonograph - the first device to record and play sounds. The phonograph invention created an international sensation and the world eagerly awaited Edison's next invention.

Edison was thirty years old when this photograph was created.

Photo of Thomas Edison's first successful tinfoil phonograph, built by his top machinist John Kruesi.

Updated sketch of the Edison tinfoil phonograph, dated November 29, 1877 and signed by Thomas Edison, Charles Batchelor and John Kruesi.

A Photograph taken in Washington, D.C. on the occasion of Edison's exhibit of the phonograph to government officials, April 18, 1878. Photograph was created at Matthew Brady's studio.

Sketch of Thomas Edison using his tinfoil phonograph, May 18, 1878. The artist was J.E. Kelly. A note from Kelly said that Edison signed both the names on the sketch. The drawings was given "to Mr. Charles Edison from the Engineer john W. Evans.

Edison inventing the incandescent lamp, 1879 (1879/1879) by General Electric Company and Cornwell, Dean Museum of Innovation & Science

Edison and the incandescent lamp

In October 1878 Edison announced his next challenge, bringing electric light to the home. He wanted to use a thin piece of wire, known as a filament, that would glow and give off light when an electric current went through it. Other inventors had worked on this problem for 70 years, but had little success.   Edison and his staff researched a variety of materials for the lamp. In early experiments, platinum worked the best, but it was too rare and expensive. Edison settled on carbon, and after a year of research, he had developed a filament (carbon from burnt cardboard baked onto a thread) that lasted 40 hours. On October 21, 1879, Edison declared success, and the world went wild. Artist Dean Cornwell created this image of Edison and his staff performing the experiment that created the first successful incandescent lamp for the General Electric promotional calendar.

Edison wrote this letter to General Electric publicist John W. Hammond, who was writing a GE history, "Men and Volts" Edison described creating a substitute for the existing gas-lighting system, and the importance of creating an entire electrical system.

Edison replica lamp, circa 1978. Lamp is an inaccurate replica due to the lack of the simple horseshoe filament and the use of plastic.

Image taken February 22, 1880. Left to right: Ludwig Boehm, Charles L. Clarke, Charles Batchelor (seated beneath the hanging lamps), William Carman, Samuel Mott, George Dean, Edison (below the tallest organ pipe), Charles Hughes, George Hill, George Carman, Francis Jehl, John Lawson, Charles Flammer, Charles Mott, and James MacKenzie (at the desk near the window). Notice the incandescent lamps in the gas fixtures. The organ in back was a gift from Hilborne Roosevelt, an early investor in the phonograph. Photo IDs from Edison Paper Project, Rutgers University

Diagram showing Edison's "latest" electric lamp. Features figures isolating fixture and filament.

Line sketch depicting Thomas Edison lighting his first electric incandescent lamp which burned for 40 hours

Edison Lamp first commercially used. Carbonized Bristol- Board "Horseshoe" filament. Produced Nov. 1879-May 1880. Dimensions in inches -Total Height 8 1/16; diameter of base, 3 5/16; bulb diameter, 2 5/16; bulb neck from bulb to stem seal; 1 7/8.

Thomas Edison lighting first incandescent lamp, drawing

Mr. Edison is seen at the left grasping the hand-rail. Mr. Charles Batchelor is seen in the center and at the right hand is Major S.B. Eaton, president of the company.

Edison assistant William Hammer designed the first electric sign for the 1881 Crystal Palace exposition in London, UK.

Jumbo dynamo direct connected to Armington Engine (1882/1882) by General Electric Company Museum of Innovation & Science

An electrical system

Edison knew that he needed to develop an entire electrical system - one that would generate electricity and distribute it to homes. Without that system, his new lamp would be a novelty.   Edison spent the next three years developing a central station system that could generate electricity and send it to multiple buildings. In September 1882, Edison opened the Pearl Street Station in New York City, which used 6 dynamos to generate electricity for 7200 lights. Cities around the world wanted Edison's new system faster than he could manufacture it.

The S.S. Columbia, owned by financier Henry Villard, was the first installation using Edison's system. The drawing includes the ship and an image of the power room. The dynamos powered lights on the ship.

Note written below image says that it is too early to be a Z-type dynamo as listed on the original photo caption. The note, written by Charles L. Clarke, one of Edison's long-time assistants, reads: "This is not a "Z" dynamo, which had an iron base, and were first built very early in 1881. The statement that it (one of four) was installed on the S.S. Columbia is correct. Between the S.S. Columbia machines and the "Z" came the "A," which also had an iron base. Charles L. Clarke, January 8, 1929, with Edison at Menlo Park, NJ.

The Hinds-Ketcham Co. was located at 229 Water Street, New York, NY. Edison used a 60-light machine, built at Menlo Park. January 1, 1881. The image includes a drawing of the Hinds-Ketcham structure, and a circuit diagram for the electrical system.

The drawing shows power poles with dozens of criss-crossing lines. Lines included high voltage power lines for arc lighting installations and low voltage telegraph lines. The lines were installed by dozens of different companies. Some lines were abandoned and varied in the quality of insulation. Lines would sometimes arc between each other.

An unnamed Edison employee stands in a ditch dug to lay underground wire in lower Manhattan for Edison's first large scale electric utility at Pearl Street Station.

Drawing showing the exterior of Edison's Pearl Street Station, Edison's first large scale electric generating station.

One of the six Edison jumbo dynamos in Pearl Street Station, Edison's first large utility installation. Each of the six dynamos generated enough electricity to power 1,200 lights.

Photo of one of the Edison jumbo dynamos at Pearl Street station, Edison's first utility installation. Image includes 2 workers, and the Armington Sims steam engine direct connected to the dynamo.

Drawing of dynamo room in Pearl Street station. Shows workers and all six of the original dynamos.

Early Edison bi-polar generator, installed in Argentina.

Menlo Park lamp factory image. Includes executive staff - Philip S. Dyer, William J. Hammer, Francis R. Upton, and James Bradley

Drawing of Edison Machine Works, New York City, 1885.The Edison Machine Works moved to Schenectady in 1886.

Edison Machine Works office force, 104 Goerck Street, New York, 1885.Left to right - Theodore Van deVenter, Robert Losier, Quinn, Howard Maclean, General Manager Charles Batchelor, John Campbell, Superintendent McDougall, Ernest Berggren

Old model of Edison chemical 2-wire meter. The meter dates from the 1880s, but was photographed prior to the GE exhibit at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri. Edison developed this meter to measure electrical usage, a key element of a utility being able to charge for electrical consumption.

Edison employees participate in electric torchlight parade in New York City to promote the use of electric light

Two workers pose with Edison bipolar dynamo electric generators at the Kansas City Power and Light power plant.

Edison Machine Works, 1886 (1886/1887) by Edison Machine Works Museum of Innovation & Science

Edison Machine Works moves to Schenectady, 1886

Edison created a new company, the Edison Machine Works, to manufacture his power generating equipment. In 1886, Edison was looking to expand his machine works and looked for a new location. Harry Livor, one of Edison’s top sales agents, passed through Schenectady in May 1886 and noticed two vacant factory buildings in between the Erie Canal and New York Central rail line. Edison purchased the buildings in June 1886, and by December of that year had 300 workers building motors and dynamos in the two renovated factory buildings.

Edison Machine Works stock certificate, issued in 1889 to Thomas Edison.

A view of the Edison Machine Works, likely from the Erie Canal. The Edison Machine Works opened in 1886 with two buildings. The image is from later than 1886, since there are multiple buildings on the site. In 1892 the facility became known as the General Electric Schenectady Works after the merger between Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston.

Drawing of an early aerial view of the Edison Machine Works. Pictured are about half a dozen buildings.

Drawing of Edison's wire and wire insulation factory, part of the Edison Machine Works in Schenectady, New York.

Drawing of Edison underground tube manufacturing facility in Schenectady, New York, part of the Edison Machine Works.

Interior of Building 12, one of the two original buildings of the Edison Machine Works in Schenectady. The photo documents a flood during the spring of 1893. Machinery is partially under water, and three workers in a rowboat are rowing through the building.

Edison bi-polar generator (1893/1893) by General Electric Company Museum of Innovation & Science

Consolidation

In less than 15 years, the electrical industry transformed from a collection of small startup companies to a large industry dominated by two companies, GE and Westinghouse.  As the industry grew in the early 1880s, Edison and Thomson-Houston became two leaders, and purchased other companies to expand product lines or strengthen their patent control. Edison purchased Sprague Electric, which developed one of the first electric streetcar systems, while Thomson-Houston bought Brush Electric to strengthen its position in power generation and arc lighting, and Van Depoele Electric for its street railway system.

Aerial view shows the Edison General Electric Company, positioned between the Erie Canal and New York Central Railroad. The factory had grown to more than a dozen large buildings.

Mine equipment advertisement from Edison General Electric Company. Included electric generators, electric motors, transmission of power over long distance, electric percussion drills, electric rotary drills, electric coal cutters, and electric mine locomotives

Shows sizes of Edison dynamo generators, ranging from 0.5 kw to 200 kw

Edison built an experimental two-mile electric railway at his Menlo Park complex. The locomotive used an Edison dynamo as a motor.

Electric street car on Pittsburgh's Pleasant Valley Line. The car is parked in front of a large bank in downtown Pittsburgh.

Thomas Edison at a workbench (1900/1910) by General Electric Company Museum of Innovation & Science

Edison beyond electricity

Thomas Edison poses in front of a workbench at his West Orange, New Jersey laboratory complex. Edison largely backed away from electricity research after the formation of GE. Edison continued to develop the phonograph, invented motion pictures, and created the Edison Portland Cement Company. Edison became one of the most popular Americans, and his opinions were widely sought after for topics ranging from science and politics to healthy living and the occult.

Thomas Edison at the close of five days and nights of continued work in perfecting the early Wax-cylinder type of Phonograph - June 16, 1888. This is the longest continuous session of labor he ever performed.

Edison's improved wax cylinder phonograph was miniaturized and used on a doll. The cylinder would wear out quickly and give the doll a gravel-type voice.

Edison checks the quality of motion picture film, 1912. Next to him is one of early movie projectors, the Edison kinetoscope.

Edison works in the Chemical Department building in his West Orange, New Jersey laboratory complex, 1890

Thomas Edison reads while at work in a laboratory in his West Orange, New Jersey laboratory complex.

Edison poses in his West Orange laboratory with a Crookes tube used to discover the Edison effect, the basic principles of electronics.

Advertisement for Detroit Electric automobiles in the March 28, 1914 Saturday Evening Post, featuring Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.

Thomas Edison poses with a Bailey Electric Car. The car has a sign, which reads "1000 mile endurance run, Bailey Electric, new Edison storage batteries."

Lamp exhibit at World's Fair, Chicago, 1893 (1893/1893) by General Electric Company Museum of Innovation & Science

Legacy in lighting

Drawing of Edison lamp exhibit created by General Electric for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The exhibit featured displays at the base, and a large tower capped by a giant lamp.GE continued to improve Edison's incandescent lamp, developing a new ductile tungsten filament in 1908. As the costs of electricity and light bulbs continued to decline, electric lighting became affordable for the average American.

Featured in December 9, 1905 Electrical World and Engineer

A woman reclines on a Victorian style sofa while wearing a white dress and holding a General Electric Edison Mazda lamp. Mazda was GE's major lamp model name, beginning about 1908.

A woman stands in front of an oriental rug and holds a General Electric Edison Mazda lamp. Mazda was GE's major lamp model name, beginning about 1908.

200 Watt Edison Mazda Lamp with tungsten filament. Larger incandescent lamps finally began supplanting arc lamps for street lighting

Thomas Edison listens to GE inventor William Coolidge during Edison's visit to Schenectady on October 18, 1922. Coolidge is likely telling Edison about his ductile tungsten swaging machine. Coolidge discovered the process from making tungsten ductile, or flexible. Coolidge's discovery led to the use of tungsten as a lamp filament, replacing the carbon filament used by Edison.

Thomas A. Edison and Charles Steinmetz before Steinmetz's lightning generator. (1922/1922) by General Electric Company Museum of Innovation & Science

Edison visits Schenectady, 1922

On October 18, 1922, Thomas Edison returned to Schenectady to witness the transformation of his inventions. He visited the GE Research Laboratory to examine the latest developments in electric lighting, saw the GE turbine factory, and witnessed a demonstration of Charles Steinmetz's lightning machine.

Thomas Edison poses with top General Electric inventors during his visit to the GE Schenectady Works on October 18, 1922. From left to right: William Coolidge, Willis Whitney, Thomas Edison, Charles Steinmetz and Irving Langmuir

Thomas Edison and General Electric Honorary Chairman Edwin W. Rice, Jr. greet the Edison Pioneers during Edison's October 18, 1922 visit to GE's Schenectady Works.

Thomas Edison poses with the Edison Pioneers in front of the GE restaurant building. Taken during his visit to the GE Schenectady Works, October 18, 1922

Thomas Edison rides in car with GE engineer Charles Steinmetz during Edison's tour of General Electric's Schenectady Works.

Edison stands near an entrance to Building 5 at General Electric's Schenectady Works. Above the entrance is a plaque in Edison's honor created by GE porcelain specialist Julius Pardi. Pictured with Edison is Willis Whitney, Edwin Rice, Jr., Charles Steinmetz and Gerard Swope.

Edison autographed this photo to General Electric engineer Charles Steinmetz.

Thomas Edison and Charles Steinmetz examine a piece of wood and a porcelain insulator struck by lightning produced by Steinmetz's lightning generator.

General Electric President Edwin W. Rice, Jr., Thomas Edison, and Charles Steinmetz are among the group standing in front of the 5000 kW vertical Curtis turbine monument. The boy at the right of the image is probably Nicholas Mangino, who worked at GE as a messenger boy and accidentally ended up in the photo.

Thomas Edison and GE engineer William LeRoy Emmet stand next to a large turbine rotor. Emmet, together with GE engineer Oscar Junggren, developed the first large steam turbine generator in 1903. Building 60 was one of the early turbine buildings at GE.

The generator in the background generated sufficient electricity for two million Edison Mazda Lamps. The generators at Edison's Pearl Street Station in 1882 each generated enough electricity to power 1,200 lamps.

Edison re-creates lighting experiment, 1929 (1929/1929) by General Electric Company Museum of Innovation & Science

Later years

Edison examines a carbon filament during the re-creation of his lamp experiments at Greenfield Village during the Light's Golden Jubilee celebration in 1929. As the 50th anniversary of Edison's electric light approached, monuments, awards and accolades honored Edison's achievement. Henry Ford restored Edison's Menlo Park laboratories at Greenfield Village and the State of New Jersey honored Edison's work at the Menlo Park site. Edison died in 1931 at the age of 84.

Commemorative marker being unveiled to Thomas A. Edison, at Menlo Park, NJ, May 16, 1925. Thomas Edison and wife Mina are in front of the marker.

Three speeches by Thomas Edison in 1929.

Thomas Edison, at home, delivering his speech by radio for unveiling historic tablet at GE Schenectady Works, December 15, 1928.

Edison re-created his lamp experiment during the Light's Golden Jubilee radio broadcast in October 1929. Pictured behind Edison are Henry Ford and Francis Jehl. Jehl was one of Edison's chief assistants. Ford moved the remains of Menlo Park to his Greenfield Village attraction in Dearborn, Michigan and reconstructed the laboratory complex.

Edison working in the laboratory at his Fort Myers, Florida winter home

Employees look at an early Edison dynamo generator. At the time of the image, the dynamo was stored at General Electric's Schenectady Works.

This exhibit was developed in 2017 by miSci, the Museum of Innovation & Science. All photos were scanned from the General Electric Photograph Collection.

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