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Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures.
- Madeleine
He married Thomas Edison's daughter, Madeleine, and they had...
- Mina Miller
Mina Miller Edison (July 6, 1865 – August 24, 1947) was an...
- Charles Edison
Charles Edison (August 3, 1890 – July 31, 1969) was an...
- Milan, Ohio
Milan (/ ˈ m aɪ l ən / MY-lən) is a village in Erie and...
- Edison (Disambiguation)
Edison General Electric, founded by Thomas Edison; Edison...
- Thomas Edison National Historical Park
Thomas Edison National Historical Park preserves Thomas...
- Rebellion of 1837
The Rebellions of 1837–1838 (French: Rébellions de 1837),...
- Motion Pictures
Early sound-film systems, such as Thomas Edison's...
- Black Maria
Edison's Black Maria Studio A drawing of the exterior from...
- Menlo Park, New Jersey
Menlo Park is an unincorporated community within Edison...
- Madeleine
- Overview
- Early years
Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, on February 11, 1847.
When did Thomas Edison die?
Thomas Edison died on October 18, 1931, in West Orange, New Jersey.
How did Thomas Edison become famous?
Thomas Edison unveiled the phonograph—which reproduced sounds by means of the vibration of a stylus following a groove on a rotating disc—in December 1877. The public’s amazement surrounding this invention was quickly followed by universal acclaim. Edison was projected into worldwide prominence and was dubbed the Wizard of Menlo Park.
How did Thomas Edison change the world?
In 1854 Samuel Edison became the lighthouse keeper and carpenter on the Fort Gratiot military post near Port Huron, Michigan, where the family lived in a substantial home. Alva, as the inventor was known until his second marriage, entered school there and attended sporadically for five years. He was imaginative and inquisitive, but, because much instruction was by rote and he had difficulty hearing, he was bored and was labeled a misfit. To compensate, he became an avid and omnivorous reader. Edison’s lack of formal schooling was not unusual. At the time of the Civil War the average American had attended school a total of 434 days—little more than two years’ schooling by today’s standards.
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In 1859 Edison quit school and began working as a trainboy on the railroad between Detroit and Port Huron. Four years earlier, the Michigan Central had initiated the commercial application of the telegraph by using it to control the movement of its trains, and the Civil War brought a vast expansion of transportation and communication. Edison took advantage of the opportunity to learn telegraphy and in 1863 became an apprentice telegrapher.
Messages received on the initial Morse telegraph were inscribed as a series of dots and dashes on a strip of paper that was decoded and read, so Edison’s partial deafness was no handicap. Receivers were increasingly being equipped with a sounding key, however, enabling telegraphers to “read” messages by the clicks. The transformation of telegraphy to an auditory art left Edison more and more disadvantaged during his six-year career as an itinerant telegrapher in the Midwest, the South, Canada, and New England. Amply supplied with ingenuity and insight, he devoted much of his energy toward improving the inchoate equipment and inventing devices to facilitate some of the tasks that his physical limitations made difficult. By January 1869 he had made enough progress with a duplex telegraph (a device capable of transmitting two messages simultaneously on one wire) and a printer, which converted electrical signals to letters, that he abandoned telegraphy for full-time invention and entrepreneurship.
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Nov 9, 2009 · Thomas Edison was a prolific inventor and businessman whose inventions include the phonograph, incandescent light bulb, motion picture camera and alkaline battery.
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Who was Thomas Alva Edison?
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and entrepreneur, who invented many things. [1] Edison developed one of the first practical light bulbs, but contrary to popular belief did not invent the light bulb.
- October 18, 1931 (aged 84), West Orange, New Jersey, United States
Apr 2, 2014 · Thomas Edison is an American inventor who is considered one of America's leading businessmen and innovators. He is credited with inventions such as the first practical incandescent light bulb and the phonograph. He held over 1,000 patents for his inventions and worked as an entrepreneur and innovator in various fields. Learn more about his life, education, inventions, and quotes.
Learn about the life and inventions of Thomas Alva Edison, one of the most famous and prolific inventors of all time. Explore his early years, telegraph work, and motion picture and sound recordings projects.
Learn about the life and achievements of Thomas Alva Edison, the inventor of the phonograph, motion picture, electric light bulb and more. Explore his early days, education, inventions, patents and legacy.
