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Edison,
Thomas Alva American inventor Born: Milan, Ohio, February 11, 1847 Died: West Orange, New Jersey, October 18, 1931 | |||||||||
| "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration" - Thomas Alva Edison Edison Nobel |
Edison came from a poor family and his mother took him out of school at an early age. He turned to books for an education and got a job at the age of twelve, delivering newspapers. He used the money he earned to purchase equipment and materials for experiments. He then bought a second hand printing press and installed it in a train, publishing a weekly newspaper. He also setup a chemical laboratory on the train. When this caused a fire he was thrown off the train. In 1869 Edison went to New York and decided to become a professional inventor. He then invented the stock ticker, selling it to a firm on Wall Street. He setup the first company of consulting engineers in the USA. At that time, Edison was twenty-three years old. In 1876 Edison setup a laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey to do industrial research. While there, he improved the telephone that Bell had invented and made it practical to use. He also invented the phonograph, the forerunner of what became known as the record player. In one four year stretch, Edison registered over 300 patents, or roughly, one every five days. For this reason he became known as the Wizard of Menlo Park. In 1879 Edison invented the modern light bulb, creating the filament from burnt cotton. The bulb burned continuously for 40 hours and was a great success, being immediately put to use in lighting the streets of New York. Edison also invented the strips of film used in motion pictures. Edison was elected a member of the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in 1960. | |||||||||
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