StudyBoss » Thomas Alva Edison

Thomas Alva Edison

Thomas Alva Edison was the most famous and prolific inventor of all time. During his life, over 1100 patents were issued to him or his associates; he was known as the wizard of Menlo Park, the town in New Jersey where he set up his first invention factory. Yet he was not really a scientist, having no theory or mathematics, and most of his success came from perfecting the ideas of others or already existing inventions by trial and error. He learned telegraphy on the railway, and his services as a telegrapher were in demand during the Civil War, hen he traveled all over the country, incidentally studying electricity.

In 1868 came his first invention: a machine to record votes in Congress. But Congress turned it down, because they were not interested in speeding up matters. Edison then resolved to work only on inventions that were commercially viable. His first such invention was an improvement on the ticker machine which transmitted stock market prices. At this particular time in U. S. history, when Wall Street and big business were more powerful than the government and an normous economic expansion was under way, this invention was so successful that Edison set up a small manufacturing plant to build ticker-tape machines, which he later sold at a profit.

This was the first instance of Edison’s ability to see what needed to be invented before inventing it. Next he made improvements to the telegraph, culminating in a system that allowed four messages to be sent on one wire. He also made improvements to the typewriter. By 1876 Edison quit manufacturing and set up his first invention factory, with employees to help him develop ideas. Their first inventions were improvements to the telephone, including a microphone. At this moment Edison had invented the concept of commercial inventing, which has dominated twentieth-century technology.

In 1877 Edison produced his most celebrated invention, certainly his own favorite: the phonograph. Edison’s device used a tinfoil-covered drum which was hand-cranked while a stylus traced a groove on it. The first recording ever made was of Edison’s own voice reciting Mary Had a Little Lamb. Typically, Edison had written out a list of ten uses for a sound-recording machine before he built it. He saw it as a useful office machine, and did not foresee the multimillion-dollar record industry of today, which has survived competition from radio, TV, and Edison’s own motion pictures.

In 1878 Edison, using his trial-and-error method, began research toward the development of an incandescent light bulb. He made thousands of experiments before achieving success with a charred cotton thread, sealed in a vacuum so that it would glow without being consumed. His team then worked out the principles of the generating and distributing system that made electric lights for every home practicable. In 882 the first generating plant was opened at Pearl Street in New York City. Edison used a direct-current system; a former associate of his, the U.

S. scientist of Croatian origin, Nikola Tesla, developed an alternating-current system for the rival Westinghouse company, which eventually prevailed. The Edison Electric Light Company, however, grew by mergers to become the General Electric Company. While working on the light bulb, Edison made his only real scientific discovery, the principle of the vacuum tube. At the time, however, there seemed to be no use for its properties; not until 1900 did the British lectrical engineer, John A. Fleming, discover and develop its potential for radio.

In 1887, Edison moved to a larger laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey. In 1889 he built a movie camera and later set up a small studio for making short movies for peep-show machines. Once again, however, the entertainment aspects of his invention did not really appeal to him, and it was finally left to others to develop the movie industry. Electricity illuminates parts of New York beginning September 4, 1982, as Thomas Edison throws a switch in the offices of financier J. P. Morgan to light the offices and inaugurate commercial transmission of electric power from the Morgan-financed Edison Illuminating Co. ower plant on Pearl Street.

The company will soon supply current to all of Manhattan and it will develop into the Consolidated Edison Co. , prototype of all central-station U. S. power companies. This day marks one of the most gigantic leaps of technology as no longer would we have to depend on sunlight and or candles to work. This means our productivity time was doubled! Without the invention of the lightbulb, out lives would be incredibly different. Even in the most rural of places electricity is a must and is still depended on.

It is something we use every day and its utility boosts Edison up to the 4th position in my mind. Also his invention of the phonograph revolutionized the music industry as is made listening to music at home possible for the first time. Also his invention of the vacuum tube helped not only the radio invention but it was one of the key instruments in the first computer, another invention which I cannot possibly imagine life without. Such an inventor should not go unnoticed in time and thats why I ranked him 4th.

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StudyBoss » Thomas Alva Edison

Thomas Alva Edison

Thomas Alva Edison is one of Americas most famous inventors. He invented the sound recording device, motion picture, and the light bulb. Thomas Edison was an amazing man who accomplished many historically important successes during his lifetime. Edison obtained 1,o93 United States Patents in telegraphy, phonography, electric lighting and photography. Some of the inventions that Edison Discovered were improvements of other inventions, some were things that he invented himself, some things with other peoples help and some he just stumbled onto. Edison was most proud of his invention of the phonography.

Edison tried to invent things that everyone could use. Edison created the first invention factory to invent things. Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio in February 11, 1847 and died on October 18, 1931 in West Orange, New Jersey. Edison was the seventh and last child of Samuel and Nancy Edison. His parents had no special background. His mother was a former school teacher and his father was a jack-of-all trades. He ran grocery stores to real estate to carpenting. Edison was a very curios child who asked lots of questions. His brothers and sisters were Marion, William, Calie, Harriet, Samuel, and Eliza.

At the age of seven Edisons family moved to Port Haron, Michigan. This is were Edison Began School. After 3 months of going to school Edisons teacher consider him a dull student. Edisons mom pulled him out of school and starting to teach him herself at home. His parents didnt force him to learn things that he didnt enjoy. They encouraged him to learn on his own. They were dedicated in teaching him. They wanted him to learn about things that interested him most. When he was nine years old his mom gave him a elementary science book. It explained how to chemistry experiments at home. Edison did every experiment in the book.

Soon he loved chemistry and started spending all of his spare time and money buying and doing chemistry experiments. At the age of ten he had a science lab in his basement. His parents didnt like this. He spent to much time doing this. Edison was always out working to help support his family and for his experiments. Edison got his first job at the age of twelve as a train boy on the Grand Trunk Railway. Edison sold newspapers and candy to passengers. He also printed a newspaper every week called the Grand Trunk Herald. After about a year he got permission to move his science labatory to an empty train car.

One day the train jerked really hard spilling chemicals everywhere and catching them on fire. The train conductor through him off the train. Then he got a job at the train station selling newspapers. Edison had many ear problems throughout his childhood. When he was fifteen he was grabed by the ear really hard and almost became totally deaf. It could of been fixed with an operation but, he would rather be deaf. It would help him concentrate he said. He started reading a lot after this, he went through shelf by shelf reading every book in the Detriot Free Library. He like reading the science books the best.

After reading lots of books he realized his future would be in finding ways to make our lives better instead of just learning how something works. One day while Edison was selling newspapers at the train station something happened that changed his life forever. Edison saved the life of a station officials child. The child had fell onto the tracks of an oncoming train. The childs dad thanked Edison by teaching him how to use the telegraph. This is were it all began, after this Edison started inventing and discovering things all the time. Edison made a telegraph out of scrap metal to practice the morse code.

At the age of sixteen he moved to Toronto, Canada to be a telegraph assistant. His job was to report to Toronto every hour by telegraph signal. He made a transmitter and reciever for the automatic telegraph. This way he could send signals while he was sleeping. This was his first invention. He moved back to the United States later in his teens and went city to city working with different telegraph offices. He was fascinated with the telegraph and he was also an expert at it. In his early 20’s he made it possible for the telegraph to send more than on message at a time.

One day he decided to quit his job. He borrowed some money from a friend and lived in his basement. He decided to become a inventor and devote all of his time to it. The first invention he tried to sell and make money on didnt succeed right away. It was the electric vote recorder, which is used today to count votes. Once he fixed a broken stock ticker so well he was hired to build new ones. Within the next year he invented the universal stock printer. He sold the rights for the stock ticker for $40,000. With all this money he started a business in Newark, New Jersey.

He built stock tickers and high speed printing telegraphs and he also improved the typewriter. After six years at doing this he became a poor financial manager. He began to have money problems. He asked his father to help him build a new invention factory. He built this new building in the village of Menlo Park, New Jersey. Edison promised that he would build a small invention every ten days and a big one every six months. Sixty people could work in the new factory. The first invention that came out of the factory was the carbon telephone transmitter which is still used today.

Edison achieved his greatest success in the new factory. Shortly after this Edison invented the phonograph. This was his favorite invention. This machine was a talking machine and a sound writing. Then his next big invention was the light bulb. This invention was a huge success in the world. People have been trying to make this forever and now it was possible. After all these great invention just came more. He made the first power station. This power station powered New York City. Then he discovered the electron tube. Without this ther might not have radios, T. V. , cds, computers, x-ray machines, or space travel.

The inventions go on and on. In 1887 he moved from his labatory in Menlo Park to a bigger and better invention factory. This factory was ten times bigger and could hold up to five hundred workers. This is were he discovered lots more inventions. Thomas Edison had a huge impact on the United States. He never stopped, he just kept going and going. Thomas Edison never inventing until he died at the age of eithyfour on Sunday, October 18, 1931. Three days after is death the United States dimmed there lights to honor his memory for a minute.

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