Thomas Edison
71Early life:
Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, USA on 11th February 1847. He had scarlet fever as a boy, which made him partly deaf.
Edison loved doing experiments, finding out how things workede and trying to improve them. But he started to work when he was twelve. His first job was selling newspapers on trains.
Working and inventing :
In 1862 Edison was taught to use the telegraph. He worked as a telegraph operator by night, leaving the day free for his experiments.
Edison sold his first patent when he was 23. It was for a machine that sent stock prices by telegraph. He expected to get $ 3000 but got $40,000!
New Jersey:
Edison started a business in Newark,New Jersey.His first job was to improve the telegraph. He also patented 1093 of his own invention.
Alexander Bell Patented the telephone while Edison was still working on the idea. But Edison improved the design so people could talk over hundreds of Kilometers, and not just a few.
Menlo Park:
In 1876 Edison moved his business to Men lo Park, near New York. In 1878 he patented the Phonograph. This was a machine that recorded and played back words.
Two of his workers made the first Phonograph. Edison said, 'this machine's going to talk.' He recited 'Mary had a little lamb' into it. The machine played it back.
Electric light:
On 21 October 1879, Edison and his team tested the electric light bulb. They lit up the whole laboratory. Edison put on a public show, which as a huge success.
Edison and his team then had to find a way to safely make a lot of electric power station in England in 1882.
Later inventions:
Edison's Kinetoscope was one of the earliest moving-picture cameras (for making films). He used it in a building on wheels, which moved to follow the sun across the sky!
In October 1929 Edison opened a museum set up by Henry Ford, another inventor. One exhibit was a replica of Edison's Men lo Park laboratory. Edison retired to New Jersey and died on 18 October 1931.
Photographs:
There are many ways we can find out qbout Thomas Edison and his inventions. Photos show us what he and his family looked like.
There are also photos of Edison"s many inventions, even photos of his workers! This photo,taken in 1876, shows them outside the Newark workshop.
Written Clues:
Newspapers wrote about the most exciting of Edison's inventions. Other written records include lists of the films he made, and adverts for his inventions.
Edison used workbooks to sketch his ideas and work out inventions. He filled 3400 workbooks, each with 200 pages. This page shows his notes on the phonograph.
Inventions.:
Some museums have Edison's inventions on show. Here is one of the first phonograph, an early record player.
This is one of Edison's first kinetograph. This was his name for moving-picture cameras. Edison's first film showed one of his workers acting a sneeze.
Museums:
Several museums have displays about Edison. This is the Edison museum in West Orange, New jersey. Edison retired here, and he built a workshop so he could keep on inventing.
This is replica of Men lo Park in the Henry Ford Museum, Dear born, Michigan. Everything is copied exactly from Edison's building. The real buildings were not strong enough to be moved.
PrintShare it! — Rate it: up down flag this hub
