Thomas Alva Edison biography

Thomas Alva Edison he had a major effect on the lives of people around the world Thomas Edison's remembered most for the electric light his phonograph and his work with motion pictures 

Thomas Edison's major inventions were designed and built in the last years of the 1800s however most of them had their greatest effect in the 20th century it is extremely difficult to find anyone living today who has not been affected in some way by Thomas Edison 

most people on earth have seen some kind of motion picture or heard some kind of sound recording and almost everyone has at least seen an electric light these are only three of the many devices 

Thomas Edison invented or helped to improve people living in this century have had easier and more enjoyable lives because of his inventions Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11th, 1847 in the small town of Milan Ohio 

he was the youngest of seven children Thomas Edison was self-taught he went to school for only three months his teacher thought he could not learn because he had a mental problem 

but young Tom Edison could learn he learned from books and he experimented at the age of 10 he built his own chemical laboratory he experimented with chemicals and electricity 

he built a telegraph machine and quickly learned to send and receive Telegraph messages at the time sending electric signals over wires was the fastest method of sending information long distances at the age of 16 he went to work as a telegraph operator he later worked in many different places he continued to experiment with electricity 

when he was 21 he sent the United States government the documents needed to request legal protection for his first invention the government gave him his first patent on an electric device 

he called an electrographic vote recorder it used electricity to count votes in an election in the summer months of 1869 the Western Union Telegraph Company asked 

Thomas Edison to improve a device that was used to send financial information was called a stock printer Mr. Edison very quickly made great improvements in the device the company paid him forty thousand dollars for his effort that was a lot of money for the time this large amount of money permitted Mr. Edison to start his own company he announced that the company would improve 

existing Telegraph devices and work on new inventions Mr. Edison told friends that his new company would invent a minor device every 10 days and produce what he called a big trick about every six months he also proposed that his company would make inventions to order 

he said that if someone needed a device to do some kind of work just ask and it would be invented within a few weeks Thomas Edison and his employees were working on more than 40 different projects they were either new inventions or would lead to improvements in other devices very quickly 

he was asking the United States government for patents to protect more than 100 devices or inventions each year he was an extremely busy man but then Thomas Edison was always very busy 

he almost never slept more than four or five hours a night he usually worked 18 hours each day because he enjoyed what he was doing he believed no one really needed much sleep he once said that anyone could learn to go without sleep 

Thomas Edison did not enjoy talking to reporters he thought it was a waste of time however he did talk to a reporter in 1917 he was 70 years old at the time and still working on new devices and inventions 

the reporter asked Mr. Edison which of his many inventions he enjoyed the most he answered quickly the phonograph he said the phonograph was really the most interesting he also said it took longer to develop the machine to reproduce than any other of his inventions Thomas Edison told the reporter that he had listened to many thousands of recordings

he especially liked music by Brahms Verdi and Beethoven he also liked popular music many of the recordings that Thomas Edison listened to in 1917 can still be enjoyed today his invention makes it possible for people around the world to enjoy the same recorded sound the reporter also asked Thomas Edison what was the hardest invention to develop he answered quickly again the electric light he said that

 it was the most difficult and the most important before the electric light was invented light was provided in most homes and buildings by oil or natural gas both caused many fires each year neither one produced much light 

Mr. Edison had seen a huge and powerful electric light he believed that a smaller electric light would be extremely useful he and his employees began work on the electric light an electric light passes electricity through a material called a filament or wire the electricity makes the filament burn and produce light 

Thomas Edison and his employees worked for many months to find the right material to act as the filament time after time a new filament would produce light for a few moments and then burn 

up at last Mr. Edison found that a carbon fiber produced light and lasted a long time without burning up the electric light worked at first people thought the electric light was extremely interesting but had no value homes and businesses did not have electricity there was no need for it 

Mr. Edison started a company that provided electricity for electric lights for a small price each month the small company grew slowly at first then it expanded rapidly his company was the beginning of the electric power industry 

Thomas Edison also was responsible for the very beginnings of the movie industry while he did not invent the idea of the motion picture he greatly improved the process he also invented the modern motion picture film 

when motion pictures first were shown in the late 1800s people came to see movies of almost anything a ship people walking on the street new automobiles but in time these moving pictures were no longer interesting in 1903 an employee of Thomas Edison's 

Motion Picture Company produced a movie with a story it was called the Great Train Robbery it told a simple story of a group of Western criminals who steal money from a train later they are killed by a group of police in a gunfight the movie was extremely popular the Great Train Robbery started the huge motion picture industry 

Thomas Alva Edison is remembered most for the electric light his phonograph and his work with motion pictures however he also invented several devices that greatly improved the telephone he improved several kinds of machines called generators that produced electricity he improved batteries that hold electricity he worked on many different kinds of electric motors 

Including those for electric trains Mr. Edison also is remembered for making changes in the invention process he moved from the nineteenth-century method of individual doing the inventing to the twentieth-century method using a team of researchers in 1913 a popular magazine at the time called Thomas Edison 

The most useful man in America in 1928 he received a special medal of honor from the Congress of the United States Thomas Edison died on January 6 1931 in the months before his death he was still working very hard he had asked the government for legal protection for his last invention it was patent number 1093.

 THANK YOU SO MUCH