Thomas Edison Biography

Thomas

Edison

(1847

1931)

was

an

American

inventor

and

businessman who developed and made commercially available many

key inventions of modern life. His Edison Electric company was a
pioneering company for delivering DC electricity directly into peoples
homes. He filed over 1,000 patents for a variety of different inventions.
Crucially, he used mass-produced techniques to make his inventions
available at low cost to households across America. His most important
inventions include, the electric light bulb. the phonograph, the motion
picture camera, an electric car and electric power station.
None of my inventions came by accident. I see a
worthwhile need to be met and I make trial after trial until it
comes. What it boils down to is one per cent inspiration and
ninety-nine per cent perspiration.
Thomas Edison, interview 1929
Short Biography Thomas Edison

Thomas

Edison

was

born in Milan, Ohio on Feb 11, 1847, the youngest of seven siblings. His
parents were middle class, though they were not wealthy, especially
when the railroad bypassed Milan, forcing the family to move to Port
Huron, Michigan. He attended only three months of formal schooling, he
irritated his teacher with his repeated questioning and inability to just

follow instructions. He was largely disinterested at school, and was

mainly self-educated through reading. He took upon it himself to read
every book on the library shelf. By the age of 12, he was reading Sir Isaac
Newtons famous work Principa Mathematica. However, Edison was not
impressed by the complex maths of Newton, and resolved to try and
make science more understandable.
As a youngster he tried various odd jobs to earn a living. This including
selling candy, vegetables and newspapers. He had a talent for business,
and he successfully printed the Grand Trunk Herald along with his other
newspapers. This included selling photos of his hero, Abraham Lincoln.
He was able to spend his extra income on a growing chemistry set.
Unfortunately, from an early age, Edison developed a severe deafness,
which ultimately left him almost 90% deaf. He would later refuse any
medical treatment, saying it would be too difficult to retrain his thinking
process. He seemed to take his deafness in his stride, and never saw it
as a disability.

Edison had a big break when

he saved a young boy on the railway track from being struck by a
runaway train. His grateful father, J.U. Mckenzie, had Edison trained as a
telegraph operator, and aged 19, Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky to
work as a telegraph operator for Western Union.
From childhood, Edison loved to experiment, especially with chemicals.
however, these experiments often got Edison into difficulties. A
chemistry experiment once exploded on a train, and when working on a

night shift at Western Union, his lead acid battery leaked sulphuric acid
through the floor onto his boss desk. Edison was fired the next day.
However,

Edison

was

undimmed

and

despite

scrapping

by

in

impoverished conditions for the next few years, he was able to spend
most of his time working on inventions. He received his first patent in
June 1, 1869 for the stock ticker. This would later earn him a considerable
sum.
In the 1870s, he sold the rights to the quadruplex telegraph to Western
Union for $10,000. This gave him the financial backing to establish a
proper research laboratory and extend his experiments and innovations.
Edison once described his invention methods as involving a lot of hard
work, and repeated trial and error until a method was successful.
During all those years of experimentation and research, I
never once made a discovery. All my work was deductive,
and the results I achieved were those of invention, pure and
simple. I would construct a theory and work on its lines until
I found it was untenable. I speak without exaggeration
when I say that I have constructed 3,000 different theories
in connection with the electric light, each one of them
reasonable and apparently likely to be true. Yet only in two
cases did my experiments prove the truth of my theory.
Talks with Edison by G.P Lathrop in Harpers magazine, Vol. 80 (Feb.
1890), p. 425
By 1877, he had developed the phonograph (an early form of the
gramophone player) This received widespread interest, and people were
astonished at one of the first audio recording devices. This unique
invention, earned Edison the nickname The Wizard of Menlo Park
Edisons device would later be improved upon by others, but he made a
big step in creating the first recording device.
With William Joseph Hammer, Edison started producing the electric light
bulb, and it was a great commercial success. Edisons great advance was
to use a carbonised bamboo filament that could last over 1,000 hours. In

1878, he formed the Edison Electric light Company to profit from this
invention. Edison successfully predicted that he could make electric light
so cheap, it would soon come universal. To capitalise on the success of
the electric light bulb, he also work on electricity distribution. His first
power station was able to distribute DC current to 59 customers in lower
Manhattan.
Edisons studios now took up two blocks, and it was able to stock a huge
range of natural resources, meaning that almost anything and everything
could be used in trying to improve designs. This was a big factor in
enabling Edison to be so successful in this era of innovation.
During the fledgling years of electricity generation, Edison became
involved in a battle between his DC current system and the AC
(alternative current) system favoured by George Westinghouse (and
developed by Nikola Tesla, who worked for Edison for two years before
leaving in a pay dispute.)
This became known as the current war and both sides were desperate
to show the superiority of their system. The Edison company even, on
occasion, electrocuted animals to show how dangerous the rival AC
current was.
During World War One, Edison was asked to serve as a naval consultant,
but Edison only wanted to work on defensive weapons. He was proud
that he made no invention that could be used to kill. He maintained a
strong belief in non-violence.
Nonviolence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal
of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living
beings, we are still savages.
Edison was also a great admirer of the enlightenment thinker Thomas
Paine. He wrote a book praising Paine in 1925, he also shared similar
religious beliefs to Thomas Paine no particular religion, but belief in a
Supreme Being.

Edison made many important inventions and development in media.

These included the Kinetoscope (or peep hole view), the first motion
pictures and improved photographic paper.
After the death of his first wife, Mary Stilwell in 1884, Edison left Menlo
Park and moved to West Orange, New Jersey. In 1886, he remarried Mina
Miller. In West Orange, he became friends with industrial magnate, Henry
Ford and was an active participant in the Civitan club which involved
doing things for the local community. His pace of invention slowed down
in these final years, but he still kept busy, such as trying to find a
domestic source of natural rubber. He was also involved in the first
electric train to depart from Hoboken in 1930.
Throughout his life, he took an active interest in correct diet, and
believed a good diet could play a large role in improving health. In 1903,
he was quoted as saying:
The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will
instruct his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet
and in the cause and prevention of disease.
He had six children, three from each marriage. Edison died of diabetes in
October 18, 1931.
Citation : Pettinger, Tejvan. Biography of Thomas Edison , Oxford, UK
www.biographyonline.net Last updated 17th July 2013
Quotes by Thomas Edison
Through all the years of experimenting and research, I
never once made a discovery. I start where the last man left
off. All my work was deductive, and the results I achieved
were those of invention pure and simple.
As quoted in Makers of the Modern World : The Lives of Ninety-two
Writers,

Artists,

Scientists,

Statesmen,

Inventors,

Philosophers,

Composers, and Other Creators who Formed the Pattern of Our Century
(1955) by Louis Untermeyer, p. 227
We dont know a millionth of one percent about anything.

As quoted in Golden Book (April 1931), according to Stevensons Book of

Quotations (Cassell 3rd edition 1938) by Burton Egbert Stevenson
If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would
literally astound ourselves.
As quoted in Motivating Humans : Goals, Emotions, and Personal Agency
Beliefs (1992) by Martin E. Ford, p. 17
To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.
As quoted in Behavior-Based Robotics (1998) by Ronald C. Arkin. p. 8
Just because something doesnt do what you planned it to
do doesnt mean its useless.
Everyone steals in commerce and industry. Ive stolen a
lot, myself. But I know how to steal! They dont know how to
steal!
As quoted in Tesla : The Modern Sorcerer (1999) by Daniel Blair Stewart,
p. 411
I consider Paine our greatest political thinker. As we have
not advanced, and perhaps never shall advance, beyond
the Declaration and Constitution, so Paine has had no
successors who extended his principles.
The Philosophy of Paine (1925)
In Common Sense Paine flared forth with a document so
powerful that the Revolution became inevitable. Washington
recognized the difference, and in his calm way said that
matters never could be the same again..
The Philosophy of Paine (1925)