Edison is the fourth most prolific inventor in history, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He is credited with numerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications.
These included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures. His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his early career as a telegraph operator. Edison developed a system of electric-power generation and distribution to homes, businesses, and factories – a crucial development in the modern industrialized world. His first power station was on Pearl Street in Manhattan, New York
Achievement and Superb Facts about Thomas Alva Edison
- When Edison turned 9, his mother gave him an elementary science book on how to do chemistry experiments at home. Edison was hooked: he did every experiments in the book and soon spent all his spare money buying chemicals.
- At the tender age of 10, Edison built his first science laboratory in the basement of his family's home. His father tried to bribe him with a penny if only Edison would get out of the basement and go read a book. This he did, but he also used the penny to buy more chemicals for experiments. And to make sure no one took his prized chemicals, he labeled all his bottles "poison."
- At around the age of 12, Edison started to lose his hearing. One legend has it that a train conductor smacked him in the ears after he started a fire in a boxcar by doing experiments. Edison himself said that he was injured when the conductor picked him up by the ears onto a moving train.
- Others had said that it caused by a bout of scarlet fever during childhood. In all likelihood it was a genetic condition as both Edison's father and one of his brothers also suffered from hearing loss.
- Oh, one more thing: Edison actually did have a laboratory in a boxcar that caught on fire! Then 12-year-old Edison took a job selling newspaper and candies on the Grand Trunk Railroad from Port Huron to Detroit. He set up a lab for chemistry experiments and a printing press in the baggage car, where he published the Grand Trunk Herald, the first newspaper published on a train.
- At the Grand Trunk Railroad, 14-year-old Edison saved 3-year-old Jimmie MacKenzie from a runaway boxcar. Jimmie's father, station agent J.U. MacKenzie was so grateful that he taught Edison how to operate the telegraph machine.
- Later, Edison became a telegraph operator for Western Union. He requested the night shift so he could have more time for his experiments. One day he accidentally spilled sulphuric acid while experimenting on a battery. The acid ran between the floorboards and onto his boss' desk below. Needless to say, Edison was fired the next morning.
- In 1869, when Edison was just 22 years old, he got his first patent for a telegraphic vote-recording machine for the legislature. Each legislator would move a switch on Edison's machine that would record his vote on a particular bill.
- The chairman of the committee, unimpressed with the speed with which the instrument could record votes, told him that "if there is any invention on earth that we don't want down here, that is it." The slow pace of roll call voting in Congress and other legislatures enabled members to filibuster legislation or convince others to change their votes. Edison's vote recorder was never used. (Source: The Edison Papers)
- On Christmas Day in 1871, at the age of 24, Edison married his 16-year old employee Mary Stilwell, after meeting her just two months earlier. By February, Edison was exasperated at his wife's inability to invent that he wrote in his diary "Mrs Mary Edison My wife Dearly Beloved Cannot invent worth a Damn!!" and "My Wife Popsy Wopsy Can't Invent." Mary gave birth to three children, the first two Edison nicknamed "Dot" and "Dash."
- According to a 1911 policy with the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, Edison had five dots tattooed on his left forearm. No one knew what the dots meant.
- Interestingly, Edison was credited for inventing the basic tattoo machine. In 1876, he patented the Stencil-Pens, an engraving device that many years later was modified by Samuel O'Reilly to make the world's first tattoo machine.
- Thomas Edison is an American inventor and is one of the greatest inventors of all time.
- With the invention of the phonograph in 1877, he acquired fame as The Wizard of Menlo Park.
- He formed the Edison Electric Light Company in 1878 in New York City. This was done with the help of several other financiers.
- It has also been said that he tested about 6,000 vegetable growths. This was for the purpose of filaments to be used in his light bulbs.
- He also invented the carbon microphone between the period 1877-1878. This was used in all the telephones of the period.
- He was one of the pioneering researchers in the field of motion cameras and made one of the first designs for the same.
- After Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered X-rays in 1895, Edison directed his employee, a glassblower named Clarence Dally to develop a fluoroscope (then called the Edison X-ray focus tube). The device was a commercial success and ultimately became the basis of modern fluoroscopy used in hospitals today.
- At the time, X-rays were not believed to be dangerous and Clarence had a habit of testing X-ray tubes on his hands. In 1900, he had developed lesion on his wrist that wouldn't heal after several skin grafts and was so tenacious that his hand had to be amputated. Edison kept Dally on his payroll, even when he was so sick that he couldn't work any more. Clarence's condition worsened and even after the amputations of both of his arms, he died of cancer.
- In 1887, Edison embarked on a project that would later prove to be a huge fiasco. He proposed an idea of extracting iron from low-grade ore and was immediately ridiculed by an editorial who called the idea "Edison's Folly." The stubborn Edison immediately invested his own money and built a huge plant and a town around it, only to find years later that it would be far cheaper to mine iron ores!
- At the outbreak of World War I, Edison designed, built, and operated plants for the manufacture of benzene, carbolic acid, and aniline derivatives.
- In 1915 he was appointed president of the U.S. Navy Consulting Board and in that capacity made many valuable discoveries. His later work consisted mainly of improving and perfecting previous inventions.
- Edison died in West Orange on October 18, 1931.
- I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others... I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent....
- My principal business consists of giving commercial value to the brilliant, but misdirected, ideas of others.... Accordingly, I never pick up an item without thinking of how I might improve it.
- I readily absorb ideas from every source, frequently starting where the last person left off.
- I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
- Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
- We often miss opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work”
- Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”
- Faith, as well intentioned as it may be, must be built on facts, not fiction--faith in fiction is a damnable false hope.
- Hell, there are no rules here-- we're trying to accomplish something.
- I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun.
- I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident
- If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.
- Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.
- Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
- Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
- I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
- Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
- Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
- Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.
- The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: Hard work, Stick-to-itiveness, and Common sense.
- Restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.
- Nearly every man who develops an idea works at it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then gets discouraged. that's not the place to become discouraged.
- The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest her or his patients in the care of the human frame, in a proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.
- There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.
- To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.
- If we all did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.”
- Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.”
- When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this - you haven't.”
- Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to try just one more time.”
- Vision without execution is hallucination.
- A good idea is never lost. Even though its originator or possessor may die without publicizing it, it will someday be reborn in the mind of another....
- I never did anything worth doing entirely by accident.... Almost none of my inventions were derived in that manner. They were achieved by having trained myself to be analytical and to endure and tolerate hard work.
- If we all did the things we are really capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves....
- Our schools are not teaching students to think. It is astonishing how many young people have difficulty in putting their brains definitely and systematically to work....
- use something doesn't do what you planned it to do in the first place doesn't mean it's useless....
- Surprises and reverses can serve as an incentive for great accomplishment. There are no rules here, we're just trying to accomplish something.
- The only time I really become discouraged is when I think of all the things I would like to do and the little time I have in which to do them.
- The thing I lose patience with the most is the clock. Its hands move too fast.
- Whatever the mind of man creates, should be controlled by man's character.
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