Thomas Edison: One Of The Greatest Inventors Of All Times

The curiosity of science and experiments shaped Thomas Alva Edison into the greatest inventor that America has ever witnessed. Born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio, young Thomas Edison was prone to getting into trouble and creating chaos. Through his adolescent rebellious acts to discover new things and recreate experiences he read about led to a genius mind that would one day change America forever by inventing the incandescent light bulb, phonograph, kinetoscope and many more inventions.

At the age of 8 years old, Edison attended school for the first time and was very difficult to teach due to the fact he was always daydreaming. One day he overheard a teacher say he was “addled,” another word for stupid, and went home to tell his mother. From that moment, his mother withdrew him from school and vowed to homeschool him, on account of being well-educated herself. Compared to the teachings of public school and Alva’s mother was very different, such as, public schools preferred teaching was to get children to memorize in which young Alva despised. Whereas, Alva’s mother would read him novels and plays that are far more complicated, such as, Dickens’s novels and Shakespeare plays. Often, she would encourage Alva to read on his own. This lead to him reading a kid version of a science book filled with ways to create experiments all on his own and in no time he was experimenting all of them. The more he enjoyed reading and science the more he lost interest in family business and helping around the household. All of his allowances were spent in drugstores to buy supplies for his new experiments. Due to the fact that most of his work was so messy, his parents pushed him to do the rest of his scientific work in the cellar to avoid the chemical mess in his bedroom.

Although Alva was enjoying his time being a chemist he would soon be the main source of his family income when he got his first job on the Grand Trunk Railroad, where his work included selling snacks and newspaper to passengers who boarded the train that reached a total of 63 miles from Port Huron from Detroit. During his first employment on the railroad, he grew fascinated with Detroit and the machine shops in the city. The city had the main industry that produced chemicals which contributed to the ones he had back home. Eventually, with the permission of the conductor Alexander Stevenson, he transferred his self-made laboratory onto the baggage car of the train and worked on experiments in his free time. However, after one day when two chemicals mixed together that caused the baggage-car to abrupt in a fire his little lab was banned from the train. As the legend goes, after the fact the fire erupted Stevenson boxed Alva’s ear which most likely caused the partial deafness for Alva. When Alva took interest in becoming a traveling telegrapher he often found himself in and out of jobs, considering the fact that he encountered many failed experiments that had caused physical damage to his workplace and/or took too much of his attention from work. Although, interested in telegraphing in the beginning, Alva found himself yearning to invent.

With all the traveling, Alva ended staying in Boston due to the start of the Industrial Revolution that would soon open up new opportunities for the young determined tinker. In his short time in Boston, Alva had created the duplex telegraph that would soon fail. However, inspired by the election vote slow process he was motivated to create a tally machine, based off a telegraph, that would simply have a yes or no button and the total votes would be automatically counted. Although, failure to have his invention sold, this invention rewarded him with his first patent. Through many more failures and adventures, he met his first wife Mary. After wedding Marry, they moved to Newark and had their first baby. The fact that Newark was too expensive, they upped and moved to Menlo Park. This would lead to Alva creating the first world Industrial Laboratory. Late nights in the laboratory would lead to the groundbreaking invention of the phonograph. The breakthrough experiments of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell that could transmit sounds by electricity, but not clear enough for it to be a use, made an opportunity open for Alva to improve the experiment in a way that could be innovative. After months working on the phonograph, one late night they decided to test it once everything was corrected and ready to use. To their amazement, the voice of Edison was heard. However, Edison knew that the device was not up to its full potential, therefore, delayed its reveal to everyone other than showmen who used the device to show curious crowds.

To the phonograph and all the little inventions in between, Alva grew exhausted. Thus, taking a vacation with Professor George Barker of the University of Pennsylvania. The trip lasted for about 2 months in which they traveled through multiple state lines. The intermission from tinkering and inventing, Alva’s inspiration of ideas and imagination soon started to flow back. When visiting William Wallace’s brass and copper factory, he took interest in Wallace’s use of electric lighting. This inspired him to think big in small ways, such as, wanting to create a lamp to be used in houses or offices. So, for the next few months his heart was set on creating the first incandescent lamp. Despite how long it would take for him to create such an invention, Alva would remain optimistic and continue push everyday to see his idea turn into one of the greatest inventions in his life. All the while of creating the incandescent lamp, Alva discovered the vacuum tube that was a crucial piece to making his experiment complete. On the night of New Years Eve, Alva and his team were more than ready to display their groundbreaking experiment that was a year of work, and would ultimately awe a city crowd that quickly gathered around to view his work. Thus, beginning the electric age.

Now a millionaire and still in the peak of his career, Alva remarried after the death of his late wife and settled in West Orange, New Jersey where he purchased a $250,000 mansion called Glenmont. In addition to the purchase of his new mansion, Alva bought 14 acre of land to build the most refined laboratory constructed. The large laboratory contained a variety of experiments. In Thomas Alva Edison Inventing the Electric Age by Gene Adair he states, “The West Orange lab became the center for testing and developing the products being manufactured by the various Edison Companies, such as the machine works and lamp factory”. Looking to transform entertainment, Alva came up with the idea of motion pictures. Using the zoetrope from Eadweard Muybridge that gave the illusion of pictures moving in motion when spinning the zoetrope gave Edison the thought that it might work with a photographic device. Soon enough Edison was working on the project. During the creation of the motion picture, Edison also invented the Kinetoscope, which was the motion picture camera. With this Edison gave us the first movies which included, “prize fights, ballet dancers, famous people such as ‘Buffalo Bill,’ and just about anything that struck the fancy of Edison’s film crew”. The idea of motion pictures would develop into a crucial necessity of the centuries to come.

Thomas Alva Edison played “a critical role in the improvement of both the telegraph and telephone, and in addition to the electric power industry, he launched two others: sound recording and motion pictures”. He was a man filled with imagination and wonders and sought to it becoming a reality. Despite facing many failures and doubts, he kept an optimistic attitude that would one day lead him to be named the greatest inventor of America. He created the foundation in which in today’s society still uses many decades later. Alva continues to leave an everlasting impression on the way technology is perceived and should always be developing.