Thomas Alva Edison

Anežka Suchá, O8A

Thomas Alva Edison

• 1847 – 1931; born in Milan, Ohio • American inventor• Phonograph, motion picture camera, light

bulb

Childhood

• A hyperactive child, his mother taught him at home

• Scarlet fever → hearing problems• He was really interested in knowledge• Grand Trunk Railroad line – selling newspapers

Early carrier

• He taught how to operate telegraph → telegraph operator

• Age of Civil war• He read widely, studied and experimented

with telegraph technology• He lost his job because of his handicap• His mother was falling into mental illness and

his father was unemployed

Becoming an inventor

• New York City – first invention: the Universal Stock Printer

→ independent entrepreneur• New Jersey – Menlo Park – industrial research• 1880‘s – main inventions

Inventions

Phonograph = gramophone• for recording and reproduction of sound

records

Inventions

Light bulb• The Edison Illuminating Company• Electricity for cities

Inventions

Motion picture camera

Alkaline storage battery

Privat life

• First wife Mary – three children• Second wife Mina• One of the best friends – Henry Ford

Industrialist and Business manager

• Supervisor of many laboratories• WWI – head of Naval Consulting Board• Inventions for military use• Only defensive weapons

Final Years

• Florida with his wife• Diabetes † 1931• Turning off lights round the world

Interesting facts

• 1,093 U.S. patents• Only self-education, no school • Edison proposed Mina to marry him in Morse

code• He invented the basic tatoo maschine

Edison‘s importance

• 1st technological revolution• Create modern electric world• Greatest inventor of all time„Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine

percent perspiration.“http://www.biography.com/people/thomas-edison-9284349/videos

Sources

• http://www.biography.com/people/thomas-edison-9284349?page=4

• http://www.thomasedison.com/• http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bledison.htm• http://edison.rutgers.edu/biogrphy.htm• http://www.lolade.com/2013/06/facts-details-about-thomas-

edison.html