Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park", he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large-scale teamwork to the process of invention, and because of that, he is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory. More
Edison was a prolific inventor, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. More significant than the number of Edison's patents, are the impacts of his inventions, because Edison not only invented things, his inventions established major new industries world-wide, notably, electric light and power utilities, sound recording and motion pictures. Edison's inventions 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.
Thomas Edison timeline
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Thomas Edison is Born
Thomas Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in the canal town of Milan, Ohio, the last of seven children. His mother, Nancy, had been a school... Read more
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Thomas Edison Works at Western Union
Edison became a telegraph operator after he saved three-year-old Jimmie MacKenzie from being struck by a runaway train. Jimmie's father, station... Read more
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Thomas Edison is Fired from Western Union
In 1866, at the age of 19, Thomas Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where, as an employee of Western Union, he worked the Associated Press... Read more
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Thomas Edison Patents the Electric Vote Recorder
Edison's first patented invention was a vote recorder for use by legislative bodies such as Congress. He may have been spurred by reports in the... Read more
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Thomas Edison Marries Mary Stilwell
Mary Stilwell was born in Newark, New Jersey on September 6, 1855, the daughter of Nicholas Stilwell and Margaret Crane. At his subsidiary, the... Read more
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Thomas Edison Opens First Industrial Research Lab
Edison allegedly bought light bulb U.S. patent 181,613 of Henry Woodward that was issued August 29, 1876 and obtained an exclusive license to... Read more
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Thomas Alva Edison Completes The Model For The First Phonograph
August 12, 1877, is the date popularly given for Thomas Alva Edison's completion of the model for the first phonograph, a device that recorded... Read more
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Thomas Edison Patents the First Phonograph
The phonograph was developed as a result of Thomas Edison's work on two other inventions, the telegraph and the telephone. In 1877, Edison was... Read more
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Edison Improves Carbon Filament Lamp
Thomas Edison began serious research into developing a practical incandescent lamp in 1878. Edison filed his first patent application for... Read more
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Edison Patents DC Electricity Distribution
Edison patented a system for electricity distribution in 1880, which was essential to capitalize on the invention of the electric lamp. Read more
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Edison Founds the Edison Illuminating Company
The Edison Illuminating Company was established by Thomas Edison on December 17, 1880, to construct electrical generating stations, initially in... Read more
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Nikola Tesla begins working for Continental Edison
In 1882 Tesla moved to Paris, to work as an engineer for the Continental Edison Company, designing improvements to electric equipment brought... Read more
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Edison & Swan United Electric Light Company is Established
In Britain, the Edison and Swan companies merged into the Edison and Swan United Electric Company (later known as Ediswan, which was ultimately... Read more
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Mary Edison Dies
On December 25, 1871, Edison married 16-year-old Mary Stilwell. They had three children: * Marion Estelle Edison (1873–1965), nicknamed... Read more
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Nikola Tesla quits working for Edison
Tesla claims he was offered US$50,000 (~ US$1.1 million in 2007, adjusted for inflation) if he redesigned Edison's inefficient motor and... Read more
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Thomas Edison Marries Mina Miller
On February 24, 1886, at the age of thirty nine, Edison married 20-year-old Mina Miller in Akron, Ohio. She was the daughter of inventor Lewis... Read more
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War of Currents era begins
During the initial years of electricity distribution, Edison's direct current was the standard for the United States and Edison was not inclined to... Read more
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General Electric is Established
By 1890, Thomas Edison had brought together several of his business interests under one corporation to form Edison General Electric. At about the... Read more
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Edison Patents Two Way Telegraph
On August 9, 1892, Edison received a patent for a two-way telegraph. In April 1896, Thomas Armat's Vitascope, manufactured by the Edison factory... Read more
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Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse power the World's Columbian Exposition
The International Exposition was held in a building which was devoted to electrical exhibits. General Electric Company (backed by Thomas Edison and... Read more
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Thomas Edison Receives A Patent For The Kinetographic Camera
On August 31, 1897, Thomas Edison received a patent for the kinetographic camera, “a certain new and useful Improvement in Kinetoscopes,” the... Read more
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Tesla and Edison ignored by Nobel Prize committee
There was a tragic mistake during the 1915 Nobel Prize involving Nikola Tesla and Edison. The report of the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1915, to be... Read more
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Thomas Edison Dies
Edison was active in business right up to the end. Just months before his death in 1931, the Lackawanna Railroad implemented electric trains in... Read more
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Mina Miller Dies
Mina (pronounced MI-na) was perhaps better prepared to be the wife of a famous man. By the time she met Thomas Edison, his name was already a... Read more