Thomas Edison Essay, Research Paper

Thomas Edison

On February 11, 1847, Thomas Edison was born in Milan Ohio. As a child, Edison always wondered why things happen and how things work. He was an extremely curious child and regarding his great curiosity, his teachers became irritated with him. Because of this, he began home schooling.

After he and his family moved to Port Huron, Michigan, he started selling newspapers on a train. He was taught how to use the telegraph as a reward for saving a boy’s life during his job. After learning how to use the telegraph, he invented a receiver and transmitter which made the telegraph more convenient to use. Edisons next job in 1868 was to send and convey messages on a telegraph in Boston. The following year, Edison traveled to New York City where he built a stock ticker which gave stock market information. With the money he made from selling the stock ticker, he moved to Newark, New Jersey where he built an invention workshop. At this workshop, he improved the typewriter and the stock ticker. From Newark, Edison moved to Menlo Park, New Jersey. Here Edison began experimenting with the phonograph. He was trying to record messages on revolving disks. The first words he ever recorded on the phonograph were “mary had a little lamb”. After the phonograph, Edison tried working on the electric light. He was searching for a material he could put in a bulb to provide safe and efficient lighting. After two years, Edison discovered a filament made of carbonized thread. He hooked it up inside of a glass bulb which had been vacuum sealed. He then put electricity to it and it stayed lit for days. After people learned of Edisons incandescent light, they gave him the nickname of “The Wizard of Menlo Park”. Eight years after his astounding light bulb, Edison moved to a larger laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey. He continued with his inventions and improvements of them until he died on October 18, 1931.