Thomas Edison

I

Introduction

Thomas Edison (1847-1931), American inventor, one of the greatest inventors of all time. Edison began to work at an early age and continued to work right up until his death. Throughout his prolific career as an inventor, he was well known for his focus and determination. During his career Edison patented more than 1,000 inventions, including the electric light, the phonograph, and the motion-picture camera. These three inventions gave rise to giant industries—electric utilities, phonograph and record companies, and the film industry—thus changing the work and leisure habits of people throughout the world. The period from 1879 to 1900, when Edison produced and perfected most of his devices, has been called the Age of Edison.

II

Early Inventions

Edison acquired his knowledge of electricity and telegraphy (use of a telegraph system to communicate at a distance) as a teenager. In 1868, at age 21, he developed a telegraphic vote-recording machine, the first of his inventions to be patented. The next year, Edison invented an improved version of the stock ticker, which printed stock market quotations and gold prices on a paper tape. Unlike older stock tickers, Edison's was fully automatic, and it did away with the need for a special attendant to operate each machine.

These early inventions brought Edison no financial returns. The first invention to bring him money was another improvement on the stock ticker. Edison created a central mechanism by which all the receiving tickers could be put in unison with the main sending apparatus. For this invention, Edison received $40,000, which would be worth $530,000 in 2000. He and a business partner, who operated a machine shop, used the money to start a new company to manufacture Edison’s improved stock ticker. For the next five years Edison spent up to 18 hours a day in his workshop in Newark, New Jersey, inventing and manufacturing a variety of electrical devices. One important device that he designed during this period was the quadruplex, a highly efficient telegraph that could send four messages at a time over a telegraph wire, instead of just one.

III

Menlo Park Laboratory

In 1876, Edison established a laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey, the first laboratory dedicated to industrial research in the world. Within ten years people throughout the world knew of Edison as the Wizard of Menlo Park.

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A

The Telephone

Edison's first major achievement at Menlo Park was an improvement on the telephone. The telephone that Alexander Graham Bell patented in 1876 could not operate over distances of more than 3 to 5 km (2 to 3 mi). After hundreds of experiments, Edison improved the telephone to such an extent that it could carry speech clearly over almost unlimited distances. In March 1878, Edison's telephone system connected New York City to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a distance of 172 km (107 mi).

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