Thomas Edison: The Biography
Thomas Alva Edison has been referred to as the Wizard of Menlo Park, the Napoleon of Inventors, and America’s Uncrowned King, and he was voted number one in TIME Magazine’s list of people who made the millennium. It is not hyperbole to say that Thomas Edison truly changed the world. Simply imagine the realities of the life Edison was born into, compare it to the world he left behind, and consider how much this one man contributed to the rapid change that dragged the world into the modern age.
The list of inventions attributed to Edison is astoundingly long. Edison developed the world’s first incandescent electric lamp, or light bulb, he invented the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and introduced the very principles of electrical distribution. Edison created the first industrial research laboratory and awakened the world to what could be achieved by collaboration. With over 1000 US patents to his name, Edison invented hundreds of new and improved devices that radically changed the way people lived all over the world.
Born into humble beginnings, Edison’s life story looks at first glance like a rags to riches archetype, but dig a little deeper and you soon see that his trajectory was far from a straight line. Edison was an intelligent man and a hard worker but these qualities alone were not enough to take him from selling candy and fruit on train carriages in Port Huron to being one of the most famous and respected men in America.
Remembered now, Edison was one of the world’s winners, rich and famous and accomplished, but during his lifetime Edison failed time and time again. As a young man he was frequently fired, as an older man his ventures sometimes failed, he lost his fortune more than once, and at times his inventions simply did not work. But Edison never gave up, he bounced back from every disaster, and with good-natured stubbornness went on to bigger and better things.
Edison made a contribution to the world that is coveted by many but rivaled by few. Edison’s life begins with a small boy educated by his mother in Port Huron and ends with the death of the greatest inventor America has ever known, but Edison’s story will never end. A new chapter is added to Edison’s story every time a new wizard pushes the boundaries and invents something no one has ever seen before.
Thomas Edison: The Biography
Thomas Alva Edison has been referred to as the Wizard of Menlo Park, the Napoleon of Inventors, and America’s Uncrowned King, and he was voted number one in TIME Magazine’s list of people who made the millennium. It is not hyperbole to say that Thomas Edison truly changed the world. Simply imagine the realities of the life Edison was born into, compare it to the world he left behind, and consider how much this one man contributed to the rapid change that dragged the world into the modern age.
The list of inventions attributed to Edison is astoundingly long. Edison developed the world’s first incandescent electric lamp, or light bulb, he invented the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and introduced the very principles of electrical distribution. Edison created the first industrial research laboratory and awakened the world to what could be achieved by collaboration. With over 1000 US patents to his name, Edison invented hundreds of new and improved devices that radically changed the way people lived all over the world.
Born into humble beginnings, Edison’s life story looks at first glance like a rags to riches archetype, but dig a little deeper and you soon see that his trajectory was far from a straight line. Edison was an intelligent man and a hard worker but these qualities alone were not enough to take him from selling candy and fruit on train carriages in Port Huron to being one of the most famous and respected men in America.
Remembered now, Edison was one of the world’s winners, rich and famous and accomplished, but during his lifetime Edison failed time and time again. As a young man he was frequently fired, as an older man his ventures sometimes failed, he lost his fortune more than once, and at times his inventions simply did not work. But Edison never gave up, he bounced back from every disaster, and with good-natured stubbornness went on to bigger and better things.
Edison made a contribution to the world that is coveted by many but rivaled by few. Edison’s life begins with a small boy educated by his mother in Port Huron and ends with the death of the greatest inventor America has ever known, but Edison’s story will never end. A new chapter is added to Edison’s story every time a new wizard pushes the boundaries and invents something no one has ever seen before.
Thomas Edison: The Biography
