|
Thomas Edison who - according to Life Magazine and a number of other sources - was "the most
influential figure of the millennium" was born in Milan, Ohio on Feb. 11, 1847. He was raised in
Ohio and Michigan.
Not long after young Tom learned to talk, he began pleading with just about everyone he met to
give him their explanation of how everything worked. If they said they didn't know the child - with
his deeply set and vibrant blue eyes - would search into their faces and ask them why.
At the age of seven, after spending only 12 weeks in the classroom, Tom's inexperienced teacher
concluded that - because of his apparent inability to adjust to learning in a classroom setting - he
might be a bit "addled" or "retarded"
If modern psychology had existed back then, it is possible that he would have been judged a
victim of attention deficit syndrome and given a prescription for the "miracle drug" retylin. In any
case, his beloved mother promptly withdrew him from school and attempted to teach him at
home.
The first thing Tom's parents did to try to appease his voracious appetite for knowledge was to
show him how to use the resources of the local library. Starting with the last book on the bottom
shelf, he now read - or at least carefully perused - almost every book in the building.
Meanwhile, his father introduced him to some of the great literary classics, providing him with a
financial reward for each book he mastered. His mother - a former teacher - and the person he
once said "...was the making of me, because she was the only one who truly understood me"
taught him "the three Rs" and the Bible.
Gradually, Tom developed a deep appreciation for English Literature. He enjoyed Shakespeare so
much he once considered becoming an actor. However, his relatively high pitched voice and his
extreme shyness before an audience dissuaded him from serious pursuit of the idea.
In spite of their noble efforts, Tom's parents soon found themselves incapeable of addressing all of
his interests. For example, when he queried them about concepts dealing with mathematics and
physics - especially those found in the great Isaac Newton's "Principia" - they were utterly
stymied.
A friend of the family was now brought in to help Tom understand Newton's principles, without
having to understand Newton's complex mathematical rationale. The remarkable experience had
both a negative and a positive affect on the impressionable boy. First, because he was so
disillusioned by the fact that Newton had chosen to convey his sensational ideas in what Tom
thought were aristocratic terms - which were confusing to the average person - he overreacted and
developed a hearty disrespect for the value of mathematical theory.
On the positive side, he developed his own "free spirited" style of intense thinking, intellectual
analysis, and questioning. Specifically, when working with complex problems he would always
start but by gleaning as much as he could from existing reading materials on the subject. Then, he
would follow up with deep contemplation, and tireless experimentation.
No one can argue that Tom's uiquely American methodology of invention did not work amazingly
well for him. Nevertheless, it is mind-boggling to imagine what he might have accomplished had
his genious been complemented by a more comprehensive and inspired amount of exposure to the
fundamentals of contemporary mathematics and physics such as Albert Einstein was exposed to in
Europe.
In any event, by the time he had reached age 12 Tom had talked his parents into letting him go to
work selling newspapers, snacks, and candy on the railroad. Soon thereafter, the precocious child
surprised everyone when he became a minipublisher. He created a remarkable little newspaper that
was the first in history ever to be typeset, printed, and sold on a train.
During this period, Tom spent much of his free time dabbling with chemicals in a laboratory he
had set up in his home. However, after his mother lost her patience with all the "poisons" he kept
in the basement, he transferred them to the lab on the train. One day, he accidentally set the
baggage car on fire. Thereafter, he was restricted to peddling his 400 daily papers only at railroad
stations.
To complicate matters, Tom had, by now, lost most of his hearing as a consequence of a bout with
scarlet fever, making it even more difficult for him to acquire further knowledge in a structured
setting. Interestingly, the one thing that he missed most as a result of being deaf was the sound of
singing birds. He loved the creatures so much, he later acquired an aviary of over 10,000 of them.
In the meantime, he was not inclined to fret and pine over things that he thought were out of his
control. For example, Later in life he was given an opportunity to have an operation that had a
good chance of restoring his hearing to normal. He refused. He had come to rely so much on his
deafness to enhance his powers of concentration, he was afraid he would have difficulty
re-learning how to channel his thinking in a noisy world.
Tom's career of selling papers on the train came to an end when he and his press were virtually
thrown off the vehicle by an unfriendly conductor. Although deeply upset and confused by the
incident, he continued to frequent the station area. One day, the stationmaster's child happened to
wander onto the tracks in front of an oncoming boxcar. Tom leaped into action. Although slightly
injured, he and the little boy ended up just beyond the oncoming wheels. As a reward for his
heroism, the grateful father taught Tom how to use Morse code and other rudiments of the art of
telegraphy. He was a fast learner.
At age 14, Tom obtained a job as a replacement for one of the thousands of "brass pounders"
(telegraph operators) who had gone off to serve in the Civil War. He now greatly increased his
speed in sending and receiving code.
To his mother's dismay, Tom left home "to seek his fortune" immediatly after the War ended.
Over the next few years he meandered throughout the Central States, supporting himself as a
"tramp operator."
By age 16, after working in a variety of telegraph offices, Tom had come up with his first authentic
invention. It was a device that slowed down incoming telegraph signals, enabling almost anyone to
translate and record them with relative ease and accuracy. Curiously, he never patented the idea.
In 1868, after making a name for himself amongst fellow telegraphers as an ingenious and rather
flambouyant character - who enjoyed playing "harmless" practical jokes - he returned home
penniless. Sadly, he found his mother and father in a far worse predicament. His mother was
showing evidence of insanity that was aggravated by the ups and downs of a difficult life. His
father had lost his job and the local bank was threatening to foreclose on the family homestead.
Tom now came to grips with the pathetic situation at hand and - perhaps for the first time in his
life - with a number of his own shortcomings. In any event, he decided to get back out on his own
and make some serious money. Accordingly, he accepted a fellow telegrapher's advice that he
come East and take a "permanent" job as a telegrapher with the relatively prestigious Western
Union Company in Boston.
Tom's willingness to travel over a thousand miles from home was partly influenced by the fact that
he had been given a free rail ticket by the local street railway company for some repairs he had
done for them. A far greater attraction, however, was the fact that Boston was then widely
perceived as "The hub of the scientific, educational, and cultural universe."
While working six days a week as a telegrapher, Tom "moonlighted" on several of his own
projects. Within six months - he had applied for and received his first patent. The invention was a
beautifully designed and highly efficient electric vote-recording machine. When he tried to sell it,
however, the Massachusetts Legislature, the Washington political establishment, and others
thoroughly denigrated it, claiming its speed in tallying votes would disrupt the status-quo.
"This is exactly what we do not want" a seasoned politician told him, adding that "Your invention
would destroy the only hope the minority would have of influencing legislation...It would deliver
them over bound hand and foot to the majority." Although Tom was greatly disappointed, he
fully grasped the implication. While his splendid vote recorder did exactly what it was supposed to
do, it had no "sales appeal." Because of his desperate need for money, Tom now made a radical
adjustment in his, heretofore, totally idealistic attitude. From now on, he vowed, he would never
waste time inventing things that people would not want to buy.
It is important to note, here, that it was during Tom's 17 month stint in Boston that he was first
exposed to lectures at Boston Tech (now M.I.T.) and the ideas of associates on the state-of-the-art
of "multiplexing" telegraph signals. Specifically, this was the theory that lead to the transmission
of multiple horn-like "simulations" of the human voice being sent over telegraph wires via an
instrument called the articulating telegraph. It was a highly stimulating area of electrical science in
which he and Boston's Alexander Graham Bell - who also participated in said lectures and
discussions - would ultimately break dramatic new ground in their independent efforts to invent
the first "authentic" telephone.
In 1869, at age 22, Tom moved to the more commercially oriented city of New York. During his
first few weeks there, he almost starved to death. Then something truly amazing in the annals of
technological history took place. By pure chance, Tom happened to be in an office in the financial
district where a stock ticker had broken down. The manager was in a panic. Since none of those
clustered around the machine had any idea of what to do, Tom was invited to step in and have a
go at it. After a few moments of evaluating how the device was intended to work in the first place,
he carefully reached in and manipulated a loose spring back to where it belonged and refastened
it. To everyone's amazement, the stock ticker ran perfectly. The manager was so ecstatic, he paid
Tom 300 dollars on the spot and hired him to make similar repairs on a regular basis.
It should come as no surprise that Tom now to concoct his own improvements on the stock-ticker.
Soon thereafter, he was absolutly astonished - in fact he nearly fainted - when a corporation
offered him $40,000 for the patent rights to one of them. For hours, he walked around in a stupor
staring in disbelief at the large check, convinced that no bank would actually cash it. Later, he
affectionatlely wrote to his father "Why don't you write and tell me all the news?... How is mother
getting along?... I am in a position now to let you have some cash, so you can write and say how
much."
In 1873, - with monies he received from the sale of an electrical-engineering firm that held several
of his patents - he opened his own laboratory in Newark, N.J. Next, at age 29, he began work on
the carbon transmitter, which would ultimately make Alexander Graham Bell's amazing new
"articulating" telephone audible enough for practical use.
At one point Edison was as close to inventing the telephone as Bell was to inventing the
phonograph. Meanwhile, shortly after he moved his laboratory to Menlo Park, N.J., in 1876, he
invented (in 1877) the first phonograph.
In 1879 - even though he was extremely disappointed by the fact that Bell had beaten him in the
race to patent the first authentic transmission of the human voice - Edison "one upped" his
competition by inventing the first commercially practical incandescent electric light bulb...
And, if the above wasn't enough to forever seal his unequaled importance in technological history,
he then came up with an invention that - in terms of its effects and consequences - has had more
impact upon mankind than any other. In 1883 and 1884 - after practically wearing a path into the
sidewalks between his research lab and the patent office - he introduced the world's first
economically viable system for centrally generating and distributing electric light, heat, and power.
Even his harshest critics grant that this was a Herculean accomplishment.
In 1887, Thomas Alva Edison set up the world's first full fledged research and development center
in West Orange, N.J. Within a year, the operation housed the largest scientific testing laboratory
in the world. In 1890, he immersed himself in developing the first silent motion pictures. And, by
1892, his Edison General Electric Co. had merged with another firm to become the General Electric
Corporation, in which he was a major stockholder.
At around the turn-of-the-century, Edison invented and perfected the first dictaphone,
mimeograph, and "practical" storage battery. Then, after creating the first silent film in 1904, he
introduced the first "talking" picture in 1911. At this time he also conducted a number of
important experiments with rubber, concrete, and ethanol. By now, he was known as not only "the
wizard of Menlo Park," but the "Father of the electrical age." During World War I, he worked for
the U.S. Government developing defensive devices for submarines and ships.
Although he was personally acquainted with many important men of his era, Edison developed
very few close friendships. Moreover, due to the demands of his career there were periods when he
spent surprisingly little time with his family.
Shortly after obtaining his last (1,093rd) patent at the age of 82, his health began to fail and "he
began to mellow a bit." He enjoyed reading the mail of admirers and working a few hours each
day in his office and his home lab. He also enjoyed the visits of former associates and famous
people such as Charles Lindberg, Marie Curie, Henry Ford, and President Herbert Hoover.
Thomas Edison died On Oct. 18th, 1931 in New Jersey at age 84. That night, countless individuals,
communities, and corporations throughout the world responded by momentarily turning off their
lights to honor his memory.
Interestingly, among all of Edison's patents, only one is related to the field that is called "pure
science." Discovered in 1883, it gradually became known as the Edison effect. Although he did not
immediately apply this concept to any of his own inventions, it respectively anticipated the later
development of vacuum tubes and transistors. Most significantly, the application of the "Edison
effect" was not only essential to the development of wireless radio and televison, but to today's
silicon chip and computer industry.
During the 1930's, Henry Ford moved Edison's original Menlo Park laboratory to the Greenfield
Village museum in Dearborn, Mich. In 1962 his laboratory and home in West Orange, N.J. were
designated as National Historic Sites.
As indicated above, Edison was challenged by a serious learning disorder that plagued him
throughout his life. Nevertheless, by clinging to his own alternative techniques and experimental
methods, his accomplishments had more impact upon shaping modern civilization than those of
any other human being. Because of this, and the fact that no other individual or group of
individuals has added more to the collective wealth of the world, many historians feel that
"Thomas Edison was clearly the most influential figure of the millennium."
Thomas Alva Edison (1847 - 1931). Considered by many as one of the greatest
inventors in history, he was born in Milan, Ohio. He obtained patents in such
fields as telegraphy, phonography, electric lighting and photography. In 1882,
he designed the first hydroelectric plant in Appleton, Wisconsin. In 1879, he
and Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (in England) simultaneously invented similar
carbon filament incandescent light bulbs. Edison improved upon Swan's design
and by the end of 1880 had produced a 16-watt light bulb that would last for
1500 hours. As a boy, Edison had only three months of formal schooling. He
was taught at home by his mother, a former teacher. He changed the lives of
millions of people with such inventions as the electric light bulb and the
phonograph. In his lifetime, he patented 1,093 inventions. After the death of his
first wife, he married again. He had six children, three by each wife. He valued long, hard work. One of
his famous sayings was "Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration."
Thomas Edison's Inventions and Achevements
1868
Invented electrical vote recorder.
1869
Invented universal stock ticker and unison stop.
1872
Invented motograph.
Invented automatic telegraph system.
Invented duplex, quadruplex, sextuplex, and multiplex telegraph systems.
Invented paraffin paper.
Invented carbon rheostat.
1875
Discovered "Etheric Force," an electric phenomenon that is the foundation of wireless telegraphy.
1876
Invented electric pen used for the first mimeographs.
1877
Invented carbon telephone transmitter, making telephony commercially practical. This included
the microphone used in radio.
1877
Invented phonograph. This was Edison's favorite invention. He sponsored the Edison Phonograph
Polka to help popularize the new device.
1879
Discovered incandescent light.
Radically improved dynamos and generators.
Discovered a system of distribution, regulation, and measurement of electric
current-switches, fuses, sockets, and meters.
(NOTE: if your computer is not JAVA compadible, this box will not work.)
1880
Invented magnetic ore separator.
1880
Discovered the "Edison Effect," the fundamental principle of electronics.
1885
Discovered system of wireless induction telegraph between moving trains and stations. He also
patented similar systems for ship-to-shore use.
1891
Invented motion picture camera.
1896
Invented fluoroscope.
Invented fluorescent electric lamp.
1900
Invented nickel-iron-alkaline storage battery.
1914
Invented electric safety miner's lamp.
Discovered the process for manufacturing synthetic carbolic acid.
1915
Conducted special experiments on more than 40 major war problems for the Navy Department.
Edison served as Chairman of the Naval Consulting Board and did much other work on National
Defense.
1927-1931
Tested 17,000 plants for rubber content as a source of rubber in war emergencies. A piece of
vulcanized rubber was made from a Goldenrod strain he developed.
|
|
Thomas Edison who - according to Life Magazine and a number of other sources - was "the most
influential figure of the millennium" was born in Milan, Ohio on Feb. 11, 1847. He was raised in
Ohio and Michigan.
Not long after young Tom learned to talk, he began pleading with just about everyone he met to
give him their explanation of how everything worked. If they said they didn't know the child - with
his deeply set and vibrant blue eyes - would search into their faces and ask them why.
At the age of seven, after spending only 12 weeks in the classroom, Tom's inexperienced teacher
concluded that - because of his apparent inability to adjust to learning in a classroom setting - he
might be a bit "addled" or "retarded"
If modern psychology had existed back then, it is possible that he would have been judged a
victim of attention deficit syndrome and given a prescription for the "miracle drug" retylin. In any
case, his beloved mother promptly withdrew him from school and attempted to teach him at
home.
The first thing Tom's parents did to try to appease his voracious appetite for knowledge was to
show him how to use the resources of the local library. Starting with the last book on the bottom
shelf, he now read - or at least carefully perused - almost every book in the building.
Meanwhile, his father introduced him to some of the great literary classics, providing him with a
financial reward for each book he mastered. His mother - a former teacher - and the person he
once said "...was the making of me, because she was the only one who truly understood me"
taught him "the three Rs" and the Bible.
Gradually, Tom developed a deep appreciation for English Literature. He enjoyed Shakespeare so
much he once considered becoming an actor. However, his relatively high pitched voice and his
extreme shyness before an audience dissuaded him from serious pursuit of the idea.
In spite of their noble efforts, Tom's parents soon found themselves incapeable of addressing all of
his interests. For example, when he queried them about concepts dealing with mathematics and
physics - especially those found in the great Isaac Newton's "Principia" - they were utterly
stymied.
A friend of the family was now brought in to help Tom understand Newton's principles, without
having to understand Newton's complex mathematical rationale. The remarkable experience had
both a negative and a positive affect on the impressionable boy. First, because he was so
disillusioned by the fact that Newton had chosen to convey his sensational ideas in what Tom
thought were aristocratic terms - which were confusing to the average person - he overreacted and
developed a hearty disrespect for the value of mathematical theory.
On the positive side, he developed his own "free spirited" style of intense thinking, intellectual
analysis, and questioning. Specifically, when working with complex problems he would always
start but by gleaning as much as he could from existing reading materials on the subject. Then, he
would follow up with deep contemplation, and tireless experimentation.
No one can argue that Tom's uiquely American methodology of invention did not work amazingly
well for him. Nevertheless, it is mind-boggling to imagine what he might have accomplished had
his genious been complemented by a more comprehensive and inspired amount of exposure to the
fundamentals of contemporary mathematics and physics such as Albert Einstein was exposed to in
Europe.
In any event, by the time he had reached age 12 Tom had talked his parents into letting him go to
work selling newspapers, snacks, and candy on the railroad. Soon thereafter, the precocious child
surprised everyone when he became a minipublisher. He created a remarkable little newspaper that
was the first in history ever to be typeset, printed, and sold on a train.
During this period, Tom s In the meantime why not check out the link below to get your own 20MB of free webspace? www.fortunecity.com
|
|
|
|
