Thomas Alva Edison was the creator of the light bulb or so they thought. Thomas was born on February 11, 1847 and died on October 18, 1931. Thomas wasn’t a good student in school during his elementary and middle school time so later he was homeschooled by his mother. Being homeschooled made him want to explore more things with literature and wanted to gain wisdom. He began reading and that’s where he stars to gain more and more knowledge. That is the beginning of the life of a genius. To many people Thomas Edison is known as the “Creator of the light bulb,” but there is much more that he has created and that he has accomplished that you must know.
Thomas Edison’s parents were Samuel Edison and Nancy Edison. Thomas was the youngest of the seven children in his family. Thomas’s father was an exiled political activist from Canada. His mother was a teacher ,but she also had a huge influence on Thomas when he was young. When Thomas was a kid he had a fever called scarlet fever. Scarlet fever is an infectious disease that affects young children. It causes fevers and scarlet rashes. Not only did he have a scarlet fever Thomas also had an ear infection and that caused hearing difficulties and when he got older he went nearly deaf. That would be a reason Thomas had difficulties in school. As a child Thomas would do poorly in school. He went to school for a short amount of time. He went to middle school for twelve weeks or roughly two to three months until he dropped out of middle school and got homeschooled by his mother. The teacher that taught him said he was “difficult” for them. The teacher also said he was a hyperactive child, which means that he would always be active. Thomas was not an athlete ever. He was more a reader than an athlete. He had a big appetite for reading and writing. As he wrote more and read more he gained more and more knowledge along the way. He would read a huge variety of book that he had.
People know Thomas Edison as the creator of the light bulb. He is not the creator of the light bulb, he was the creator of the first commercially practical incandescent light. He was the first one to light the streets of Menlo Park with his incandescent lights. Thomas didn’t make the light bulb but he made the technology that helped it. Thomas was challenged to make the first early electrical arc lamp invented by humphry Davy more efficient. Over time scientists like Warren De La Rue, Joseph Wilson Swan ,and Matthew Evans had worked to perfect the light bulb but failed to do so. Edison was granted a try for improving the light bulb in 1879. He also started developing a company that delivers electricity to cities in January ,in 1880. Also in 1880, Edison made the Edison Illuminating Company. It was the first investor owned electric utility which became the General Electric Corporation later on. In 1881 Thomas left Menlo Park to and visited different cities to install electrical systems. In 1882 a generating station called Pearl Street provided 110 volts of electrical power to provide patients in lower Manhattan. The light bulb had durable incandescent material, it eliminated air from the bulb. It also had filament material of high resistants. The globe of the light bulb is the outer glass shell of the light bulb. The filament is shaped as a coil and needs small bits of tungsten to produce an abundant amount of light.The wire ensures a steady flow of electricity, the stem supports the filament in its place. The invisible gas are insert gasses that prevent the filament from burning out. The base supports the light bulb within an electrical source unit. It also transfers electricity and secures the globe and as well as all the other components in the globe. The light bulb works by passing electricity through the filament in the glass vacuum bulb. That would delay the filament from melting. But it would only burn for a short amount of time. It means that it would light up for a short amount of time. So Tomas started testing and testing again and again until one day he thought instead of using plants to power to light bulb he used cotton. Surprisingly carbonizing the cotton started to last longer. After his magnificent discovery he tested and tested. Patent number 223,898 was given to Edison’s electrical lamp.
Thomas also made the Electronic Vote recorder. It is a device that helped legislators record their voters quicker than a voice vote system. Edison was issued U. S. Patent 90,646 on 1 June 1869. Dewitt Roberts was a telegrapher who bought an interest in the invention for $100. Then he took it to Washington, D.C. to exhibit to a committee of Congress. The machine by each legislator moving a switch to a yes or a no position, that transmitted a signal to a central recorder that then list the names of the members in two groups called ‘Yes’ and ‘No.’ The recording clerk then placed a sheet of chemically prepared paper over the groups of type and moved a metallic roller over the paper and type. As it passed through the paper, it would imprint the names. Dials on either side of the machine recorded the total number of yeses and noes. He also built the magnetic ore separator. The idea, which Edison experimented with during the 1880s and 1890s, was to use magnets to separate iron ore from unusable useless ores. This would mean that abandoned mines could be profitable. At the time, iron ore prices rose up to unprecedented heights. This machine built the Yankees Stadium and revolutionized the cement kiln industry. Thomas build the phonograph which was the first great invention that he made.The next time you listen to a favorite album, you can thank Thomas Edison for discovering. Before there were CD players, there was the phonograph. Thomas Edison completed the first phonograph on August 12, 1877. The phonograph would record a voice and play it back so it is like a recorder. Lastly Thomas created motion pictures. Motion pictures are like films. They are a lot of pictures that make a movie. Thomas was inspired by Eadweard Muybridge and his creation with the zoopraxiscope to simulate the motion of animals. He wanted to create a movie with sound so he decided to plug the machine in which he made the motion pictures to the phonograph.
In the end Thomas was a genius who invented many things that helped the would revolutionize. One of his quotes is “I failed my way to success” which means that no one will never fail. From failing over and over again you learn something, you learn to not do this or not to that. From failing you gain knowledge and you have success. Every genius or scientists had many fails and from that they gain more and more knowledge. What the quote is saying is that you shouldn’t stop because you failed, you should try and try until you get it right.
