Thomas Edison Biography

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This is your Thomas Edison Audio Biography. Please subscribe and make sure you like or rate this podcast. You can also check out our other audio biographies by searching the term Audio Biography wherever you listen to podcasts. Now on with the biography of Thomas Edison. Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11th, 1847 in Milan, Ohio. From a young age, he displayed curiosity and entrepreneurial skills, printing his own newspaper called The Weekly Herald at age 12 Edison only had a few months of formal schooling, as his teachers considered him difficult to teach due to his persistent questioning. His inquisitive nature led him to voraciously self-educate, as his mother encouraged him to read as many books as possible from their family's expansive library, where he spent much time reading about science and experimenting in the basement laboratory he set up. Edison began working at an early age after he saved a three-year-old from being struck by a runaway train as the child's grateful father rewarded him by teaching him to operate the railway's telegraph. By age 15, Edison had learned enough to become a telegraph operator. He continued to educate himself during this time by studying works on electricity, mechanics, chemistry, and physics, while working various telegraph jobs traveling around the Midwest. Through the knowledge he gained about telegraphic equipment, in 1869, at age 22, Edison received his first patent for an electric vote recorder. Though this invention was not a success, it exemplified Edison's persistent nature and foreshadowed the determination, curiosity, and innovation he would apply to later projects. In 1869, Edison moved to New York City and developed his first invention laboratory and manufacturing facility in Newark, NJ, securing financial backing from various investors over the years to support his work. In 1870, he married 16-year-old Mary Stillwell, who was an employee at one of his early companies. Over the next decade, Edison worked long hours experimenting with and improving upon the telegraph and telephone technology of the late 19th century. His inventions and incorporations during this time included the automatic telegraph system, quadruplex telegraph, carbon telephone transmitter, electric pen, and mimeograph equipment. His career breakthrough came in 1877, when at age 30, after months of around-the-clock experimentation with many assistants, Edison invented the first practical phonograph. This early sound recording and playback device used tin foil wrapped around a hand-cranked cylinder and a floating stylus to both record and playback sounds.
He immediately saw the commercial potential of this novelty invention and continued to make improvements to its design. That same year, Edison also showcased his carbon telephone transmitter invention to executives at the prominent Bell Telephone Company. Bell then purchased rights to use Edison's transmitter in their telephones, providing an influx of finances that would support many future experiments. In 1878, Edison established his innovative new industrial research facility in Menlo Park, NJ, which came to be known as the Invention Factory. Here he expanded the size and capabilities of his experimentation teams to speed up the development process and increase productivity. His goal, which later became the famous Edison quote, was to create a minor invention every ten days and a big thing every six months or so. This productive period over the next few years earned Edison the nickname the Wizard of Menlo Park in the press and media. In 1879 at age 32, after prototyping over 3,000 designs, Edison and his team invented the first practical incandescent light bulb, which burned for over 13 hours. This achievement used a high-resistance filament placed inside an airtight glass bulb to contain the vacuum and prevent oxidation. While electric arc lighting systems had previously existed, Edison's lightweight, safe, and individually controllable incandescent lamp could be used to economically light a multitude of indoor spaces. He initially promoted direct current, DC, electrical systems to power these new lights as competition against gas lighting, establishing his first commercial electricity distribution company in lower Manhattan. The invention of this commercially viable light bulb was a major technological advancement that ignited the demand for electric power and lighting systems across America and Europe. We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles became another famous Edison quote of the time. The press was fascinated at this ability to harness the power of lightning as they dramatically described this new technology. Despite being called the father of the light bulb, Edison never actually invented the first incandescent bulb, but rather invented the first practical one able to be reliably mass produced and operated. In the early 1880s, George Westinghouse entered the picture promoting alternating current, AC, for electric power distribution and competition with Edison's direct current approach. Though their engineering disagreement over which system was superior, turned quite bitter and became known as the war of the currents, AC eventually prevailed as the method able to transmit electricity over longer distances. During this technology format war, Edison unfortunately resorted to promoting the dangers of AC by publicly electrocuting stray animals to demonstrate its risks. In developing the first electric chair for the state of New York, he secretly recommended AC for this device to further associate alternating current with death. Though Edison lost the battle against alternating current overall, his pioneering work to establish the first electricity distribution systems marked a major milestone in bringing electric lighting to cities across America.