Thomas Edison

"Genius is 1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration." This famous saying comes from the one and only, Thomas Edison. The inventor of the light bulb. Thomas Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio. In his childhood, he loved to do experiments. Once he thought he could hatch his pet goose's eggs faster because he was bigger and warmer. He had many ideas and asked many, many questions as a child. Around this time, many railroads were being built around the U.S. for transportation. A new railroad was being built near their town, Milan, but it went around the town and not through it, and so many businesses were ruined. As a result of this, his family then moved to Port Huron, Michigan. They traveled there by stagecoach and train. When they got to the train station, Tom was so excited so he got off the stagecoach before anyone else and immediately went to the conductor. Tom asked many questions which the conductor liked to hear. The conductor liked his questions so much, he let Tom operate the train himself! When they got to their new home in Port Huron, they had a big house with six bedrooms. Tom had his own laboratory in the basement. To get new chemicals for his basement laboratory, he and his friend went around town selling fresh produce. On their way out of the chemists' shop, him and his friend saw birds fly and wondered, how do they fly? They knew the wings let them fly but Tom had a different idea. Tom mixed a blue and white powder, Seidlitz, in water to make a gas lighter than air. He thought drinking this could make you fly. He had his friend drink it and obviously, became very sick. His laboratory was almost taken away, but he and his mother reached an agreement. Tom made his own telegraph and learned the entire Morse code. He and another friend sent messages back and forth all the time. Soon, he finally got his first real job, selling newspapers on a train, somewhat like a paperboy. This inspired him to make his own newspaper, The Weekly Herald. He sold this paper on the train too, it was a hit! It was minutes up-to-date because he had the messages sent by telegraph, then printed and sold. When Thomas was twenty-two, he moved to New York City with two friends and started a firm of electrical engineers. He stayed there until he gained enough money to buy his own workshop. He then moved to Newark, New Jersey and opened his own machine shop and built his first real laboratory. It grew and grew, and he yet again, moved to Menlo Park, New Jersey. He spent most time in the lab experimenting with electricity. By 1879, he perfected his light bulb that could burn for hundreds of hours. He formed the Edison Electric Light Company. He made his first public demonstration of his light bulb on December 31, 1879, in Menlo Park. He quoted, "We will make electricity so cheap, that only the rich will burn candles."

Tom and his friend went to go see a "moving picture" show about the Wild West. This inspired him to make a real moving picture machine. The Kinectoscope was another one of Edison's famous inventions. This invention led up to today's modern movie theaters. The Kinectoscope is like a camera with film strip. You would look through a hole to watch a short film. It worked using film and his very own light bulb, or any other light source. Two cylinders would rotate and make the film move fast as the light passed through it. This gave the illusion of a moving picture. The Phonograph is yet another one of Edison's inventions, it wasn't quite as popular, and he wasn't very interested in it. The Phonograph is a machine that records, then plays back the sounds. It sounds a lot like a microphone, because this is where the microphone came from. It worked in this way - someone would speak into the mouthpiece and the sound waves would make a needle inside vibrate and inscribe the pattern on foil. For playback, a spring with a point would follow the inscription and relay it back and reproduce the original sounds. Last but not least, the light bulb, of course. The light bulb worked in this way: A vacuum would suck all the oxygen out of the bulb so that the filament (light source) wouldn't burn out quickly. The filament was a piece of carbonized cardboard. Electricity would pass into the bulb by copper and platinum wires that led to the cardboard filament. The filament would resist the passage of the electricity, causing it to glow. I learned a lot about Thomas' childhood and what inspired him to be an inventor. I would describe him as a hardworking man that changed the world with this small invention. If I were to meet Thomas Edison, I would ask him: What inspired you to invent the light bulb? Did you think that your invention would have such an impact on the world today? I would recommend this book if you want to learn about his childhood because the book is mostly his childhood. Just imagine a world without Thomas Edison. I wouldn't have typed this on a computer. We wouldn't have Christmas lights. We wouldn't have T.V.s. Thomas Edison changed the world with his small invention more than you could imagine.