March 2022 QUICK MANEUVERS
THE
SCIENTIST
THOMAS EDISON’S
EARLY LIFE
Thomas Alva Edison was born on
February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio. He
was the seventh and last child born to
Samuel Edison Jr. and Nancy Elliott
Edison, and would be one of four to
survive to adulthood. Thomas Edison
received little formal education, and
left school in 1859 to being working on
the railroad between Detroit and Port
Huron, Michigan, where his family
then lived.
Vol 8 Issue 22
DISCOVER:
HEROES OF SCIENCE
Around the age of twelve, Edison lost almost
all his hearing. There are several theories as
to what caused his hearing loss. Some
attribute it to the aftereffects of scarlet fever
which he had as a child. Others blame it on a
conductor boxing his ears after Edison
caused a fire in the baggage car, an incident
which Edison claimed never happened.
Edison himself blamed it on an incident in
which he was grabbed by his ears and lifted
to a train. He did not let his disability
discourage him, however, and often treated
it as an asset, since it made it easier for him
to concentrate on his experiments and
research. Undoubtedly, though, his deafness
made him more solitary and shy in dealings
with others.
 Mind Exposed

EDISON’S
EMERGENCE AS A
LEADING INVENTOR

From 1870 to 1875, Edison worked

out of Newark, New Jersey, where
he developed telegraph-related
products for both Western Union
Telegraph Company (then the
industry leader) and its rivals.
Edison’s mother died in 1871, and
that same year he married 16-
year-old Mary Stillwell. Despite
his prolific telegraph work, Edison
encountered financial difficulties
by late 1875, but with the help of
his father was able to build a
laboratory and machine shop in
In 1877, Edison developed the
Menlo Park, New Jersey, 12 miles
carbon transmitter, a device that
south of Newark.
improved the audibility of the
telephone by making it possible to
transmit voices at higher volume
and with more clarity. That same
year, his work with the telegraph
and telephone led him to invent
the phonograph, which recorded
sound as indentations on a sheet
of paraffin-coated paper; when
the paper was moved beneath a
stylus, the sounds were
reproduced. The device made an
immediate splash, though it took
years before it could be produced
and sold commercially, and the
press dubbed Edison “the Wizard
of Menlo Park.”
 Mind Exposed

EDISON’S
INNOVATIONS WITH
ELECTRIC LIGHT
In 1878, Edison focused on
inventing a safe, inexpensive
electric light to replace the
gaslight–a challenge that scientists
had been grappling with for the
last 50 years. With the help of
prominent financial backers like
J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilt
family, Edison set up the Edison
Electric Light Company and
began research and development. Though Edison’s early
He made a breakthrough in incandescent lighting systems had
October 1879 with a bulb that used their problems, they were used in
a platinum filament, and in the such acclaimed events as the Paris
summer of 1880 hit on carbonized Lighting Exhibition in 1881 and
bamboo as a viable alternative for the Crystal Palace in London in
1882. Competitors soon emerged,
the filament, which proved to be
notably George Westinghouse, a
the key to a long-lasting and
proponent of alternating or AC
affordable light bulb. In 1881, he
current (as opposed to Edison’s
set up an electric light company in
direct or DC current). By 1889, AC
Newark, and the following year
current would come to dominate
moved his family (which by now
the field, and the Edison General
included three children) to New
Electric Co. merged with another
York.
company in 1892 to become
General Electric Co.
 ACHIEVEMENTS

Technical Grammy Award

2010

Grammy Trustees Award

1977
Congressional Gold Medal
1928
Navy Distinguished Service Medal
1920

Franklin Medal
1915

John Fritz Medal

1908
Edward Longstreth Medal
1899

Rumford Prize
1895

Albert Medal
1892

John Scott Legacy Medal and Premium

1889

Matteucci Medal
1899
 View of Science

Synopsis
Though Thomas Edison failed
for 1000 times in inventing the
Edison did not actually invent the light bulb, he still keep on
light bulb, of course. People had been
searching and modifying his
making wires incandescent since 1761,
work until he got the perfect
and plenty of other inventors had
light bulb because he once said
demonstrated and even patented
various versions of incandescent that "I didn’t fail 1,000 times.
lights by 1878, when Edison turned his The light bulb was an invention
attention to the problem of with 1,000 steps." He has high
illumination. Edison’s gift, here and hopes, confidence and spirit
elsewhere, was not so much inventing that no matter what failure
as what he called perfecting—finding may came along, he can do it.
ways to make things better or cheaper He has not failed 10,000 times.
or both. Edison did not look for He has not failed once. He has
problems in need of solutions; he
succeeded in proving that
looked for solutions in need of
those 10,000 ways will not
modification.
work. When he has eliminated
the ways that will not work, he
find the way that will work.

“When I have finally decided that a result is worth getting, I go ahead on it and make trial
after trial until it comes.”

Thomas Edison's teachers said he

was "too stupid to learn anything."
He was fired from his first two
“Anything that won’t sell, I don’t
jobs for being "non-productive."
As an inventor, Edison made
want to invent. Its sale is proof of
1,000 unsuccessful attempts at utility, and utility is success.”
inventing the light bulb. When a
reporter asked, "How did it feel to
fail 1,000 times?" Edison replied,
"I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The
“I find out what the
light bulb was an invention with
1,000 steps."
world needs. Then I
go ahead and try to
invent it.”