Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was a self-taught American inventor, businessman, and electrical engineer. Despite his frail physique, small stature and hearing problems, he patented more than four thousand inventions during his life. It was this man who invented the incandescent lamp and the phonograph. He also founded the world's first research center and made a contribution to the development of cinema. Edison's inventions are still used by people all over the world.
Family and childhood
The future inventor was born on February 11, 1847 in the city of Milen, Ohio. His father Samuel was a successful wheat merchant, but soon after his birth youngest son he went bankrupt. Thomas was barely seven years old when he and his family were forced to move to Michigan.
Edison did not do very well at school. He was absent-minded and often distracted. The situation was aggravated by hearing problems that began in childhood. Thomas claimed that they were caused by the impact of the composter. But scientists found that the inventor’s hearing was impaired due to an untreated infection.
Thomas was in prison for only three months. educational institution. After this, the teacher called him “brainless and narrow-minded,” and the parents took their son out of school. His mother, Nancy Elliott Edison, began teaching him at home. She was a school teacher, so there were no difficulties in choosing a program.
First experiments
After switching to home schooling, the boy became interested in chemistry. He began conducting experiments and already at the age of ten founded his first laboratory in the basement of his house. The experiments required money, so Thomas used every opportunity to earn money. He sold fruits, vegetables and other goods in the square. Later the young man began to trade on trains.
Edison didn't want to waste time, so he moved his laboratory to a baggage car. The editorial office of the newspaper, which was published by an enterprising teenager, was also located there. Thanks to his ingenuity, he received $10 a day even at that age.
In 1962, Thomas found his first serious job. This happened by accident when he took a three-year-old boy off the tracks. His father was grateful for his son’s salvation, so he offered the young man a job as a telegraph operator. This activity fascinated Edison, and he later built a telegraph line between the houses of his parents and a friend.
For five years the scientist worked as a telegraph operator. In 1868, he read Michael Faraday's book "Experimental Studies of Electricity" and decided to try his hand as an inventor. A few months later, Edison received his first patent. He developed a system for electrically recording votes during elections. But this invention was not in demand; no one bought the patent.
Opening of the laboratory
After a debut that did not bring him any profit, Thomas decided to develop exclusively people need things. At the end of 1870, he received 40 thousand dollars for the invention of a stock ticker that conveys stock quotes. With this money, the scientist opened his first workshop in Newark. He bought only the most best equipment for their experiments, even if they had to save on everything else.
Three years later, Edison developed a special telegraphy scheme that allowed the simultaneous transmission of up to four messages. In 1874, he sold this invention to Western Union for $10,000. Thomas spent them on opening an industrial research laboratory in the village of Menklo. At the same time, he invented a carbon microphone, thanks to which the quality of telephone communications significantly improved.
In 1877, the world saw one of Edison's best inventions - the phonograph. The scientist was able to record and reproduce the children's song “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” after which they began to call him a wizard. Phonographs sold for $18 apiece and remained popular until the invention of the gramophone.
Back in 1874, Russian engineer Alexander Lodygin invented the first incandescent lamp. Edison became interested in this device, and soon he bought the scientist’s invention. He dreamed of illuminating all houses and streets, so he spent a lot of time improving the light bulb. Thomas made a threaded base and also inserted a twisted tungsten spiral inside. Later he thought about creating a switch and developed a wiring diagram. Soon the first power plant illuminated by incandescent lamps was built in New York.
In 1882, the first distribution substation for the residents of Manhattan appeared. At the same time, Edison founded a company producing electrical generators, cables and light bulbs.
last years of life
In 1887 Thomas moved to West Orange. There he founded a modern laboratory in which several dozen people could work simultaneously. At the new location, the inventor improved the phonograph, created a voice recorder and a movie camera.
Edison adhered to the principle that he described in his catchphrase: “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” Some scientists have criticized this approach. For example, Nikola Tesla stated that the inventor could have achieved much more by spending time studying books. But Thomas preferred to be guided by instinct and work hard, without looking for easy ways. He was also not ashamed to ask for help from more qualified people working in the laboratory. The scientist spent 16-18 hours a day at work.
Despite his busy schedule, Thomas was married twice. He met his first wife back in 1871, her name was Mary Stillwell. The girl was a telegraph operator, she gave birth to her husband a daughter and two sons. When she turned 29, Mary died of brain cancer.
In 1886, the inventor married for the second time to Mina Miller. In their marriage they also had three children - two sons and a daughter. The woman died a few years after her husband.
Edison spent the last years of his life quietly. He lived in own home with his wife, children and grandchildren. The scientist died on October 18, 1931 due to a long struggle with diabetes. He developed complications and this was the cause of death. The inventor was buried in the backyard of his West Orange home.
Biography and episodes of life Thomas Edison. When born and died Thomas Edison, memorable places and dates of important events in his life. Inventor Quotes, Photo and video.
Years of life of Thomas Edison:
born February 11, 1847, died October 18, 1931
Epitaph
“Others got it from nature
Instinct is prophetically blind -
They smell them, hear the water
And in the dark depths of the earth...
Beloved by the Great Mother,
Your destiny is a hundred times more enviable -
More than once under the visible shell
You saw it right away.”
From a poem by A. Fet
Biography
Thomas Edison's importance to the world modern technology, as we know it, is difficult to overestimate. A great inventor, owner of more than 1,000 patents for new products in his native country alone, Edison became the author of such technical innovations as the phonograph and the first practically applicable electric light bulb. In addition, Edison managed to make invention a commercial success: his ideas found immediate use. And few people imagine how much work it took ex-boyfriend from the outback.
From the early childhood Thomas was interested in technology and science. At the age of 9, his favorite book was “Natural and Experimental Philosophy,” which described physical and chemical experiments - all of which the boy performed experimentally. Edison got his first job at the age of 18 in order to receive pocket money for experiments. On the train, where he carried newspapers, Thomas received permission to set up his first laboratory.
Subsequently, wherever Edison the telegraph operator took him, he continued his studies, which from a childhood hobby turned into the meaning of his life. The young man managed to sell his first invention at the age of 22: it was a device for transmitting stock market reports. This is where Edison's amazing rise began. Four years later, Edison filed 45 patent applications over a three-year period for technical innovations he invented.
At the age of 29, Thomas Edison opened his famous laboratory near New York, which was specially built for his experimental activities. After moving there, the work of an inventor became his main source of income. And Edison succeeded in this: all his technical innovations had a specific practical purpose. The young man worked tirelessly; 6 years after the opening of his laboratory, Edison's company built the first power plant, which provided electricity to Manhattan. The electrification company organized by Edison became the ancestor of modern General Electrics.
Edison's career and success epitomized the American spirit: indomitable, practical, tenacious, focused on specific applications and financial gain. Edison became a living example of the fact that without an academic education you can achieve success in science. The talented inventor Edison became an equally talented businessman. The last years of his life, having practically abandoned inventive activity, he devoted mainly to business operations. But this does not mean that Edison retired: his hard work and ability to work were legendary.
Thomas Edison died from complications of diabetes at the age of 81, leaving his business to his son, Charles. Edison became the first well-known example in history that science is not just a theory, but a real, real engine of progress. Edison's activities gave an unprecedented boost to the technical development of civilization, and we are still reaping its benefits.
Life line
February 11, 1847 Date of birth of Thomas Alva Edison.
1854 Moving with parents to Port Huron.
1859 Started working as a newsboy on the railway line.
1863 Work as a telegraph operator.
1868 Move to Boston, work at Western Union.
1869 Moving to New York, selling his first invention, founding Pop, Edison and Company.
1871 Opening of two new workshops, marriage.
1873 Selling a new model of typewriter to the Remington brothers.
1874 Practical implementation of the quadruplex principle in telegraphy.
1876 Moving to Menlo Park and setting up a laboratory there.
1877 Invention of the phonograph.
1878 Invention of the carbon filament incandescent light bulb.
1880 Founding of the Edison Illuminating Company.
1884 Work with N. Tesla.
1888 Invention of the kinetoscope.
1912 Invention of the kinetophone.
1915 Appointment as Chairman of the Marine Advisory Committee.
1928 Receiving the Congressional Gold Medal.
1930 Appointment as an honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
October 18, 1931 Date of death of Thomas Edison.
Memorable places
1. Milen, Ohio, where Thomas Edison was born.
2. Vienna, where Edison visited with his parents in 1852
3. Port Huron, where Edison grew up.
4. Indianapolis, where Edison worked as a telegraph operator in 1864
5. Boston, where Edison worked for Western Union in 1868 and lived before moving to New York.
6. Edison Museum in Menlo Park (37 Christie St.)
7. Edison's Glenmont House in Llewelyn Park in West Orange, New Jersey, which the inventor purchased in 1886 as a wedding gift for his second wife and behind which is Edison's grave (now Thomas Edison National Historical Park).
Episodes of life
At school, Edison was considered mediocre: teachers mistook his special way of thinking for stupidity. His mother was forced to take him out of school and teach him at home.
According to his own recollections, before he turned 50, Edison worked 18-19 hours a day.
According to the memoirs of N. Tesla, Edison promised him a reward for improving the alternating current machines invented by Edison, but broke his word. Tesla quit Edison's workshop and opened his own, and Edison responded by launching a campaign against alternating current as a dangerous invention.
Henry Ford, who lived near his inventor friend, sealed the air from the room where Edison died into a glass flask, which today is kept in the Ford Museum.
Film about Thomas Edison from the Encyclopedia Project series
Testaments
“Anxiety is dissatisfaction, and dissatisfaction is the primary condition for progress. Show me a completely satisfied person, and I will show you a loser in him.”
“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”
“I didn’t have any failures. I have successfully identified five thousand ways that are no good. As a result, I’m five thousand ways closer to the way that will work.”
“I believe that our spiritual individuality does not die; even after death it is capable of influencing matter. If my assumption is correct, then man will definitely create a hypersensitive device that will allow us to record messages from our ancestors, regardless of what image they take after their physical death.”
“Until man can duplicate an ordinary green blade of grass, Nature will forever mock his so-called “scientific knowledge.”
Condolences
“...he had genuine contempt for book education and mathematical knowledge, trusting entirely in his instinct as an inventor and common sense American."
Nikola Tesla, inventor
Can you imagine our present life without an ordinary light bulb? And there is no need to do this - thanks to the knowledge and perseverance of Thomas Alva Edison, it was invented. In addition to the incandescent lamp, phonograph and kinetoscope, Edison patented a total of 1093 inventions. To achieve this result, he needed enormous knowledge, although he not only did not graduate from the university, but even from a regular school, which he attended for only 3 months. The boy's education was mainly carried out by his mother - she always believed in her son's abilities.
Tom was a self-taught genius who was not spoiled by the official school system, so he thought differently than other people. Although the Edison family belonged to the middle class, it always lived poorly - in addition to Thomas, affectionately called Al, there were six other children. To help his family, the boy began earning money at the age of 12 - first he sold newspapers, and then he began publishing his own and selling it on trains; at its best, its circulation reached 400 copies per day. At the same time, the future inventor read absolutely everything that fell into his hands - Shakespeare, the Bible, books about English literature and historical studies, but above all Thomas was interested in scientific publications, which even then aroused his deep interest.
Using his contacts on the railroad, Edison set up a chemical laboratory in an old freight car. However, a fire soon broke out there, and one of the railroad workers beat Tom so badly that the 14-year-old boy almost lost his hearing forever. A few months later, Tom literally snatched the station master’s son from under the wheels of the train, and as a sign of gratitude, the father of the saved baby taught the young genius Morse code - this is how Edison became a telegraph operator. Things were going well for him, and he continued his research. When he was 16 years old, Edison invented an automatic telegraph that could receive messages without human intervention. However, due to ignorance, Edison did not patent his first invention, so he received his first patent only after moving to Boston, where he got a job at a telegraph company and invented an electrographic device that automatically counted the votes of participants in various meetings and meetings.
But there was no demand for this device - as it turned out, when using it, politicians could no longer so shamelessly deceive those present and, through manipulation of the results, persuade colleagues to change their opinions. It was then that the disappointed Edison decided that from that moment all his inventions would serve the benefit of humanity, and not the elite of society. He borrowed money and went to New York. The young man was instantly hired with a fantastic salary of $300 a month. All free time he again began to spend on inventions; in particular, then Edison began working on a quadruplex - a device that would allow two messages to be sent simultaneously in different directions.
He also improved it - and for the right to use this device, the Gould company paid the inventor 40 thousand dollars. For Edison, this was a huge amount, which immediately made him a rich man. Edison also tried to improve the production of cement in order to build cheaper houses. To do this, he organized a company and dreamed that in the future phonographs, furniture, refrigerators and pianos would be made from cement. Alas, this company went bankrupt. Since childhood, Edison learned to endure defeat. One of his experiments was to have two cats, to whose tails he attached wires, rub against each other, generating static electricity; enraged animals scratched the young inventor.
Another time, Edison fed a friend the powder used to make carbonated water - future genius expected that the powder would release gas in the stomach and allow his friend to fly into the air, as if balloon. In subsequent years, Edison sold his patents to various businesses and made so much money that he created a real research laboratory in Newark. That same year he married Mary Stivel, from whom three children were born. When Thomas was 29 years old, Alexander Bell invented the telephone, and Edison enthusiastically began to improve the new product - in particular, he designed a microphone that transmitted sound loudly and clearly.
Edison moved his company to Menlo Park, New Jersey, and turned it into a large research laboratory, where he was one of the first to introduce team work methods. A year later, he invented the phonograph, a device that recorded sound on zinc foil. At first, the device was intended for businessmen so that they could dictate letters without a stenographer - and although Edison promoted his invention throughout America and even met with the President of the United States on this occasion, there was little interest in the phonograph.
Only in the 90s of the 19th century, when the inventor improved his device and began producing it both for business people and for home use, and at the same time organized the production of blank rollers for recording, the new product received wide recognition. To find the optimal material for an incandescent lamp filament, he conducted 2954 experiments with various materials until I found tungsten, which is influenced electric current glowed in a glass flask, giving a bright light - this is how the world's first household light bulb appeared.
Among Edison's outstanding ideas one can name the principle of distributing electricity between consumers. A series of high-profile successes was overshadowed by the death of his wife, but two years later Edison married again - to Mina Miller. Edison did not imagine that “live” pictures would become so popular that people would want to watch them in groups, seated in front of a movie screen. In New Jersey, Edison created a huge scientific center, where he worked until the end of his life. A year later it was the world's largest research center, whose heyday came during World War I, when the inventor and 10 thousand of his employees worked on fulfilling military orders.
The fruit of these developments was the demonstration of the first moving picture shown in a kinetoscope. However, in those years the film industry was developing at such a frantic pace that Edison chose to do something else. But the inventor managed to create an accumulator - a battery that stored electricity and helped start cars, illuminate railway cars, and was widely used for signaling and in mine lamps; all these products turned out to be very profitable.
Design Bureau Ural from Yekaterinburg makes such motors, or rather hydraulic motors, that Edison would be jealous. For example, the hydraulic motor 303 is fully adjustable and therefore very easy to use.
Someone invented the incandescent lamp, and someone invented how to make a candle out of it. Interesting video:
Biography
Origin
In 1804, the son Samuel Jr., the future father of Thomas A. Edison, was born to the family of the eldest son, John Samuel. In 1811, not far from what is now Port Barwell in Canada, the Edison family received a large plot of land and finally settled in the village of Vienna. In 1812-1814, Captain Samuel Edison Sr., the future grandfather of Thomas Alva, took part in the Anglo-American War. In subsequent years, the Edison family prospered, and their hospitable manor on the river bank was known throughout the area.
In 1828, Samuel Jr. married Nancy Eliot, a clergyman's daughter who received good upbringing and education and worked as a teacher at a Vienna school. In 1837, under the influence of the economic crisis and crop failure, a rebellion broke out in Canada, in which Samuel Jr. took part. However, government troops suppressed the rebellion and Samuel was forced to flee to Mylan (Ohio, USA) to avoid punishment. In 1839, he manages to transport Nancy and her children. Edison's business was going well. It was during this period of Edison's life in Mailan that his son Thomas Alva was born (February 11, 1847).
Childhood
In my younger years
As a child, Thomas Alva was called Al, he was vertically challenged and looked a little frail. However, he was very interested in the life around him: he watched steamships and barges, carpenters at work, boats being lowered at the shipyard, or sat quietly for hours in a corner, copying the inscriptions on warehouse signs. At the age of five, Al visited Vienna with his parents and met his grandfather. In 1854, the Edisons moved to Port Huron, Michigan, located at the bottom of Lake Huron. Here Alva during three months attended school. His teachers considered him "limited." Parents were asked to pick up their child from school. His mother took him and at home gave him his first education.
Edison often visited the Port Huron People's Library. Before the age of twelve, he managed to read Gibbon's History of the Rise and Decline of the Roman Empire, Hume's History of Great Britain, and Burton's History of the Reformation. However, the future inventor read his first scientific book at the age of nine. It was "Natural and Experimental Philosophy" by Richard Greene Parker, containing almost all the scientific and technical information of that time. Over time, he carried out almost all the experiments described in the book.
Since childhood, Edison helped his mother sell fruits and vegetables. However, the pocket money earned in this way was not enough for his experiments, especially chemical ones. Therefore, in 1859, Thomas got a job as a newspaperman on the railroad line connecting Port Huron and Detroit. Young Edison's earnings reached 8-10 dollars a month (about 300 dollars in 2017 prices). He continues to be interested in books and chemical experiments, for which he seeks permission to set up his laboratory in the baggage car of a train.
Edison took every opportunity to increase demand for the newspapers he sold. So, when in 1862 the commander-in-chief of the northern army suffered a serious defeat, Thomas asks the telegraph operator to transmit short message about the battle at Port Huron and all intermediate stations. As a result, he managed to increase newspaper sales at these stations several times. A little later he becomes the publisher of the first train newspaper. It was also during this time that Edison developed an interest in electricity.
In August 1862, Edison saved the son of the head of one of the stations from a moving carriage. The boss offered to teach him telegraphy in gratitude. This is how he became acquainted with the telegraph. He immediately sets up his first telegraph line between his house and his friend’s house. Soon there was a fire in Thomas' carriage, and the conductor threw Edison and his laboratory out.
Traveling Telegraph Operator
In 1863, Edison became a night shift telegraph operator at the station with a salary of $25 a month. Here he manages to automate part of the work and sleep on the job, for which he soon receives a severe reprimand. Soon, due to his fault, two trains almost collided. Tom returned to Port Huron to live with his parents.
All this time, Edison cared little about clothing and everyday life, spending all his money on books and materials for experiments. It was in Boston that Edison first became acquainted with the works of Faraday, which had great value for all his future activities.
In addition, it was during these years that Edison tried to obtain his first patent from the Patent Office. He is developing an “electric voting machine” - a special device for counting “yes” and “no” votes cast. The demonstration of the apparatus before a special parliamentary commission ended unsuccessfully due to the reluctance of parliament to abandon paper counting. In 1868, Edison went to New York to sell another of his inventions there - an apparatus for automatically recording stock exchange rates. However, these hopes were not justified. Edison returns to Boston.
Moving to New York
With the money received, Edison buys equipment for making stock tickers and opens his own workshop in Newark, near New York. In 1871, he opened two more new workshops. He devotes all his time to work. Subsequently, Edison said that until the age of fifty he worked on average 19 and a half hours a day.
The New York Automatic Telegraph Society suggested that Edison improve an automatic telegraphy system based on paper perforation. The inventor solves the problem and gets, instead of the maximum transmission speed on a manual device, equal to 40-50 words per minute, the speed of automatic devices is about 200 words per minute, and later up to 3 thousand words per minute. While working on this task, Thomas meets his future wife, Mary Stillwell. However, the wedding had to be postponed because Edison's mother died in April 1871. The wedding of Thomas and Mary took place in December 1871. In 1873, the couple had a daughter, who was named Marion in honor of older sister Tom. In 1876, a son was born, who was named Thomas Alva Edison Jr.
After short stay In England, Edison begins to work on duplex and quadruplex telegraphy. The principle of quadruplex (double duplex) was known earlier, but in practice the problem was solved by Edison in 1874 and is his greatest invention. In 1873, the Remington brothers bought an improved model of the Scholz typewriter from Edison and subsequently began to widely produce typewriters under the Remington brand. In three years (1873-1876), Thomas applied for new patents for his inventions forty-five times. Also during these years, Edison's father moved in with him and took on the role of economic assistant to his son. For inventive activities, a large, well-equipped laboratory was needed, so in January 1876 its construction began in Menlo Park near New York.
Menlo Park
Menlo Park, a small village where Edison moved in 1876, became world famous over the next decade. Edison gets the opportunity to work in a real, equipped laboratory. From this moment on, invention becomes his main profession.
Telephone transmitter
Edison's first work in Menlo Park included telephony. The Western Union Company, concerned about the threat of competition to the telegraph, turned to Edison. After trying many options, the inventor created the first practical telephone microphone, and also introduced an induction coil into the telephone, which significantly amplified the sound of the telephone. For his invention, Edison received 100 thousand dollars from Western Union.
Phonograph
In 1877, Edison registered the phonograph with the Bureau of Inventions. The appearance of the phonograph caused general amazement. The demonstration of the first device was immediately carried out in the editorial office of Scientific American magazine. The inventor himself saw eleven promising areas for the use of the phonograph: recording letters, books, teaching eloquence, playing music, family notes, recording speeches, the area of advertisements and announcements, watches, study foreign languages, recording lessons, connecting to a phone.
Electric lighting
Edison's incandescent lamp in the Myers Encyclopedia 1888
In 1878, Edison visited Ansonia's William Walas, who was working on electric carbon arc lamps. Walas gave Edison a dynamo along with a set of arc lamps. After this, Thomas begins work towards improving the lamps. In April 1879, the inventor established the critical importance of vacuum in the manufacture of lamps. And already on October 21, 1879, Edison completed work on an incandescent light bulb with a carbon filament, which became one of the largest inventions of the 19th century. Edison's greatest achievement was not in developing the idea of the incandescent lamp, but in creating a practicable, widespread system of electric lighting with a strong filament, a high and stable vacuum, and the ability to use many lamps simultaneously.
On the eve of 1878, giving a speech, Edison said: “We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles.” In 1878, Edison, along with J. P. Morgan and other financiers, founded the Edison Electric Light Company in New York, which by the end of 1883 produced three-quarters of the incandescent light bulbs in the United States. In 1882, Edison built New York's first distribution substation, serving Pearl Street and 59 customers in Manhattan, and founded the Edison General Electric Company to manufacture electric generators, light bulbs, cables and lighting fixtures. To conquer the market, Edison set the selling price of a light bulb at 40 cents, while its cost was 110 cents. For four years, Edison increased the production of light bulbs, reducing their cost, but suffered losses. When the cost of the lamp dropped to 22 cents, and their production increased to 1 million units, he covered all costs in one year. In 1892, Edison's company merged with other companies to form General Electric.
Working with Nikola Tesla
In 1884, Edison hired a young Serbian engineer, Nikola Tesla, whose duties included repairing electric motors and direct current generators. Tesla proposed for generators and power plants use alternating current. Edison perceived Tesla's new ideas rather coldly, and disputes constantly arose. Tesla claims that in the spring of 1885 Edison promised him 50 thousand dollars (at that time an amount approximately equivalent to 1 million modern dollars) if he could constructively improve the direct current electric machines invented by Edison. Nikola actively got to work and soon introduced 24 varieties of Edison's alternating current machine, a new switch and regulator that significantly improved performance. Having approved all the improvements, in response to a question about the reward, Edison refused Tesla, saying that the emigrant still did not understand American humor well. Insulted, Tesla immediately quit [ ] . A couple of years later, Tesla opened his own Tesla Electric Light Company next door to Edison. Edison began a widespread information campaign against alternating current, claiming that it was dangerous to life.
Kinetoscope
Kinetoscope (from the Greek “kinetos” - moving and “skopio” - to look) - optical instrument for displaying moving pictures, invented by Edison in 1888. The patent described the film format with perforations (35 mm wide with perforations along the edge - 8 holes per frame) and a frame-by-frame transport mechanism. One person could watch the film through a special eyepiece - it was a personal cinema. The cinematography of the Lumière brothers used the same type of film and a similar transport mechanism. In the USA, Edison started a “patent war”, justifying his priority on perforated film and demanding royalties for its use. When Georges Méliès sent several copies of his film A Trip to the Moon to the United States, Edison's company remade the film and began selling copies by the dozen. Edison believed that in this way he was reimbursing the patent fee, since Méliès's films were shot on punch-hole film. A Trip to the Moon opened the first permanent movie theater in Los Angeles, one of the outskirts of which was called Hollywood.
Edison, Lodygin, Goebel, Just, Hanaman and Coolidge
It is a mistake to consider only Edison as the creator of the incandescent lamp. The honor of the invention also belongs to the German inventor Heinrich Goebel. Goebel was the first to think of pumping air out of a glass lamp bulb; Russian inventor Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin, he was the first to propose making an incandescent filament not from coal or charred fibers, but from refractory tungsten. But only in 1904, Austro-Hungarian specialists Sandor Just and Franjo Hanaman were the first to use tungsten filament in lamps and such lamps entered the market through the Hungarian company Tungsram in 1905. In 1906 William Coolidge invents an improved method for producing tungsten filament. Subsequently, the tungsten filament displaces all other types of filaments.
But it was Edison who came up with modern form lamps, screw base with socket, plug, socket, fuses. He did a lot for mass application electric lighting.
Later life dates
- 1880 - dynamo, magnetic ore sorting device, experimental railway
- 1881 - three-wire electrical lighting network system
- 1884 - death of wife Mary
- 1885 - train induction telegraph
- 1886 - wedding of Edison and Mina Miller
- 1887 - laboratory in West Orange, birth of daughter Madeleine
- 1890 - birth of son Charles, improvement of the phonograph
- 1892 - ore beneficiation plant, improvement of the phonograph
- 1896 - father's death
- 1898 - birth of son Theodore
- 1901 - cement plant
- 1912 - kinetophone
- 1914 - production of phenol, benzene, aniline oils and other chemical products
- 1915 - Chairman of the Marine Advisory Committee
- 1930 - the problem of synthetic rubber, the election of Edison as an honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences
Spiritualist experiments
Edison family friend John Eggleston ( John Eggleston) stated in the magazine Banner of Light dated May 2, 1896, that the inventor’s parents were staunch spiritualists, and held seances at home even when their son was a child. IN mature age Edison called such sessions naive, and believed that if a connection with those who left our world was possible, then it could be established scientific methods. When Helena Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society in New York (1875), sent Thomas Edison, as the inventor of the phonograph, her book “Isis Unveiled”, published in 1877, enclosing a form for joining the society, Edison responded positively, and his application membership was received by the Theosophical Society on April 5, 1878.
During the last 10 years of his life, Thomas Edison was particularly interested in what is commonly called “occultism” and the afterlife and conducted relevant experiments. Together with colleague William Dinudi ( William Walter Dinwiddie, 1876-1920) tried to record the voices of the dead and entered into an “electric pact” with him, according to which both swore an oath that the first of them to die would try to send the other a message from the world of the departed. When Dinwiddie's colleague died in October 1920, 73-year-old Edison gave an interview to Forbes, in which he notified the public of his efforts to create a device for communicating with the dead - the "necrophone". This is also evidenced by the last chapter of his memoirs - “The Otherworldly Kingdom” (USA, 1948), published as a separate book in France (2015). In it, Edison touches on the existence of the soul, the origins of human life, the functioning of our memory, spiritualism and technical capabilities communication with the deceased.
According to the inventor, the necrophone was supposed to record last words newly deceased - its "living components" just dissipating into etheric space before they group together to form another Living being. Edison's necrophone has not survived, nor have his drawings, which has given some biographers the opportunity to express doubts about its existence and even about the sincerity of Edison's words regarding this project. After Edison's death (1931), engineers and psychologists who knew him formed the Society for Etheric Research. Society for Etherique Research) to continue his business technical creation necrophone and methods of communication with those who have left the physical world.
Thomas Edison's grave
Death
Thomas Edison died from complications of diabetes on October 18, 1931, at his home in West Orange, New Jersey, which he purchased in 1886 as a wedding gift for Mina Miller. Edison was buried in the backyard of his home.
Video on the topic
Famous inventions
Title page of Edison's 1880 electric lamp patent
Among them:
| Invention | year |
|---|---|
| Aerophone | 1860 |
| Electric vote counter for elections | 1868 |
| Ticker machine | 1869 |
| Carbon telephone membrane | 1870 |
| Quadruplex (four-way) telegraph | 1873 |
| Mimeograph | 1876 |
| Phonograph | 1877 |
| Carbon microphone | 1877 |
| Carbon filament incandescent lamp | 1879 |
| Magnetic Iron Ore Separator | 1880 |
| Kinetoscope | 1889 |
| Iron-nickel battery | 1908 |
Characteristic
Edison was distinguished by his amazing determination and efficiency. When he was searching for a suitable material for the filament of an electric lamp, he went through about 6 thousand samples of materials until he settled on carbonized bamboo. While testing the characteristics of the lamp's carbon circuit, he spent about 45 hours in the laboratory without rest. Until his very old age, he worked 16-19 hours a day.
Memory
In astronomy
The asteroid (742) Edison, discovered in 1913, is named after Edison.
To the cinema
- The Mystery of Nikola Tesla / Tajna Nikole Tesla (Yugoslavia 1979, Director: Krsto Papich) - as Thomas Edison Dennis Patrick.
- My 20th century (Hungary/Germany, 1989) - Peter Andorai as Thomas Edison.
see also
Notes
- BNF ID: Open Data Platform - 2011.
- SNAC - 2010.
- Find a Grave - 1995. - ed. size: 165000000
- Tsverava G.K. Edison Thomas Alva // Great Soviet Encyclopedia: [in 30 volumes] / ed. A. M. Prokhorov - 3rd ed. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1978. - T. 29: Chagan - Aix-les-Bains. - pp. 566–567.
- https://www.biography.com/people/thomas-edison-9284349
- Edison's Patents - The Edison Papers(English) . Retrieved September 8, 2012. Archived October 15, 2012.
- Edison created 1073 inventions without co-authors. 20 inventions were created jointly with other inventors. In total, Edison had 13 co-authors.
- See Incandescent light bulb: history of invention.
- Edison Thomas Alva - Historical background (Russian)(02.12.2002). - “Honorary member since 02/01/1930 - USA.” Retrieved January 4, 2016.
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- Samokhin V. P. In memory of Thomas Alva Edison
- $50,000 (1885) = $1,082,008 (2006) The Inflation Calculator
- Cheney, Margaret (2001). Tesla: Man Out of Time. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-1536-2.
Without a doubt, our lives would be completely different without the inventions of Thomas Edison. This amazing creator has changed our culture in countless ways. Edison was born in the USA, in Ohio in 1847, and he received his first patent at the age of 22. The last patent in his name was issued two years after his death in 1933. Throughout his life, he received 1,033 patents in the United States alone and 1,200 patents in other countries. Biographers have calculated that on average every two weeks working life Edison received a new patent. Although many of his inventions were not unique, and he often sued other inventors from whom he "borrowed" ideas, his marketing skills and his influence often helped him.
Most of Edison's inventions fall into eight categories: batteries, electric lighting, phonographs and sound recording, cement, mining, moving pictures (movies), telegraphs, and telephones. However, although he is remembered for his major inventions - the motion picture, the incandescent light bulb and the phonograph, his tireless imagination produced several other ideas that are not so well known and which were not welcomed by the public.
10. Electrographic voting recorder
Edison was a 22-year-old telegraph operator when he received his first patent for a machine he called an electrographic voting recorder. He was one of several inventors during the development of methods to improve the functioning of legislative bodies, such as the US Congress, who tried to improve the process of counting the votes of congressmen on a given bill.
In Edison's recorder, a device was connected to each employee's desk. On the table was a sign with the name of each legislator, and two metal columns with the inscriptions "yes" and "no". Congressmen turned on the device by moving the handle in the appropriate direction (yes or no), thereby sending an electrical signal to the desk clerk, who spoke about their opinion. After voting was completed, the clerk placed a sheet of paper treated with a special chemical solution on top of the metal device and pressed it with a roller. Then all the pros and cons were revealed on paper, and the votes were counted without delay.
Edison's friend, another telegraph operator named Dewitt Roberts, showed interest in Thomas's apparatus, bought it for $100 and took it to Washington. However, Congress was reluctant to adopt any device that could speed up the voting process, since it would eliminate time for political manipulation. Thus, this Edison device was consigned to the political graveyard.
9. Pneumatic stencil pen
Edison invented the prototype of a device that is currently used to make tattoos - a pneumatic stencil pen. This machine, which Edison patented in 1876, used a steel tip to perforate paper for the printing process. This invention was important in its own right as one of the first devices that could effectively copy documents.
In 1891, tattoo artist Samuel O'Reilly received the first patent for a tattoo machine, a device that was allegedly based on Edison's invention. O'Reilly appears to have made only one machine for his own personal use, since no records of the marketing system survive.
O'Reilly immigrated to New York from Ireland in 1875. After he created his machine, a lot of people began to visit his shop, since the process of tattooing was much faster with the help of the machine. After O'Reilly's death in 1908 , one student took possession of his machine and continued to work with it until the 1950s.
8. Magnetic iron ore separator
Probably one of Edison's biggest financial failures was the magnetic iron ore separator. The idea that Edison experimented with in his laboratory in the 1880s and 1890s was to use magnets to isolate iron ore from unsuitable low-grade ores. This meant that abandoned mines could be very profitable, since ore could still be extracted from them, since at that time, the price of iron ore had risen very much.
Edison's laboratory was busy creating the separator and putting it into practice. Thomas acquired the rights to 145 abandoned mines and created a pilot project at the Ogden Mine in New Jersey. Edison invested a lot of money in the implementation of his idea. However, technical problems were never resolved and iron ore prices fell, eventually Edison had to abandon this idea.
7. Electric meter
All sorts of questions begin to arise when you do something that no one has done before, such as controlling an electrical device that calculates the energy consumption of businesses and homes. You need a way to know how much energy is being consumed in order to bill accordingly.
Edison solved this problem by patenting his device, the webermeter, in 1881. It contained two or four electrolytic cells with zinc-coated electrodes. The zinc electrodes transmitted information to each other at a certain rate when electricity was used. However, the zinc electrodes had to be replaced with new ones after each reading of the amount of energy consumed.
6. Fruit preservation method
Another invention of Edison saw the light of day while experimenting with glass vacuum tubes during the development of incandescent lamps. In 1881, Edison applied for a patent for storing fruits, vegetables and other organic products in glassware. The essence of his idea was that air was sucked out of the container in which fruits and vegetables were stored using a special pump through a special glass tube that was attached to the container.
Another invention related to food products, wax paper, is also credited to Edison, however, it was created in France in 1851, when Edison was still just a child. The inventor used wax paper in his work on a sound recording device, which is probably where this kind of speculation originated.
5. Electric car
Edison believed that cars would be powered by electricity, and in 1899 he began developing an alkaline battery that he believed would power them. As a result, by 1900, about 28 percent of the more than 4,000 automobiles produced in America were powered by electricity. His goal was to create a battery that could drive a car 100 miles on a single charge. Edison abandoned his idea 10 years later, because gasoline appeared, which was much more profitable to use.
However, Edison's work was not in vain - rechargeable batteries became his most profitable invention and were used in miners' helmets, railway signals, etc. His friend Henry Ford also used Edison's batteries in his Model Ts automobile.
4. Concrete house
Not content with the fact that he had already improved the lives of the average American by creating electric lighting, films and phonographs, Edison decided in the early 20th century that the time of urban slums was over, and every working person's family should have a strong fireproof home that could be built according to relatively inexpensive prices and in bulk. What will these houses be made of? Concrete, of course, a material from the Edison Cement Company in Portland. Edison emphasized, recalling his working-class upbringing, that if something worthwhile came out of his idea, he would not even think about profiting from it.
Edison's plan involved pouring concrete into large wooden beams of specific shapes and sizes. The end result was a detached house, with plumbing, a bathtub and many other perks, that sold for $1,200, about a third of what people had to shell out to buy a house at the time.
But despite Edison's cement being used in the construction of many structures around New York City during the building boom of the early 1900s, concrete homes never caught on. The molds and special equipment needed to build houses required large financial resources, and only a few construction companies could afford it. However, there was another problem: few families wanted to move into houses that were advertised as new housing for those living in the slums. Another reason: the houses were simply ugly. In 1917, 11 such houses were built, but they were not well received and understood, so no more such houses were built.
3. Concrete furniture
Why should a young couple go into debt to buy furniture that will only last them a few decades? Edison offered to fill the house with timeless concrete furniture for half the price. Edison's concrete furniture, covered with a special air-filled foam and capable of supporting several times the weight of wooden furniture, had to be carefully sanded and painted or trimmed with mirrors. He claimed that he could furnish an entire house for less than $200.
In 1911, Edison's company allegedly produced several pieces of furniture to be exhibited in New York at the annual cement industry show, but Edison did not appear, and neither did his furniture. It is suspected that the cabinets did not survive the journey.
2. Phonograph for dolls and other toys
Once Edison patented his phonograph, he began to develop ways to use it. One idea, first proposed in 1877 but not patented until 1890, was to miniaturize the phonograph for dolls or other toys, giving a previously voiceless creature a voice. The phonograph was placed in the body of a doll, which from the outside looked like an ordinary doll, but now cost $10. Little girls wrote down nursery rhymes and songs, which then formed the basis of what the doll said or sang.
Unfortunately, the idea of a talking doll was far ahead of the technologies needed to implement it on the market at that time. Sound recording was in its infancy, so when the cute dolls spoke in hissing and whistling voices, it looked very awkward. “The voices of these little monsters are very unpleasant to listen to,” said one of the clients. Most of the dolls barely played or played too weakly to be heard. And the mere fact that this thing was intended for a child to play with already indicated that it obviously would not receive the delicate treatment that the phonograph required.
1. Brass telephone
Coming to the idea of the telephone and telegraph a little later, Edison announced in October 1920 that he was working on a machine that would take communication to new level. In the aftermath of the First World War, spiritualism experienced a revival, and many people hoped that science could provide a way to contact the souls of the recently deceased. The inventor, who considered himself an agnostic, which implies a lack of belief in the existence of the spiritual world, spoke of his desire to create a machine that would read, in his words, “vital units” with which the Universe is filled after the death of people.
Edison communicated with the British inventor Sir William Cooke, who claimed that he was able to capture spirits in photographs. These photographs allegedly inspired Edison, however, he never presented to the general public any machine that he said could communicate with the dead, and even after his death in 1931, no machine was found. Many people believe that they were just joking with reporters when they talked about their "spirit phone."
Some Edison followers claim that during a session with the spirit of the inventor in 1941, he told them the secret and plan for building the machine. The machine was reportedly built but never worked. Later, in another session, Edison allegedly suggested making some changes and improvements. Inventor J. Gilbert Wright attended the session and later worked on the machine until his death in 1959, but as far as is known he never used it to communicate with spirits.
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