Thomas Edison and his inventions briefly. About personal life. Later life dates

Thomas Alva Edison - who is he?

Beginning his career as a teenager in 1863 at the telegraph office, when virtually the only source of electricity was the primitive battery, he worked until his death in 1931 to usher in the era of electricity. From his laboratories and workshops came the phonograph, the carbon capsule of a microphone, incandescent lamps, a revolutionary generator of unprecedented efficiency, the first commercial lighting and power supply system, experimental basic elements of film equipment and many other inventions.

Brief biography of his youth

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milena, the son of Samuel Edison and Nancy Eliot. His parents fled to the United States from Canada after his father's participation in the Mackenzie Rebellion in 1837. When the boy turned 7, his family moved to Port Huron, Michigan. Thomas Alva Edison, the youngest of seven children, lived here until he began life on his own at the age of sixteen. He studied very little at school, only a few months. He was taught reading, writing and arithmetic by his mother, a teacher. He was always a very inquisitive child and was drawn to knowledge himself.

Thomas Alva Edison spent his childhood reading a lot, and his sources of inspiration were the books “The School of Natural Philosophy” by R. Parker and “Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and the Arts.” The desire for self-improvement remained with him throughout his life.

Alva started working at an early age, like most children of that time. At 13, he got a job selling newspapers and candy at a local railway, connecting Port Huron with Detroit. He devoted most of his free time to reading scientific and technical books, and also took the opportunity to learn how to operate the telegraph. By the age of 16, Edison was already experienced enough to work full time as a telegraph operator.

First invention

The development of the telegraph was the first step in the communications revolution, and it grew at an enormous rate in the second half of the 19th century. This gave Edison and his colleagues the opportunity to travel, see the country and gain experience. Alva worked in a number of cities throughout the United States before arriving in Boston in 1868. Here Edison began to change his profession as a telegraph operator to an inventor. He patented an electrical vote recorder, a device intended for use in elected bodies such as Congress to speed up the process. The invention was a commercial failure. Edison decided that in the future he would only invent things that he was completely confident in the public demand for.

Thomas Alva Edison: biography of the inventor

In 1869, he moved to New York, where he continued to work on improvements to the telegraph and created his first successful device, the Universal Stock Printer. Thomas Alva Edison, whose inventions brought him 40 thousand dollars, in 1871 had the necessary funds to open his first small laboratory and production capacity in Newark, New Jersey. Over the next five years, he invented and made devices that greatly increased the speed and efficiency of the telegraph. Edison also found time to marry Mary Stilwell and start a family.

In 1876, he sold all his production in Newark and moved his wife, children and employees to the small village of Menlo Park, 40 km southwest of New York. Edison built a new facility that contained everything necessary for inventive work. This research laboratory was the first of its kind and became the model for later institutions such as Bell Laboratories. They say it was his greatest invention. Here Edison began to change the world.

The first phonograph

The first great invention in Menlo Park was the phonograph. The first machine that could record and reproduce sound created a sensation and brought Edison worldwide fame. With her he toured the country and in April 1878 was invited to The White house to demonstrate the phonograph to President Rutherford Hayes.

Electric light

Edison's next great endeavor was the development of a practical incandescent light bulb. The idea of ​​electric lighting was not new, and several people were already working on it, even developing some forms of it. But until this time, nothing had been created that could be practical for home use.

Edison's merit is the invention of not only the incandescent lamp, but also an electrical supply system that had everything necessary to be practical, safe and economical. After a year and a half of work, he achieved success when an incandescent lamp, which used a carbonized filament, shone for 13.5 hours.

The first public demonstration of the lighting system took place in December 1879, when the entire Menlo Park laboratory complex was equipped with it. The inventor devoted the next few years to creating electric power. In September 1882, the first commercial power plant, located on Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan, began operating, providing electricity and light to customers in an area of ​​one square mile. Thus began the era of electricity.

Edison General Electric

The success of electric lighting catapulted the inventor to fame and fortune as the new technology quickly spread throughout the world. Electric companies continued to grow until they merged in 1889 to form Edison General Electric. Despite the use of the inventor's last name in the name of the corporation, he did not control it. The enormous amounts of capital required to develop the lighting industry required the involvement of investment banks such as J.P. Morgan. When Edison General Electric merged with its main competitor, Thompson-Houston, in 1892, the inventor's name was dropped from its name.

Widowhood and second marriage

Thomas Alva Edison, whose personal life was overshadowed by the death of his wife Mary in 1884, began to devote less time to Menlo Park. And because of his involvement in business, he began to visit there even less. Instead, he and his three children—Marion Estelle, Thomas Alva Edison, Jr., and William Leslie—lived in New York City. A year later, while vacationing at a friend's house in New England, Edison met twenty-year-old Mina Miller and fell in love with her. The marriage took place in February 1886, and the couple moved to West Orange, New Jersey, where the groom purchased the Glenmont estate for his bride. The couple lived here until their death.

Laboratory in West Orange

After the move, Thomas Alva Edison experimented in a makeshift workshop at a light bulb plant in nearby Harrison, New Jersey. A few months after his marriage, he decided to build a new laboratory in West Orange, a mile from his home. By that time, he had sufficient resources and experience to build the best equipped and largest laboratory, superior to all others, for the rapid and inexpensive development of inventions.

The new complex of five buildings opened in November 1887. The three-story main building housed a power plant, mechanical workshops, warehouses, experimental facilities, and a large library. Four smaller buildings, built perpendicular to the main one, housed physical, chemical and metallurgical laboratories, a sample workshop and a chemical storage facility. Big size complex allowed Edison to work on not one, but ten or twenty projects at the same time. Buildings were added or rebuilt to meet the inventor's changing needs until his death in 1931. Over the years, factories were built around the laboratory to produce Edison's creations. The entire complex eventually covered more than 8 hectares, and 10,000 people worked there during the First World War.

Recording industry

After opening the new laboratory, Thomas Alva Edison continued work on the phonograph, but then put it aside to work on electric lighting in the late 1870s. By 1890, he began producing phonographs for home and commercial use. As with electric lights, he developed everything needed to make them work, including devices for playing and recording sound, as well as equipment for releasing them. At the same time, Edison created an entire recording industry. The development and improvement of the phonograph proceeded continuously and continued almost until the death of the inventor.

Cinema

At the same time, Edison set about creating a device that could do for the eyes what a phonograph does for the ears. Cinema became it. The inventor demonstrated it in 1891, and two years later industrial production of “films” began in a tiny film studio built in a laboratory known as “Black Maria.”

As with electric lighting and the phonograph, a complete system for making and exhibiting motion pictures had previously been developed. Edison's initial work in cinema was innovative and original. However, many people became interested in this new industry and wanted to improve on the inventor's early cinematic works. Therefore, many people contributed to the rapid development of cinema. The new industry was already thriving in the late 1890s, and by 1918 it had become so competitive that Edison left the business altogether.

Iron ore failure

Advances in phonographs and motion pictures in the 1890s helped offset the greatest failure of Edison's career. For ten years he worked in his laboratory and in old iron mines in northwestern New Jersey on mining methods iron ore, to meet the insatiable demand of Pennsylvania steel mills. To finance this work, Edison sold all his shares in General Electric.

Despite ten years of work and millions of dollars spent on research and development, he was unable to make the process commercially viable and lost all of his investment. This would have meant financial ruin if Edison had not continued to develop the phonograph and cinema simultaneously. Be that as it may, the inventor entered new Age still financially secure and ready to take on a new challenge.

Alkaline battery

Edison's new challenge was the development of a battery for use in electric vehicles. The inventor was very fond of cars, and throughout his life he owned many types of them, powered by different energy sources. Edison believed that electricity was the best fuel for them, but the capacity of conventional lead-acid batteries was not enough for this. In 1899 he began work on an alkaline battery. This project turned out to be the most difficult and took ten years. By the time the new alkaline batteries were ready, gasoline cars had improved so much that electric cars were being used less frequently, mostly as delivery vehicles in cities. However, alkaline batteries proved useful for lighting railroad cars and cabins, marine buoys, and Unlike iron ore, the significant investment paid off handsomely, and the battery eventually became Edison's most profitable product.

Thomas A. Edison Inc.

By 1911, Thomas Alva Edison had developed extensive industrial activities in West Orange. Numerous factories were built around the laboratory, and the complex's workforce grew to several thousand people. To better manage the work, Edison gathered all the companies he founded into one corporation, Thomas A. Edison Inc., of which he himself became president and chairman. He was 64 years old, and his role in the company and in his life was beginning to change. Edison delegated much of his daily work to others. The laboratory itself engaged in less original experiments and improved existing products. Although Edison continued to file and receive patents for new inventions, the days of creating new things that changed lives and created new industries were behind him.

Work for defense

In 1915, Edison was asked to chair the Naval Advisory Committee. The United States was approaching participation in World War I, and the creation of the committee was an attempt to organize the talents of the country's leading scientists and inventors for the benefit of the American military. Edison accepted the appointment. The council did not contribute significantly to the final victory, but it served as a precedent for future successful collaboration between scientists, inventors, and the US military. During the war, at the age of seventy, Edison spent several months on Long Island on a Navy ship experimenting with methods of detecting submarines.

Golden Jubilee

Thomas Alva Edison went from being an inventor and industrialist to a cultural icon, a symbol of American enterprise. In 1928, in recognition of his achievements, the US Congress awarded him a special Medal of Honor. In 1929, the country celebrated the golden anniversary of electric lighting. The celebration culminated with a banquet in honor of Edison, given by Henry Ford at Greenfield Village, a museum of new American history(It was a complete recreation of the Menlo Park laboratory). The honor was attended by the President and many presenters and inventors.

Replacement for rubber

Edison did his last experiments in life at the request of his good friends Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone in the late 1920s. They wanted to find an alternative source of rubber for use in car tires. Until that time, tire production used natural rubber, extracted from the rubber tree, which does not grow in the United States. Crude rubber was imported and became more and more expensive. With his characteristic energy and thoroughness, Edison tested thousands of different plants to find suitable substitutes, eventually finding that goldenrod was a substitute for rubber. Work on this project continued until the death of the inventor.

Last years

During the last two years of Edison's life, his health deteriorated significantly. He spent a lot of time away from the laboratory, working instead from home in Glenmont. Trips to the family villa in Fort Myers, Florida, became longer. Edison was past eighty and suffering from a number of ailments. In August 1931 he became very ill. Edison's health steadily deteriorated, and at 3:21 a.m. on October 18, 1931, the great inventor died.

A city in New Jersey, two colleges and many schools are named in his honor.

16 min. reading

Updated: 02/19/2019

Most people miss an opportunity because it comes in overalls and looks like work / T. Edison

Thomas Alva Edison (eng. Thomas Alva Edison; 02/11/1847 – 10/18/1931) - famous American inventor and businessman, co-founder of General Electric Corporation. At the age of 23, he became the founder of a unique research laboratory.

During its professional activity, Thomas received 1,093 patents at home and about 3,000 outside the United States.

A talented organizer, with his discoveries Edison put high-brow science on a commercial footing and linked the results of experiments with production. He improved the telegraph and telephone, and designed the phonograph. Thanks to his persistence, millions of incandescent light bulbs lit up the world.

Edison did not become a “mad scientist” vegetating in his declining years in obscurity and poverty, but achieved recognition. But he had neither higher education nor even primary education: He was kicked out of school with the stigma of “brainless.” The biography of Thomas Edison will tell you what qualities lead to success.

Edison's childhood

NEWBORN WITH “BRAIN FEVER”

The future genius was born in the American city of Milen (Ohio) on 02/11/1847. The newborn Thomas Alva Edison surprised the doctor who delivered the baby: the obstetrician expressed the opinion that the baby had “brain fever,” because the baby’s head exceeded the standard size. The doctor was right about one thing - the baby was definitely not “standard.”

LONG LIVING FATHERS

Thomas was born into a family of descendants of Dutch millers. In the 18th century, part of the family emigrated to the USA, where they took root. Both Edison’s great-grandfather and grandfather were long-livers: the first lived to be 102 years old, the second to 103.

Samuel Edison, Thomas's father, was a wide-ranging businessman: he traded in timber, real estate, and wheat. He built a 30-meter-high staircase in his yard at home and collected a quarter of a dollar from everyone who wanted to enjoy the panorama from above. People laughed, but they paid money. Thomas will inherit his father's business acumen.

Re-read the previous paragraph, a quarter of a dollar for viewing from a 30-meter ladder. It's practically money out of thin air. The idea was elementary, but a daredevil was found and brought it to life. This distinguishes successful people from ordinary people; their brains generate ideas of different kinds, and their hands bring them to life. Coming up with an idea is easy, but implementing it becomes an impossible task for many people. If you want to succeed, learn to act. And the sooner the better. Take the first step immediately after reading this article.

Nancy Eliot, the mother of the future genius, grew up in the family of a priest, was a highly educated woman, and worked as a teacher before her marriage.

Thomas's parents are Samuel Edison and Nancy Eliot

Thomas's parents married in 1837 in Canada. Soon, a rebellion began in the country due to economic decline; Samuel, who took part in the riots, fled from government troops to America. In 1839, his wife and children joined him.

Thomas was youngest child the spouses, the seventh in a row. The family's name was Alva, Al or El. He often played alone as a child. Even before his birth, the Edison couple had three children die; the older brother and sisters were older than Thomas and did not share his games with him.

CHILDHOOD WITHOUT TOYS

In 1847 hometown Edison was a thriving center on the Huron River, thanks to a water canal that brought farm crops and timber to the industrial centers.

Al grew up as an inquisitive child who got into trouble: once he fell into a canal and miraculously survived; fell into an elevator and almost suffocated in the grain; started a fire in my father's barn. According to the memoirs of Edison Sr., his son “did not know children’s games; his amusements were steam engines and mechanical crafts.” The boy loved to “build” on the river bank: he laid roads and constructed toy windmills.

SCATTERED FROM THE HURON RIVER

Once Thomas went with a friend to the river. While he was sitting on the bank in thought, his comrade drowned. Alva woke up from his thoughts and thought that his friend had returned home without him. Later, when his friend's body was discovered, the inattentive Thomas was blamed for the accident. This event was deeply imprinted in the boy’s mind.

RELOCATION TO THE GREAT LAKES STATE

In 1854 the family moved to the state of Michigan, the city of Port Huron. Thomas's native Mylen, where he spent the first 7 years of his life, began to fall into disrepair: the city canal lost its commercial importance because a railway line was built nearby.

In their new location, the family occupies a beautiful house with a large garden and a panoramic view of the river. Alve works on a farm, collects fruits and vegetables, and sells crops, traveling around the area.

RUMORS OF LOST HEARING

Thomas begins to hear worse, sources indicate different reasons to this:

1. The “prosaic” version: the boy suffered from scarlet fever;
2. “Romantic”: the conductor “ran into” the young inventor’s ear with a composter;
3. “Plausible”: heredity is to blame (Alya’s dad and brother had a similar problem).

His deafness increased throughout his life. When films with sound appeared, Edison complained that actors began to play worse, concentrating on their voices: I feel this more than you because I am deaf.

Inventor Education

SCHOOL: “HELLO AND FAREWELL”

In 1852, a law was passed requiring children to attend school. However, most continued to help their parents on family farms and did not study. Thomas's mother taught him to read and write, and enrolled his grown son in elementary school.

At the school, schoolchildren were punished with a belt, and Alya was punished as well. The boy was hard of hearing, absent-minded, and had difficulty cramming the material. The teacher more than once made fun of the careless student in front of schoolchildren, and once called him “stupid.”

CREATOR OF GENIUS

His mother took Thomas from school, where he suffered for 2 months. A tutor was hired for home education, and the boy learned a lot on his own. Mom did not require me to cram uninteresting subjects. Edison would later say: My mother was my creator. She understood me, she gave me the opportunity to follow my inclinations.

On this issue, I share the opinion of Edison’s mother. My eldest daughter will start school in a year, but she already reads perfectly, which we taught her on our own. And when she goes to school, I will never demand from her fours and fives, as was the case with me in childhood, I will not force her to cram something that is not interesting to her. I will even let her “skip” boring subjects. This does not mean that she will be idle; instead of boring lessons, she will do what interests her (creativity, sports, other subjects). The parent’s task is to identify the child’s creative abilities and direct all his energy in this direction, cutting off everything unnecessary. note from editor Roman Kozhin

There is a beautiful instructive story.

One day, little Thomas returned from class and gave his mother a note from the school teacher. Mrs. Edison read the message aloud: “Your son is a genius. There are no suitable teachers in this school who can teach him anything. Please teach it yourself."

Being a famous inventor, when his mother had already died, Edison found this note in family archive, her text read: “Your son is mentally retarded. We can't teach it at school with everyone else. Please teach it yourself."

Thomas Edison as a child (about 12 years old)

BOOKWORM

Just as a sculptor needs a block of marble, so the soul needs knowledge.

By the age of 9, Alva was reading books on history, the works of Shakespeare and Dickens, and visiting the local library. In his parents' basement, he sets up a laboratory and performs experiments from the book “Natural and Experimental Philosophy” by Richard Parker. So that no one touches his reagents, the young alchemist signs all the bottles “poison”.

Thomas Edison's track record

12 YEARS EMPLOYER

In 1859, Alya’s father found him a job as a “train boy” - the duties of the “trainboy” included selling newspapers and sweets on the train. The former book lover shuttles between Port Huron and Detroit and quickly catches on to the trade. He expands the business, hires 4 assistants and brings $500 into the family annually.

PRINTING HOUSE ON WHEELS

Business-minded and resourceful from a young age, Al organizes a couple of sources of income. In the train where he traded there was an abandoned carriage - a former “smoking room”. In it, Al sets up a printing house and publishes the first travel newspaper, the Grand Trunk Herald. He does everything himself - types the text, edits articles. “Vestnik...” informed about local news and military events (was Civil War North and South). The train leaflet received a positive comment from the English edition of the Times!

WORKING ADVANCED

Al comes up with the idea of ​​telegraphing newspaper headlines to the stations of his railway line. Upon the arrival of the train, the public eagerly buys up the latest press from the boy, wanting to know the details. The telegraph helped Thomas increase his newspaper sales. The guy will continue to strive to benefit from scientific inventions in the future.

LABORATORY ON WHEELS

You’re amazed at how much energy the little boy contained. In the same former smoking carriage, Thomas sets up a laboratory. But while the train is moving, a container with phosphorus breaks due to shaking and a fire starts. Alya is kicked out of work, his enterprises “burn out” in every sense.

UNDERGROUND

The guy transfers his vigorous activity to the basement of his father’s house. He designs a steam engine, arranges a telegraph message, using bottles for insulators. Typographical work also returns: Al publishes the newspaper “Paul Pr”. In one note he managed to insult a subscriber. The offended reader ambushed Thomas by the river and threw him into the water. It’s good that the teenager swam well, otherwise the world would have lost hundreds of his inventions.

RESCUE A CHILD

At the Mont Clemens station, Edison had to save a 2-year-old child when he climbed onto the rails. Thomas rushed onto the track and managed to snatch the child almost from under the locomotive. The noble act made Thomas popular in the city. The baby's father, stationmaster James Mackenzie, in gratitude, offered to teach Thomas how to operate a telegraph machine.

In 1863, 5 months after the start of his studies, 16-year-old Edison received a position as a telegraph operator in a railroad office with a salary of $25 and extra pay for working at night.

PROGRESS IS DRIVEN BY LAZY PEOPLE

Thomas loved night shifts; no one bothered him to invent, read or sleep. But the head of the office demanded that the given word be transmitted by telegraph twice an hour to make sure that the employee was awake. The resourceful Thomas designed an “answering machine” by adapting a wheel with Morse code. The boss’s order was carried out, and he himself went about his business.

ALMOST CRIMINAL CASE

Soon the enterprising employee is fired with a scandal: the two trains miraculously avoided a collision, and all because of Edison’s oversight. Thomas was nearly prosecuted.

VERY LONG RESUME

From Port Huron, Thomas leaves for Adriana, where he finds a job as a telegraph operator. In subsequent years, he worked at Western Union subsidiaries in Indianapolis and Cincinnati.

Thomas then moved to Nashville, from there to Memphis, and finally to Louisville. Working there for the Associated Press telegraph office, Thomas again became the culprit of an emergency in 1867. For his chemical experiments, the guy kept on hand sulfuric acid, and once broke a jar. The liquid burned through the floor and damaged valuable property of the banking firm on the floor below. The restless “telegraph operator-alchemist” was fired.

Thomas's main troubles happened because he could not simply carry out routine operations; it was too boring for him.

THE FIRST PANCAKE IS LOMIC

The first patent received by Edison in 1869 for an “electric voting apparatus” did not bring him success. The machine presented before Congress in Washington received a verdict of “slow”: congressmen manually recorded their votes faster.

Starting a successful career

CITY LIGHTS

In 1869, Edison came to New York with the desire to find a permanent job. Luck smiled on Thomas, setting up a fateful meeting: in one of the companies he found the owner repairing a machine for sending reports on the exchange rate of gold and securities. Edison quickly repairs the device himself and gets a job as a telegraph operator. By using the ticker, Thomas improves the design of the device, and the entire office where he works switches to his updated machines.

UNSEEN CAPITAL

Most people believe that one day they will wake up rich.They are half right. Someday they will really wake up.

In 1870, Mr. Lefferts, head of the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company, offered to buy out Edison's development. He hesitated how much to ask: 3 thousand dollars? Or maybe 5? Edison admits that the first time he almost fainted was at the moment when the head of the company wrote him a check for $40,000.

Edison received the money through adventure. At the bank, the cashier returned the check to him for signature, but Thomas did not hear it and thought that the check was bad. Edison returned to Lefferts, who sent an employee to the bank to accompany the deaf inventor. The check was cashed in small bills, and Edison was afraid of a police patrol on the way home: what if he was confused with a robber? The inventor did not sleep at night, guarding the fallen treasure. He calmed down only after getting rid of a large amount of cash by opening a bank account the next day.

FIRST WORKSHOPS

In the city of Newark, New Jersey, a young man opens a workshop where he produces ticker devices. He enters into contracts with telegraph companies for the supply and repair of devices, and hires over a hundred workers.

In letters home, 23-year-old Edison said: “I have now become what you Democrats call a “bloated Eastern entrepreneur.”

Smiling Edison and Henry Ford as Sheriff

Two Muses of Thomas Edison

PICKUP LESSONS FROM EDISON

Thomas Edison's personal life did not take up much of his time; he endeared himself not with long courtships, but with determination. Among his employees was a pretty girl, Mary Stillwell. One day, the head of the workshop slowed down near her workplace and asked:

“What do you think of me, little one?” Do you like me?

- What are you doing, Mr. Edison, you're scaring me.

– Don’t rush to answer. Yes, this is not so important if you agree to marry me.

Seeing that the young lady was not serious, the inventor insisted:

- I am not kidding. But don’t rush, think carefully, talk to your mother and give me an answer when it’s convenient - even on Tuesday.

The date of their wedding had to be postponed due to the death of Edison's mother in April 1871. Thomas and Mary got married in December 1871, the groom turned 24, the bride 16. After the ceremony, the newlywed went to work and stayed late, forgetting about his first wedding nights.

The couple moved in with Mary's sister Alice, who kept her company while her husband spent days and nights at work. The couple had three children: daughter Marion (1873), son Thomas (1876) and another son William (1878). Edison jokingly called his daughter “Dot”, and his middle son “Dash”, according to Morse code. Mary, Edison's wife, died at the age of 29 in 1884, presumably from a brain tumor.

SECOND CHANCE FOR PERSONAL HAPPINESS

In 1886, 39-year-old Edison married 21-year-old Mina Miller. He taught his beloved the rules of Morse coding, which allowed her to secretly communicate in the presence of Mina’s parents by tapping long and short symbols on her palm.

Mina Miller - Edison's second wife

In his second marriage, the inventor also had three heirs: daughter Madeline (1888) and sons Charles (1890) and Theodore (1898).

Thomas Edison was the father of six children, Charles (pictured with Edison) was one of four sons

Edison's inventions and operating principles

QUADRUPLEX

In 1874, Western Union acquired Thomas's invention - the 4-channel telegraph (aka quadruplex). Quadruplex allowed the transmission of 2 messages in two directions. This principle was formulated earlier, but Edison was the first to put it into practice. The scientist estimated the development at 4-5 thousand dollars, but again “cheapened”: Western Union paid 10. The chairman of the company will write in the report that Edison’s invention brought annual savings of half a million dollars.

By the age of 29, Edison had become familiar with the Patent Office: over the past 3 years, he came to register developments 45 times. The head of the office even commented: “The road to me does not have time to cool down from the steps of young Edison.”

ATHLETIC JUMP

In 1875, Edison’s father moved to Newark, whose arrival has a funny story. The ferry was leaving from the embankment. Suddenly, an old man of about 70, who was late for it, suddenly ran up and covered the distance between the embankment and the ferry with a huge leap. This old man turned out to be Edison Sr., heading towards his son. Reporters trumpeted the story about the inventor's bouncy parent.

Friends Henry Ford and Thomas Edison - icons of the era

"DO NOT ENTER! SCIENTIFIC WORK IN PROGRESS"

Edison uses the funds received for the quadruplex to build a laboratory in the town of Menlo Park.

I understood what the world needed. Okay, I'll invent it

In March 1876, construction of the research center was completed. Journalists and idle onlookers were prohibited from entering the territory. Laboratory experiments were carried out under the cover of secrecy, and the scientific genius himself received the nickname “the wizard of Menlo Park.” From 1876 to 1886, the laboratory expanded; Edison managed to organize its branches outside the United States.

SYMBOL OF PERSISTENCE

The most big mistake is that we give up quickly. Sometimes, to get what you want, you just have to try one more time.

Edison's workaholism could not be treated; he spent 16-19 hours working every day. Once a great worker worked for 2.5 days in a row, and then slept for 3 days.

Healthy genes and love for his work helped him cope with such a load. The inventor stated that he did not divide the week into “workdays” and weekends, he simply worked and enjoyed it. His quote is widely known:

Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

Thomas became a living example of perseverance and determination.

TEAM EDISON

The workday was irregular not only for the manager, but also for the center’s employees. The scientist selected for his team people who were as enthusiastic and hardworking as he was. His workshop was a real “forge of personnel.” Among the “graduates” of the scientific center are Sigmund Bergman (later the head of the Bergman companies) and Johann Schuckert, the founder of the company, which later merged with Siemens.

MERCANTILE INVENTOR

The center’s strategy was determined by the rule: “Invent only what will be in demand.” The center did not function for the sake of scientific publications, but for the mass implementation of developments.

In 1877, Thomas invented the phonograph, the first apparatus for reproducing and recording sound.

The development, demonstrated at the White House and the French Academy of Sciences, created a sensation. During its demonstration in France in 1878, a philologist professor attacked the commissioner Edison with accusations of ventriloquism. Even after an expert opinion, the humanist could not believe that the “talking machine” reproduced the “noble voice of a person.”

The phonograph's recordings were short-lived, which did not prevent the device from glorifying the name of Edison. The scientist did not expect such popularity and stated that he did not trust things that worked the first time.

Thanks to Edison's invention, the living speech of Leo Tolstoy has reached us. The writer, having ordered the device, received it as a gift. Edison, having learned who the device was intended for, sent it to Yasnaya Polyana free of charge with an engraving - “A gift to Count Leo Tolstoy from Thomas Alva Edison.”

When the inventor was asked whether in the future it would be possible to record human thoughts on a phonograph, he replied that most likely this would be possible, but warned that then “all people would hide from each other.”

Edison did not mind using ready-made ideas: “you can borrow the best of them.” In 1878, he set about improving the incandescent light bulb, the idea of ​​which had been proposed even before him.

– Do you know why you created an incandescent lamp?

- No, but I think that the government will soon figure out how to take money from people for this.

The lamps existing at that time quickly burned out, consumed a lot of current and were expensive. The inventor promised: “We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles.” This is perhaps called "vision" or the art of goal setting. “I look forward,” said the magician from Menlo Park.

The shape of the lamp known to us, the socket and base, plug and socket - all this was invented by Edison.

Having finalized the prototype of the lamp, the scientist made it suitable for industrial production and mass use. No one had managed to do this before Edison.

Edison with his product - the incandescent lamp

FACTS ABOUT PERSISTENCE

• To find a suitable material for the filament, the specifications about 6,000 materials. During the experiments, charcoal fiber from Japanese bamboo showed good performance, which was the choice: the thread burned for 13.5 hours (later the duration was increased to 1200);
• 9,999 experiments were carried out, and the prototype lamp did not light up. Colleagues urged Edison to leave the experiments, but he did not give up: “I have 9999 experiments on how not to do it.” On the ten thousandth attempt the light came on.

BURN-BURN CLEAR

The year 1878 was fruitful: the scientist invented a carbon microphone, used in telephones until the 1980s, and in the same year he co-founded the Edison Electric Light company (from 1892 - General Electric). Then the company produced lamps, cable products and electric generators, now GE is a diversified corporation, in Forbes ranking“The most valuable brands” are in 7th position (2017), in value ($34.2 billion) second only to IBM, Google and McDonald’s.

In 1882, having found investors, Edison built a distribution substation and launched an electrical supply system in Manhattan, a borough of New York.

The cost of the lamp was 110 cents, and the market price was 40. Edison suffered losses for four years, and when the price of the lamp reached $0.22, and their production increased to a million units, he covered the costs for the year.

Fact: Incandescent lamps have been reduced average duration sleep for 1-2 hours.

MEETING OF TWO GENIUS

In 1884, Edison hired an engineer from Serbia, Nikola Tesla, to repair electrical machines. The new employee turned out to be a supporter of alternating current, while his manager sympathized with the “constant” one. Tesla claimed that Edison promised him $50,000 for significantly improving the performance of electric machines. Tesla presented 24 options during the “recess” with improved performance, and when reminded of the reward, Edison replied that the employee did not understand the joke. Tesla quit his workshop and founded his own company.

AC vs. DC: Battle of the Currents

Edison proved the dangers of alternating current and even participated in an information campaign against “change.” In 1903, he took part in organizing the execution by alternating current of a circus elephant, who trampled three people.

THE MAN INVENTS

In 1886, Edison presented his second wife with an estate in Llewellyn Park, West Orange (New Jersey), where he moved his scientific center.

It is now home to the Thomas Edison National Historical Park.

Edison's genius manifested itself in a variety of areas; he was a broad-spectrum inventor. The answer to a phone call “hello” (from the English “hello”) is his proposal, as is the idea of ​​using waxed paper to wrap sweets.

In 1888, Edison invented the kinetoscope - an optical device for demonstrating moving pictures; one person could watch the “movie” through a special eyepiece.

Kinetoscope

Kinetoscope

In 1894, the first kinetoscopic salon opened in New York, equipped with 10 devices, each of which showed a 3-second video. But in 1895, the Lumière brothers patented the cinematograph for mass screening of films, and the personal kinetoscope could not compete with it.

In 1896, a kiss was shown on the big screen for the first time: Edison filmed the romantic ending of the play “Widow Jones.” The 27-second video was banned from showing.

After the discovery of X-rays in 1895, the scientist delegated the development of a device for fluoroscopy to employee Clarence Delley. This is how the fluoroscope was born. At that time, the dangers of X-ray radiation were not known. Clarence tested the X-ray tubes on himself, his health deteriorated and he died. Edison stopped developing the fluoroscope, and declared: "Don't talk to me about X-rays, I'm afraid of them."

Life priorities of Thomas Edison

During World War I, Edison was offered a position as a military consultant. The scientist warned that he would only design protective equipment. The inventor did not want to create weapons of destruction.

Money and fame did not spoil Edison; friends claimed that he remained the same sincere and handsome Tom. But he was a legend of American science; his name was given to an asteroid discovered in 1913.

Among his friends, the scientist was known as a humorist; the following anecdotal story is known:

There was a gate leading to Edison's estate that was difficult to open. Those entering quipped that the great inventor could have designed a better gate. Edison replied: “In my opinion, the gate was designed ingeniously. It is connected to the house water pump and anyone who opens it pumps 20 liters of water into the tank.”

Edison's time clock often read 90 hours a week.

One day, an experimenter refused a public dinner, declaring that “for $100,000 I would not agree to sit for 2 hours listening to praise.” Successful people understand the value of every minute and do not like to waste time.

I don’t need horses or yachts; I don’t have time for all this. I need a workshop!

Many celebrities are vegetarians, for example. Mr. Edison also did not eat meat. He was indifferent to alcohol, declaring that he could “find a better use for his mind.”

Death

The last decade of his life the scientist was interested in the afterlife. The 73-year-old inventor, in an interview with Forbes, notified readers that he was constructing a device for communicating with the dead - a necrophone. William Dinudi, Edison’s colleague, entered into an “electric pact” with him: the first person to die promised to send the survivor a message “from the other world.” Dinudi died first, in 1920. Probably Edison's attempt to establish contact with other world was not successful, judging by the lack of industrial production of necrophones.

Edison was not sure whether there was an existence after death, but one day he admitted to his wife: “I lived my life and did the best I could.” The scientist died on October 18, 1931 at the age of 84 from complications diabetes mellitus. Mina's wife survived her husband by 16 years. The inventor's grave is located in the backyard of his estate.

In Dearborn, the museum displays a glass flask with the sealed “last breath” of a genius - the air from Edison’s room was sealed into a beaker by his attending physician.

In September 2017, the trailer for the film “War of the Currents” was released, in which the role of Thomas Edison is played by Benedict Cumberbatch.

Thomas Edison is one of the greatest minds of his era, the most successful inventor of the 19th century.

If we did everything in our power, we would surprise ourselves

These words belong to a man who knew how to implement ideas and bring what he started to completion.

List of sources used

1. Mikhail Lapirov-Skoblo. Edison.
2. Kamensky Andrey. Thomas Edison. His life and scientific and practical activities.
3. Website National Park Thomas Edisonhttps://www.nps.gov/edis/index.htm

And in this one we’ll talk about what the American inventor Thomas Edison invented.

By the end of the nineteenth century, so many inventions had been made that in 1899, the head of the American Patent Office, Charles Duell, resigned, declaring that “everything that could be invented had already been invented.” As patent applications proliferated and became increasingly narrow and specialized, it became necessary to redefine the term “invention.” In the beginning, an invention was required not only to be novel, but also to be useful and applicable. From 1880 to 1952, the law strictly required that an invention must contain something new and not be simply a modification of something already known, but by 1952 this formulation seemed too strict and new standards were adopted. An invention must now simply be something “non-obvious.”

Although America remained the first in the world to invent devices that made life easier, its focus on practicality, or pragmatism - a term coined by William James in 1863 - led to a lack of experience in developing more complex systems. Indeed, many important breakthroughs in technology occurred in the nineteenth century in Europe rather than America. The automobile was invented in Germany, radio was invented in Italy, and radar, the computer and the jet airplane were made in England in the twentieth century. But what no one could surpass America in was the use of new technologies, and the best of the best here was Thomas Alva Edison.

Edison was the embodiment of American practicality. He called Latin, philosophy and other “high matters” useless junk. His life's goal was to invent things that would improve the life of the consumer and bring as much value as possible. more money inventor. During his life, he received 1093 patents (although the authors of many of them were employees of his company), which was twice as many as his closest rival Edwin Lewis (inventor of the Polaroid camera), and no one gave the world such a number and such a variety of devices , playing a central role in everyday life.

As a person, Edison was, to put it mildly, not without flaws. He defamed his competitors, took credit for the discoveries made by others, tormented his subordinates with work (they were called the “sleepless team”) and, on top of all this, also bribed New Jersey state legislators (he paid them a thousand dollars per brother) in order to they passed laws favorable to his business. Perhaps it would be unfair to call him a complete liar, but they rarely heard the truth from him. The famous story (which he never refuted) about why film stock is 35mm wide says that when his subordinate asked what size film to make, Edison slightly bent the big one and index fingers and said: “Well... something like this.” In fact, as Douglas Collins points out, the 35mm width was chosen because Kodak made film that was 70mm wide and 50 feet long. Instead of developing his own film, Edison simply cut up Kodak film and got 100 feet of finished film.

When George Westinghouse began to develop devices that operated on the then new alternating current (which later turned out to be significantly superior to direct current in convenience and efficiency), Edison, who had invested a lot of effort and money in direct current devices, released an 83-page brochure called “Caution! From Edison's Electric Light Company, with terrifying (and most likely fictitious) stories of innocent victims killed by Westinghouse's terrible alternating current. To finally turn the public away from alternating current, Edison, with the help of local boys, whom he paid 25 cents each, collected stray dogs, which they tied to a metal sheet, after wetting their fur so that it would conduct better. electricity, convened correspondents and showed them how dogs suffer when they are hit with alternating current of varying strength.

However, his most cynical attempt to discredit his competitor’s technology was electrocution organized by Edison using alternating current. The victim was one William Kemmler, a New York state prison inmate sentenced to death for murdering his mistress with a club. The experiment failed. First, Kemmler, strapped to the electric chair with his hands immersed in a barrel of salt water, was shocked with 1,600 volts of alternating current for 50 seconds. Despite the fact that he was convulsively gasping for air, lost consciousness and even began to smoke, he still remained alive. It was possible to kill him only on the second attempt, when a higher voltage was used. This disgusting sight ruined all of Edison's plans. Alternating current soon after became widely used.

From a linguistic point of view, it is interesting to recall the forgotten debate about what to call the taking of a person's life with the help of electricity. Edison, a great enthusiast of new terms, proposed different options: electric motor, dynamort, ampermort, until he found the most attractive one for him - westinghouse, but none of them caught on. Many newspapers initially reported that Kemmler had been electrified, but this term was soon replaced by electrocution, and soon the word electrocution became known to everyone, not just the prisoners awaiting execution.

Edison was, of course, a brilliant inventor, who also had the rare ability to inspire his workers to remarkable discoveries, but the strongest side of his talent was the ability to create a complete system. The invention of the electric light bulb was, of course, a remarkable achievement, but almost useless in practice until a socket for it was invented. Edison and his tireless employees had to design and build the entire system from scratch: a power plant, cheap and reliable wires, lamp posts and switches. In this matter, he left Westinghouse and all other competitors far behind.

The first experimental power plant was built in two half-empty houses in lower Manhattan on Pearl Street. On September 4, 1882, Edison turned a switch and 800 lamps lit up, albeit dimly, throughout lower Manhattan. With unprecedented speed, electric light becomes a miracle of its time. Within a few months, Edison organized no less than 334 small power plants around the world. He carefully selects places where installing electric lighting will have the greatest effect: the New York Stock Exchange, Palmer's Hotel in Chicago, Opera theatre La Scala in Milan, banquet hall in the British House of Commons. Both Edison and America make huge money from this. By 1920, the value of the enterprises based on his inventions and the trends he developed - from electric lighting to cinema - was estimated at $21.6 billion. No man has contributed more to America's economic strength.

Another important innovation of Edison was the organization of his laboratory, which was dedicated to inventing in order to obtain commercially viable technological products. Other companies soon followed his example - ATT, General Electric, DuPont. Practical Science, which supports academic science everywhere, has become the work of capitalists in America.

Thomas Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in the city of Mailen (sometimes called Milan in Russian-language sources) in American state Ohio. Edison's ancestors came to America from Holland.
Edison's childhood is partly reminiscent of the childhood of another brilliant inventor -. Both suffered from scarlet fever and became practically deaf; both were declared unfit for school. But if Tsiolkovsky studied at school for several years, then Edison went to school for only three months, after which he was called “brainless” by the teacher. As a result, Edison received only home education from his mother.

Thomas Edison as a child

In 1854, the Edisons moved to Port Huron, Michigan, where little Thomas sold newspapers and candy on trains, and also helped his mother sell fruits and vegetables. In his spare time, Thomas enjoyed reading books and scientific experiments. He read his first science book at the age of 9. It was "Natural and Experimental Philosophy" by Richard Greene Parker, which told almost all the scientific and technical information of the time. Over time, he performed almost all the experiments mentioned in the book. Edison set up his first laboratory in the baggage car of a train, but after a fire there, the conductor threw it out onto the street along with the laboratory.
While working on the railroad, the teenage Edison founded his own travel newspaper, the Grand Trunk Herald, which he printed with 4 assistants.
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. For several years, Edison worked in various branches of the Western Union telegraph company (this company still exists and, after the decline of the telegraph, is engaged in money transfers).
Edison's first attempts to sell his inventions were unsuccessful, as was the case with a device for counting votes cast for and against, as well as with a device for automatically recording stock exchange rates. However, things soon went well. Edison's most important invention, which ultimately led to the creation of computer networks, was the quadruplex telegraph. The inventor planned to get 4-5 thousand dollars for it, but in the end in 1874 he sold it to Western Union for 10 thousand dollars (about 200 thousand dollars taking into account inflation today). With the money received, Edison opens the first industrial research laboratory in the world in the village of Menlo Park, where he worked 16-19 hours a day.

Thomas Edison Laboratory (Menlo Park)

Edison's famous saying: "Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration." For Edison himself, who was self-taught, everything was exactly like this, for which he was criticized by another famous inventor Nikola Tesla:
“If Edison needed to find a needle in a haystack, he would waste no time in determining the most likely location of its location. He would immediately, with the feverish diligence of a bee, begin to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. methods are extremely ineffective: he can spend a huge amount of time and energy and achieve nothing unless he is helped by a happy accident. At first I watched his activities with sadness, realizing that a little creative knowledge and calculations would have saved him thirty percent of the work. But he had genuine contempt for bookish education and mathematical knowledge, trusting entirely to his instinct as an inventor and to the common sense of an American.”
However, not knowing, for example, higher mathematics, Edison did not shy away from resorting to the help of more qualified assistants who worked in his laboratory.

Thomas Edison in 1878

Inventions

In 1877, Thomas Edison introduced the world to a hitherto unknown miracle - the phonograph. It was the first device for recording and reproducing sound. To demonstrate, Edison recorded and played back the words from the children's song "Mary had a little lamb." After this, people began to call Edison "the wizard of Menlo Park." The first phonographs sold for $18 each. Ten years later, Emil Berliner invented the gramophone, which soon supplanted Edison's phonographs.

Thomas Edison testing a phonograph

Abraham Archibald Anderson - Portrait of Thomas Edison

In the 70s, Edison tried to improve incandescent lamps, which until now no scientist before him had been able to make publicly available and ready for use. industrial production. Edison succeeded: on October 21, 1879, the inventor completed work on an incandescent light bulb with a carbon filament, which became one of the largest inventions of the 19th century.

Edison's early incandescent lamps

To demonstrate the possibility of using light bulbs on a large scale, Edison created a power plant that provided electricity to the entire New York area. After the success of his experiments, Edison declared: “We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles.”
Edison patented the fluoroscope, a device for creating radiography. However, experiments with x-ray radiation seriously undermined the health of Edison and his assistant. Thomas Edison refused further development in this area and said: “Don’t talk to me about X-rays, I’m afraid of them.”
In 1877-78, Edison invented the carbon microphone, which significantly increased the volume of telephone communications and was used until the 80s of the 20th century.
Edison also left his mark on cinema. In 1891, his laboratory created the Kinetograph, an optical device for shooting moving images. And in 1895, Thomas Edison invented the kinetophone - a device that made it possible to demonstrate moving pictures with a phonogram heard through headphones, recorded on a phonograph.
On April 14, 1894, Edison opened the Parlor Kinetoscope Hall, which contained ten boxes designed to display films. One session in such a cinema cost 25 cents. The viewer looked through the device's peephole and watched a short film. However, a year and a half later, this idea was buried by the Lumiere brothers, who demonstrated the possibility of showing films on the big screen.
Relations with cinema in general were tense for Edison. He enjoyed silent films, especially 1915's The Birth of a Nation. Edison's favorite actresses were silent film stars Mary Pickford and Clara Bow. But Edison reacted negatively to the advent of sound cinema, saying that the acting was not so good: “They concentrate on the voice and have forgotten how to act. I feel it more than you, because I am deaf.”

Thomas Edison in 1880

Thomas Edison in 1890

Family

Edison was married twice. His first wife was telegraph operator Mary Stillwell (1855-1884). They married in 1871. There were three children in this marriage: a daughter and two sons. As they say, Edison went to work after the wedding and worked until late at night, forgetting about his wedding night. Mary died at the age of 29, presumably from a brain tumor.

first wife Mary Stillwell (Edison)

In 1886, Edison married Mina Miller (1865-1947), whose father, like Thomas Edison, was an inventor. Mina far outlived Thomas Edison (he died in 1931 at the age of 84). There were also three children in this marriage: a daughter and two sons.

second wife Mina Miller (Edison)

Mina with her husband, Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison. Photo from 1922

Thomas Edison at Wikimedia Commons

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, the daughter of a minister who received a good upbringing and education and worked as a teacher at the 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 attended school for three months. 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 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 were of great importance 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 problem, 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 after Tom's older sister. 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 phonograph applications: recording letters, books, teaching eloquence, playing music, family notes, recording speeches, advertising and announcement area, clocks, learning foreign languages, recording lessons, connecting to a telephone.

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 City'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.

Edison and Lodygin

It is a mistake to consider only Edison as the creator of the incandescent lamp. The honor of the invention also belongs to the Russian inventor Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin. Lodygin was the first to think of pumping air out of a glass lamp bulb, and then suggested making the filament not from coal or charred fibers, but from refractory tungsten. Edison sent his employees all over the world in search of suitable fibrous material for thread. But it was Edison who came up with the modern form of the lamp, a screw base with a socket, a plug, a socket, and fuses. He did a lot for the widespread use of electric lighting.

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 using alternating current for generators and power plants. 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) is an optical device 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.

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 the last words of the newly deceased - his “living components”, just dissipated in ethereal 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 work on the technical creation of the 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

1. data.bnf.fr: open data platform - 2011.
2. SNAC
3. Find a Grave - 1995. - ed. size: 165000000
4. 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.
5. https://www.biography.com/people/thomas-edison-9284349
6. Edison's Patents - The Edison Papers (English). Retrieved September 8, 2012. Archived October 15, 2012.
7. Edison created 1073 inventions without co-authors. 20 inventions were created jointly with other inventors. In total, Edison had 13 co-authors.
8. See Incandescent light bulb: history of invention.
9. Edison Thomas Alva - Historical information (Russian) (12/02/2002). - “Honorary member since 02/01/1930 - USA.” Retrieved January 4, 2016.
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16. Wolfram Alpha. Wolfram Alpha.
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32. Samokhin V. P. In memory of Thomas Alva Edison
33. $50,000 (1885) = $1,082,008 (2006) The Inflation Calculator
34. Cheney, Margaret (2001). Tesla: Man Out of Time. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-1536-2.
35. PBS: Tesla - Master of Lightning: Coming to America
36. “Tesla Says Edison was an Empiricist. Electrical Technician Declares Persistent Trials Attested Inventor's Vigor. "His Method Ineffective" A Little Theory Would Have Saved Him 90% of Labor, Ex-Aide Asserts. Praises His Great Genius." New York Times, October 19, 1931. "Nikola Tesla, one of the world's outstanding electrical technicians, who came to America in 1884 to work with Thomas A. Edison, specifically in the design of motors and generators , counted yesterday some of ... "