Thomas Edison :: essays research papers

Edison, Thomas Alva, American inventor, whose development of a operable electric light bulb, electric generating scheme, sound-recording device, and motion picture projector had profound effect on the shaping of modern society. Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, on February 11, 1847. He attended school for only three months, in Port Huron, Michigan. When he was 12 years old he began selling newspapers on the special K Trunk Railway, devoting his spare time mainly to experimentation with printing presses and with galvanic and mechanical apparatus. The train left Port Huron about 700 in the morning and returned at 900 or 930 at night. The trip included a six-hour layover in Detroit, during which time he claims to come read "the entire public library." He was an omnivorous reviewer and loved to experiment with chemicals and machinery. He constantly wanted to investigate how things worked and desire to see if he could make things better. On the train he was allowed a table i n an empty baggage car on which to work. He even brought a broken printing press, repaired it and taught himself to print. He may have produced the first newspaper printed on a moving train. Edison began noticing a deviation of hearing around this time, which increased throughout his feeling. In 1862 he promulgated a weekly, kn declare as the Grand Trunk Herald, printing it in a freight car that also served as his laboratory. For saving the life of a station officials child, he was rewarded by being taught telegraphy. While on the job(p) as a telegraph operator, he made his first outstanding invention, a telegraphic repeating instrument that enabled messages to be transmitted mechanically over a second line without the presence of an operator.Edison next secured concern in Boston and devoted all his spare time there to research. He invented a vote recorder that, although possessing many merits, was not sufficiently practical to warrant its adoption. He also devised and partly completed a stock-quotation printer. Later, while employed by the Gold and Stock Telegraph come with of New York City he greatly improved their apparatus and service. By the sale of telegraphic appliances, Edison earned $40,000, and with this money he established his own laboratory in 1876. Afterward he devised an automatic telegraph system that made possible a greater speed and range of transmission. Edisons crowning(a) achievement in telegraphy was his invention of machines that made possible simultaneous transmission of several messages on one line and thus greatly increased the usefulness of existing telegraph lines.