In celebration of our national heritage, we continue our Pride in America series by honoring renowned inventor Thomas Edison.
Thomas Edison, born in 1847, spent the early years of his life in Milan, Ohio. At the age of seven, his family moved to Port Huron, Michigan, to seek better fortune in the lumber business. As a child, Edison performed poorly in school, prompting his mother to homeschool him; however, he proved adept at mechanical tinkering and chemistry.
At the age of 12, he began to sell newspapers on the train to Detroit, where he was granted permission to set up a chemistry laboratory and a printing press in one of the baggage cars. This mobile press enabled him to establish his own newspaper, the Grand Trunk Herald, which, as the first newspaper published on a train, became his first successful innovation. The paper’s mobility allowed country residents to receive news well before traditional papers could reach them.
Three years later, Edison saved a child from an oncoming boxcar, for which the child’s father rewarded him by teaching him how to operate a telegraph. This training eventually landed him a job in New York City, where his career as an inventor blossomed. Edison made many significant improvements to automatic telegraphs and also developed a telegraph system that could send multiple messages simultaneously in both directions.
In 1867, he opened a laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, which would serve as the site of many of his greatest inventions. Here, he made dramatic improvements to Alexander Bell’s telephone, improving both call quality and volume. He also invented the phonograph and dabbled in other ventures, including ore milling, new uses for cement, and motion picture sound synchronization and projection, which helped launch the film industry. But the affordable, long-lasting, incandescent light bulb is perhaps his most famous creation. By the end of his life, he had amassed nearly 1,100 patents.
In 1929, two years before his death, Edison was honored with a celebratory dinner attended by notable figures such as President Hoover, John D. Rockefeller Jr., Marie Curie, and Orville Wright. Edison remains one of the greatest inventors in American history and stands as a towering symbol of American ingenuity.
