Inventor Thomas Edison

 

Thomas Edison changed the way people lived.

His first big success was the phonograph in 1877. The New York Times called it “the most marvelous invention of the age.” Edison believed it would be used for business, but its primary use was for entertainment.

His most famous invention was the electric light bulb. By the 1870s, gas lamps lit homes and streets. They were expensive, dangerous, and dim. Others had tried to make electric light work, but it was unreliable.

Edison tested thousands of materials before finding the right filament—carbonized bamboo. In 1879, he demonstrated a bulb that burned for hours. “We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles,” he declared.

But a bulb alone wasn’t enough. He built the first power plant in New York in 1882. It lit up parts of Manhattan. Business leaders took notice. The Wall Street Journal wrote, “Edison has harnessed lightning for the masses.”

His next challenge was moving pictures. In the 1890s, he developed the Kinetoscope, an early movie viewer. People lined up to watch short films. The movie industry was born.

Edison also improved the telephone, the telegraph, and the battery. He held over 1,000 patents. But he didn’t always work alone. His lab in Menlo Park was filled with talented assistants. Some, like Nikola Tesla, later became rivals.

Edison’s motivation was simple. “I find out what the world needs,” he said, “then I go ahead and try to invent it.”

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