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Quick Facts
- NAME: Thomas Edison
- OCCUPATION: Entrepreneur, Inventor
- BIRTH DATE: February 11, 1847
- DEATH DATE: October 18, 1931
- EDUCATION: The Cooper Union
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Milan, Ohio
- PLACE OF DEATH: West Orange, New Jersey
- Full Name: Thomas Alva Edison
- AKA: Thomas Edison
Best Known For
Inventor Thomas Edison created such great innovations as the electric light bulb, the telephone and the phonograph. A savvy businessman, he held more than a 1,000 patents for his inventions.
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Thomas Edison - Inventor (4:13)
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Thomas Edison - Mini Biography
Inventor Thomas Edison, known during his time as "The Wizard of Menlo Park," developed numerous practical devices that changed the world such as the phonograph, the movie camera, and the light bulb.
Thomas Edison - Inventor
The inventor of the light bulb, phonograph, and motion picture, Thomas Edison was granted 400 patents from 1879 to 1886. Though he changed technology forever, not all of his inventions were successful.
Henry Ford - A Car for the People
Henry Ford is credited with the creation of assembly line-a concept that yields the world's most affordable car.
Alexander Graham Bell - America Listens
Alexander Graham Bell used all his resources to get Americans to use his new invention, the telephone.
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Play NowThomas Alva Edison. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 08:56, May 19, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/thomas-edison-9284349.
Thomas Alva Edison. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/thomas-edison-9284349 [Accessed 19 May 2013].
"Thomas Alva Edison." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 19 2013, 08:56 http://www.biography.com/people/thomas-edison-9284349.
"Thomas Alva Edison," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/thomas-edison-9284349 [accessed May 19, 2013].
"Thomas Alva Edison," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/thomas-edison-9284349 (accessed May 19, 2013).
Thomas Alva Edison [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 19] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/thomas-edison-9284349.
Thomas Alva Edison, http://www.biography.com/people/thomas-edison-9284349 (last visited May 19, 2013).
Thomas Alva Edison. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/thomas-edison-9284349. Accessed May 19, 2013.
By the end of the 1920s Thomas Edison was in his 80s and he slowed down somewhat, but not before he applied for the last of his 1,093 U.S. patents, for an apparatus for holding objects during the electroplating process. Edison and his second wife, Mina, spent part of their time at their winter retreat in Fort Myers, Florida, where his friendship with automobile tycoon Henry Ford flourished and he continued to work on several projects,
Contents
ranging from electric trains to finding a domestic source for natural rubber.
Final Years
Thomas Edison died of complications of diabetes on October 18, 1931, in his home, “Glenmont,” in West Orange, New Jersey. He was 84 years old. Many communities and corporations throughout the world dimmed their lights or briefly turned off their electrical power to commemorate his passing. Edison’s career was the quintessential rags-to-riches success story that made him a folk hero in America. An uninhibited egoist, he could be a tyrant to employees and ruthless to competitors. Though he was a publicity seeker, he didn’t socialize well and often neglected his family. By the time he died he was one of the most well-known and respected Americans in the world. He had been at the forefront of America’s first technological revolution and set the stage for the modern electric world.
Edison, considered one of America's leading businessmen, is credited today for helping to build America's economy during the nation's vulnerable early years.
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Captains of Industry
View groupAmerica wasn't discovered, it was built. At the end of the Civil War, America was seen as a failing experiment in democracy; a nation fraying from the inside and at war with itself. Just 50 years later, the United States was the greatest superpower the world had ever seen. This landmark transition was due in no small part to a group of business-savvy, innovative young men: John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan and Thomas Edison. These men constructed a bold vision for a modern America and transformed the greatest industries of our time, including oil, rail, steel, shipping, automobiles and finance; they are unequivocally America's first captains of industry.
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