THOMAS EDISON

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio.   

Samuel Ogden Edison, (1804–96,born in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia, Canada) and Nancy Matthews Elliott (1810–1871, born in Chenango County, New York) were his parents.

Thomas’s father had to escape Canada because he took part in a unsuccessful  Rebellion in 1837 .

His mother was a school teacher and she was an important influence in Thomas’s early life. 

Edison was the youngest child of seven children but four of them survived to adulthood.

In 1854 Edisons moved to Port Huron Michigan .Edison attended public school here.

Edison was a poor,unsuccesful student. Because his mind always was wandered.

He was a hyperactive child and his teacher called him ‘addled’ (confused or slow ) and saw him as a ‘diffucult’ child.

So his mother got angry and took him out of the school.

She started to teach him at home.

So that, Edison said many years later, "My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me, and I felt I had some one to live for, some one I must not disappoint."

At an early age, Edison showed a great interesting for mechanical things and for chemical experiments.

At age 11,he showed a great enthusiasim for learning, knowledge and reading books on wide range of subjects.

Edison was in poor health when he was young.

He caught a disease ‘scarlet fever’ . It cause him to had hearing difficulties

in both ears. It was a problem that would eventually

leave him nearly deaf as an adult. Around the age of twelve, Edison lost

almost all his hearing. 

At age of 12, Edison convinced his parents to sell newspapers to passengers along Grand Trunk Railroad line.

He started to sell newspapers on the road. Then, after a short time he published his own small newspaper,called ‘Grand Trunk Herald’.

He sold this newspaper with his other newspapers.

Thus, he discovered his talents as a businessman.

These talents eventually help him to found 14 companies,Among these companies there is General Electric; It is still one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world.

At the same time Edison set up a small laboratory in a train baggage car.

Here, he conducted chemical experiments. During one of his experiments, a chemical fire started and the car caught fire.

So that the conductor kicked off him and forced him to sell his newspapers at another stations along the route.

BECOMING A TELEGRAPHER One day while he worked for the railroad, He

saved three-year-old Jimmie MacKenzie from being struck by a runaway train.

Fortunately, Jimmie's father was the station agent J.U. MacKenzie of Mount Clemens, Michigan.

He was too much grateful to Edison so,as reward, he trained Edison as a telegraph operator.

Thus Edison become a telegraph operator at the age of 15(In 1862) .

. For the next five years, Edison traveled throughout the Midwest as an telegrapher.

Meanwhile he continued his scientific experiments.

Additionally, In his spare time, he read widely, studied and experimented with telegraph technology, and became familiar with electrical science. 

In 1866, at age 19, Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky, to work for The Associated Press.

He spend most of his time reading and experimenting.

But BECAUSE the telegraph technology advanced telegraphers to “read” message by the sound of the clicks.

Edison had to give up his job .Because he had still difficulties with hearing.

RETURNING TO HOME In 1868, Edison returned home. When he

found his mother and father in a bad health

Edison realized he needed to take control of his future.

Then so he decided to go Boston. He worked for the Western Union Company

here. At the time, Boston was America’s center for

science and culture.

Here, in his spare time, he designed and patented an electronic voting recorder .

However, Massachusetts lawmakers were not interested.

BECOMİNG AN INVENTOR

In 1869, Edison moved to New York City and developed his first invention, an improved stock ticker, the Universal Stock Printer.

Edison was only 22 years old.

The Gold and Stock Telegraph Company was so impressed, they paid him $40,000 for the rights.

With this success, he quit his work as a telegrapher to devote himself full-time to inventing.

In 1870, Thomas Edison set up his first small laboratory in Newark, New Jersey

He employed several machinists there. 

in 1871 Edison married 16-year-old Mary Stilwell

She was an employee at one of his businesses.

During their 13-year marriage, they had three children, Marion, Thomas and William

William become inventor

Mary died of brain tumor at the age of 29.

Edison next undertook his greatest challenge, the development of a practical incandescent, electric light.

The idea of electric lighting was not new, and a number of people had worked on, and even developed forms of electric lighting

But until to that time, nobody could have developed a practical light bulb for home use. 

Edison could manage to invent his kind of light bulb. Thomas Edison's first successful

light bulb model. It is used in public demonstration at Menlo Park, December 1879.

The success of his electric light brought Edison fame and wealth, as electricity spread around the world.

This period of success turned suddenly in a bad time because of the death of Edison's wife Mary in 1884.

After Mary's death, Edison started to living in New York City with his three children instead Menlo Park. 

 A year later, Edison met Mina Miller and fell in love.

The couple was married in February 1886 and moved to West Orange, New Jersey

Thomas Edison lived here with Mina until his death.

 

He was honoured many rewards during his rest of life and after his life.

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.

During the last two years of his life Edison was in increasingly poor health.

Edison spent more time away from the laboratory.

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…………

KAYNAKLAR : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison

http://www.biography.com/people/thomas-edison-9284349?page=1

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