Thomas Edison

As I’m sure you know, Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. Did you also know that he invented the movie theater and the submarine periscope?

Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio. Thomas was smart, but he asked the teachers a lot of questions, which instead made them think that he was mentally impaired. Therefore, his mother took him out of school after he was there for only 3 months, when he was 7 years old.

Thomas’s mother taught him from home. His mother soon found out that he loved chemistry. At the age of 12, to raise money, he went selling newspapers and snacks on the railroad and in the baggage cars. He experimented with chemicals until he caused a fire. While he was selling papers on the railroad station he learned how to operate telegraphs. During the Civil War he worked as a telegraph operator.

His first invention was an electric vote-recording machine. Legislatures were not interested in the machine. Therefore, he said that he would only invent things people would buy. In Newark, New Jersy, he made his own laboratory. In 1876, he moved his laboratory to Menlo Park, New Jersey. In 1877, he invented the first phonograph. In 1879, he made the first prototype of the electric light bulb. By the late 1880’s, Edison was contributing to the development of motion pictures. By 1912, he was working on talking pictures. During World War I, he constructed various U.S. military devices, such as the submarine periscope and torpedo mechanisms.

Thomas Edison didn’t give up when everyone though he was mentally impaired; even though they said that, he keep working, and that is why Thomas Edison is my hero. He never gave up and keep trying.