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Thomas Edison

by Sarah from Leawood

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work." -Thomas Edison Thomas Edison was a hero because of his characteristics that he had, including determination and respect for others. He had many hardships in his young life. For example, he was partially deaf, only had three months of formal education, his mom started showing signs of insanity, his father quit his job, and the local bank was about to foreclose on the family homestead. He did many things to try to make his situation better, but one thing he did not do is give up.

Thomas Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan Ohio. He was the seventh and youngest child in his family. He was the son of Samuel and Nancy Edison. As smart as Edison was, he only had three months of formal education. When he was eleven, his parents taught him how to use library resources. He read about all of the subjects and taught himself, which usually takes a lot of patience and shows just how much he wanted to learn. When he was twelve, he worked on his father's farm, and when he was fifteen, he published and sold a newspaper called Weekly Herald. Edison showed heroism when he was fifteen as well. He rescued the son of a telegraph operator from the path of a railroad car and got telegraph lessons in return.

Later on in life, during 1868, Edison moved to Boston as a telegraph operator. During that year, his mom started showing signs of insanity. His dad also quit his job. That is when Edison thought about the future. He decided that he needed to make some serious money to provide for his family. And indeed, he did. A corporation paid him $40,000 for the latest of his devices. A wise friend told him to deposit the money in the bank, and Edison did, showing another heroic trait. Instead of being arrogant and such since he now had a lot of money, he took the advice that his friend had given him. In 1874 Edison made telegraphs more efficient. In 1876 he built the first research lab in the rural community of Melano Park, New Jersey. In 1877, Edison designed a carbon-based transmitter that made the voice of the speaker louder and clearer. Also, during 1877, he experimented with ways to record and replay what was said. Those little discoveries, or findings, lead to the invention of the phonograph. The phonograph was the first device for recording and replaying sound. The phonograph uses a cylinder with tinfoil on it to record sound by indentations made by a pin. The phonograph was also the invention that made Thomas Edison famous. Surprisingly enough, the first words that were successfully recorded were "Mary Had a Little Lamb." In 1878, Edison invented the electric light. The electric light wasn't a completely new idea and others had worked on it, but none of the other improvements made it a practical house device. After Edison worked on it for a year and a half, he finally got the bulb to stay burning for thirteen and a half hours. A year later, Alexander Graham Bell beat Edison in the race to patent the first authentic transmission of the human voice. Edison was very disappointed, but another example of when he showed heroism is right here. Most people would have probably been so mad if they were in Edison's position, and would've probably quit inventing altogether. But Edison did not quit. In fact, his loss pushed him even harder. During the time period 1883-1884 Thomas Edison invented In 1887, Edison was recognized for having setup the world's first complete research and development center in West Orange, New Jersey. In 1890, Edison developed the first Vitascope, which later lead to the first silent motion pictures. A Vitascope is an early film projector. Fourteen years later, Edison went on to introduce The Great Train Robbery in 1903, which was a ten minute clip that was Edison's first attempt to blend audio with silent moving images to produce talking pictures. In 1920, Edison was internationally respected.

Later on in life, Edison's health began to fail and it slowed Edison down. Then, on October 18, 1931, Edison died in West Orange, New Jersey, leaving the world with his life-changing inventions.

Page created on 12/7/2012 12:00:00 AM

Last edited 12/7/2012 12:00:00 AM

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