Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison was a very important man in the field of the light bulb.Thomas was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio. His parents were Nancy and Samuel Edison. He grew up in Port Huron, Michigan.

Thomas Edison struggled in school. His hobbies were reading and experimenting, but he didn’t like to pay attention in class. So, his mother home schooled him after just 3 months of formal schooling. An interesting fact is that Thomas became almost deafened after a bad case of scarlet fever.

On December 25, 1871 he married Mary Stilwell. Together they had 3 children Marion, Thomas Edison Jr., and William. Mary died on August 9, 1884. Two years later, on February 24, Thomas married Mina Miller. Together they had 3 children, Madeline, Charles, and Theodor.

Thomas Edison was famous for inventing the light bulb. He succeeded because he never gave up. He was an inventor and an entrepreneur. His contribution to society was that he gave us light. The lasting effects he had on others is that he made light so others could see. On October 22, 1879 his light bulb lasted 13.5 hours. For an electric lamp using ”a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected…to platina contact wires”(www.wikipedia.com). Edison was considered one of the most outstanding inventors in history, holding 1,093 U.S. patents in his name as well as many as in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Thomas began his career as an inventor in Newark, New Jersey, but the invention that first gave him fame is the phonograph in 1877. Edison didn’t invent the first light bulb, instead, he invented the first commercially practical light bulb.

Thomas died on October 18, 1931, in his home “Glenmont’’ in Llewellyn Park in West Orange, New Jersey. He was 84 when he died. Mina outlived him. Other inventions created by Thomas Edison were the carbon telephone Transmitter, electric power distribution, and the War of currents.

I chose to write about Thomas Edison because I like to invent things. The most impressive thing I liked was that he got a lot of patents. He inspired me to try to invent things.