Thomas A. Edison

Thomas Edison (http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals_iv/images/thomas_edison/thomas_edison.jpg)

Whenever I stare at a light bulb, I think of my hero, Thomas Alva Edison. As he was growing up he was full of curiosity: he wanted to know how things worked and why. As a teenager he narrowly saved a boy from being hit by an oncoming train. The boy’s father, in thanks, taught Thomas how to use the telegraph, which in time became his first job. Although telegraphers did not receive a good salary working on the telegraph, Thomas excelled and became an excellent telegrapher. In 1870 at the age of twenty-three his first successful invention which would be latter known as the Universal Stock Printer was sold for 40,000 dollars. Finally, Thomas was an inventor!

Besides the phonograph, Edison’s greatest achievement in my mind was the light bulb. In 1878 Thomas Edison constructed a team of scientist or “muckers” as he referred to them, to invent the light bulb. Inventing the light bulb was not the only thing Edison had to accomplish; he also needed to invent an outlet and other lesser things before the actual light bulb was invented. He overcame many difficulties along the way the hardest clearly was finding the right filament for the light bulb itself. Thomas sent men to Africa and the jungles of Japan to find ingredients for his filament. As a final resort he took ash particles from cotton, and to his surprise it worked. As a matter a fact, the light bulb lasted for thirteen and a half hours. The light bulb was invented! It took one full year to invent the light bulb, but Edison’s perseverance and ingenuity clearly led him to success. This show of perseverance makes him a hero in my eyes

Thomas Alva Edison invented with his team of scientists many useful objects to mankind. His favorite was the phonograph. Many of his inventions we still use today, such as the light bulb and the movies. Although they have gone through many changes the concepts are the same. Radically different, the Compact Disk player and the I-pod are ideas inspired by the phonograph. Unfortunately Thomas Edison died in October 18, 1931 at the age of 84. His memory still lives on, his wife, Mina, opened many museums in his honor. My hero, Thomas Edison, America’s greatest inventor, described with few words his genius, “One percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”