Thomas Alva Edison
by Owen from Flagstaff!
Thomas Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan Ohio. He had 6 siblings, Marion, William, Callie, Harriet, Samuel and Eliza. Thomas had hearing problems, which caused him difficulty in school. When he was 10 his mother Nancy Edison removed him from school and began to homeschool him.One of Edison's most famous inventions was the Incandescent Lamp, or the light bulb. From 1878 to 1880 his team worked on a least 3000 different designs while developing the light bulb! They experimented with 6000 different types of materials for the filament. On October 21, 1879 the filament chosen was carbonized cotton. The first test lasted 13 hours before the filament thread broke.
Henry Ford worked at one of Edison's laboratories. Henry later set up his own factory and made cars.
Harvey Firestone and Henry Ford asked Edison to help them make better rubber for car tires. Together they tried growing rubber plants in Florida.
Edison also worked with George Eastman to make film strips. Eastman went on to be a partner in a company called Kodak.Thomas Edison is my hero because of all the things he invented, and all of the advances he made, some of which we still use today.
Page created on 3/19/2001 12:00:00 AM
Last edited 3/19/2001 12:00:00 AM
The beliefs, viewpoints and opinions expressed in this hero submission on the website are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs, viewpoints and opinions of The MY HERO Project and its staff.
