Thomas Edison

The name Edison can also refer to other things. For those, see Edison (disambiguation).

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He is known for his work on the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, electric power distribution, and early motion pictures. The Edison General Electric Company merged with its competitor, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company. This merger led to the formation of General Electric. Edison registered 1,093 patents in the United States.

Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, but he grew up in Michigan. He did not have much formal schooling. He became deaf as a child, so he learned by reading books and experimenting on his own. He started working at a young age as a railroad telegrapher. He spent much of his time finding ways to improve telegraph systems. By the age of 22, he had sold some of his early inventions. He moved to New York City to focus on engineering. By age 29, he owned a telegraph recorder factory in Newark with more than one hundred employees.

Edison expanded his work by developing Menlo Park. This is now considered the first industrial research laboratory. People called him "The Wizard of Menlo Park." He pushed his staff very hard and often worked long hours, sometimes until everyone was exhausted. He became world-famous with the invention of the phonograph. It took many years for the phonograph to become a success in business. Later, he built a larger research lab in West Orange, New Jersey.

In 1878, Edison began work on an electric lighting system. He hoped it would replace the common gas lamp. Turning the electric light bulb into the modern electric grid took decades of invention, investment, and influence. Competition with Westinghouse's AC system forced Edison to give way. This led to the creation of General Electric. Later, he started a mining company that never made a profit, and he nearly went bankrupt. As his role in the lighting business declined, he founded a cement company. He also began work on a motion picture camera. That camera grew from an invention into the first movie production studio. Edison also ran several companies that made batteries, movies, musical records, and phenol. His last major interest was finding a way to produce rubber in the United States. He worked energetically until his death.

Early life

Thomas Edison was born in 1847 in Milan, Ohio. He grew up in Port Huron, Michigan, where his family moved in 1854. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel Ogden Edison Jr. and Nancy Matthews Elliott. Samuel Edison Jr. had lived in Vienna, Ontario before he moved to Ohio. He left after taking part in the Rebellion of 1837. Thomas's mother had been a school teacher. She taught him to read, write, and do arithmetic. He went to school for only a few months, but he was a curious child. He learned most things by reading on his own. His mother gave him a copy of A School Compendium of Natural and Experimental Philosophy. It inspired him to tinker and learn about electricity. His family also owned books by Thomas Paine, whose ideas stayed with him all his life. Edison began having hearing problems at age 12. Historian Paul Israel linked his deafness to a illness called scarlet fever when he was a child. He also linked it to repeated middle-ear infections that were not treated.

Edison started working as a news butcher, selling newspapers, candy, and vegetables on trains between Port Huron and Detroit. By age 13 he earned about $50 ($1,792 in 2025) a week. He spent the money on supplies for his electrical and chemical experiments. He also started a newspaper, the Grand Trunk Herald, which he was proud of for the rest of his life. As a boy, he and a neighbor built a small telegraph line. While working on the trains, he learned more about telegraphs from different telegraph operators. Later he worked at night as a telegrapher for the Grand Trunk Railway at Stratford Junction, Ontario. There he also studied qualitative analysis and did chemical experiments. After a serious mistake on the job, he resigned.

Telegraphy

From 1863 to 1869, Edison worked night-shift telegraph jobs in Ontario, Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, and Massachusetts. He worked for Western Union and its Associated Press news wire. In Cincinnati, he lived with Ezra Gilliland, and the two men were friends for 25 years. In Boston, he earned money from a stock ticker he built for local customers. He lost that business when he tried to expand to New York. In June 1869, he was granted his first patent, for an electric vote recorder (U.S. patent 90,646).

Edison moved to New York City in 1869. Franklin Leonard Pope, a fellow telegrapher, helped him at the start. Edison lived and worked in the basement of Pope's home in Elizabeth, New Jersey. In October 1869, Pope and Edison started their own company. In 1874, Edison received $30,000 for the quadruplex telegraph. This device could send four messages at once over a single wire.

Menlo Park laboratory

In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Edison set up one of the first industrial laboratories. Its goal was to create new knowledge and then decide how that knowledge would be used. It was built in 1876 in Raritan Township, which is now called Edison Township, and it was paid for with money from selling Edison's quadruplex telegraph. Edison's name is on 1,093 patents in the United States. During his adult life, he received a patent about once every 10 to 12 days. As the lab's leader, he received credit for many inventions that were largely made by those working under him. He and his staff often worked 18 hours a day from Monday to Friday, and they also worked on weekends. A picture shows Edison's Menlo Park lab in 1880. A rebuilt version of it stands at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.

In 1876, Edison set out to improve telephones by developing a carbon microphone. Western Union helped pay for his experiments because it wanted to compete with Alexander Graham Bell. Edison thought the weak point in Bell's telephone was the microphone designed by Emile Berliner. After testing 150 materials, he chose parchment and tinfoil for the diaphragm, and a specially coated rubber as the semiconductor. In 1877, Edison became well known for the phonograph, a device he had long imagined as a way to record and play back messages. His first phonograph recorded on tinfoil wrapped around a grooved cylinder. This limited the sound quality and how long a recording could last. People were amazed by it, and Edison became known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park." He later said his success came from "one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration." Edison did little to develop the phonograph for sale until Bell, Chichester Bell, and Charles Tainter made a competing machine in the 1880s. His company later sold a cheap phonograph and many records, but radio became a serious problem for record sales. Edison also invented a sensitive device called the tasimeter, which measured infrared radiation. He wanted to use it to measure the heat from the solar corona during the solar eclipse of July 29, 1878.

Further information: Incandescent light bulb

In 1878, Edison began working on an electric lighting system that could be used on a large commercial scale. He hoped it could compete with gas and oil lighting. Earlier electric lamps had flaws. They lasted only a short time and needed high electric current to work. Edison first tried a filament made of cardboard, carbonized with lampblack, but it burned out too quickly. He then tested grasses and canes before choosing bamboo. He formed the Edison Electric Light Company in New York City. Its investors included J.P. Morgan & Co. and members of the Vanderbilt family, whom he met through Grosvenor Lowrey.

Edison applied for a U.S. patent for an electric lamp in 1879. Later, he discovered that a carbonized bamboo filament could last over 1,200 hours. On September 4, 1882, his power system on Pearl Street in New York City was switched on, providing direct current (DC) electricity to customers. As companies using alternating current (AC) grew, Edison's DC systems faced strong competition. DC could only deliver power to customers within about one mile of the power plant. In 1892, J. P. Morgan helped merge Edison General Electric with the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, forming General Electric. Edison later lost interest in the lighting business. He served as a figurehead on the company's board of directors for a few years before selling his shares.

Mining

Starting in the late 1870s, Edison became interested in mining. High-quality iron ore was hard to find on the east coast, so it was expensive. Ore was often shipped from the Midwest. Edison tried mining lower-quality ore and beach sand instead. The Edison Ore Milling Company began in 1880 by separating iron from beach sand. Edison promised customers hundreds of tons of ore each month. After three years, the company was shut down, and only one customer had received ore. William Kennedy Dickson and John Birkinbine helped lead the business, and Edison paid most of the money himself.

The venture was not a complete loss. Edison could license some of its technology to iron makers. Later, he bought a mine in Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania and several other mines in the eastern states. He began building a large central mining site in Ogdensburg, New Jersey. Machines and conveyor belts there crushed and sorted rock. Customers did not want iron with too much phosphorus, because it caused problems in the Bessemer process, so Edison worked to remove it. The mine kept losing money. In 1893, during hard economic times, Edison faced high costs and the risk of losing everything. He borrowed money from his father-in-law.

Cement

Main article: Edison Portland Cement Company

Edison used some of the mining materials and equipment to make Portland cement. He sold the large amount of leftover sand from iron production to cement makers. In 1899, he founded the Edison Portland Cement Company. His system baked limestone in long, flat kilns at a lower temperature, which used less coal. He later licensed this system to cement makers in America and collected royalties into the 1920s.

Dusty conditions caused problems for the machines, especially the dynamos, which had to stay open to release heat. Edison invented a fan cooling system that brought in fresh air and kept out dust. In 1901, he tried to make cheap housing by casting whole three-story houses from cement. He also ran a public relations campaign, but demand was not high enough to continue. By 1907, the cement company was important in American industry, but it was still not making a profit. It did not become profitable until 1922.

West Orange

In spring 1886, workers at the Edison Tube Works in New York City went on strike. D.J. O'Dare led them. They asked for higher pay, extra pay for overtime, and the right to form a union. Edison and the other managers would not discuss unions. By the end of that year, the city factories had closed. The Edison United Manufacturing Company opened a new factory in Schenectady, New York. In 1887, Edison built a new laboratory complex in West Orange. It was more than ten times the size of his old lab at Menlo Park. Samuel Insull had earlier worked at Vanity Fair. He joined Edison in 1881 as a secretary and became a trusted helper. He was also one of two managers of the new company. In 1914, a fire destroyed thirteen buildings. Edison had everything rebuilt with the newest technology, and records were being made again by January. Regular fire drills had made the damage smaller. In 1921, a time of economic trouble followed the inauguration of Warren G. Harding. Edison let go of many workers to keep his businesses running. The economy recovered by the fall, but the company had come close to failing.

In 1896, Edison learned about X-rays, which had been discovered by Wilhelm Röntgen. He tried to build an X-ray system with better glass and more power. He found that X-ray images showed up better on calcium tungstate screens, and he told Lord Kelvin. The basic design of his fluoroscope is still used today. Edison stopped the project after nearly losing his own eyesight. His assistants, Clarence Dally and Charles Dally, had often helped with the project. In 1899, Edison began work on a better rechargeable battery for electric cars. Lead acid batteries were common but did not work well. He tested 10,000 combinations of materials before choosing a nickel-iron design over the alkaline options. Waldemar Jungner had worked on a similar design, so the two men argued over their patents. Edison received patents in 1901 and started the Edison Storage Battery Company. In 1904, he asked president Theodore Roosevelt to help in the patent fight, but the patent office still denied his claim. Henry Ford was a friend who had met Edison in 1896. Ford lent him money for battery research, but the battery was not very successful. By the time Edison's battery was ready, electric cars were disappearing. Lead acid batteries had become the standard for gas-powered cars. The battery used lye as the electrolyte. Ford had already started his own motor company, and his Model T helped gasoline cars take over the market.

Further information: Nickel–iron battery § History

Motion pictures

In 1888, Edison and William Kennedy Laurie Dickson began trying to make a camera. Edison wanted it to "do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear." They may have been inspired by Eadweard Muybridge. Edison worked on the electrical parts, and Dickson led the work on the lens and film. Much of the credit for the invention belongs to Dickson. On May 20, 1891, the first successful tests of a film camera were shown to the public in a simple viewer. Edison also hoped to make a kinetophonograph, a machine that would record both moving pictures and sound. Keeping the sound and pictures in step was very hard, so he set that work aside.

In 1891, Edison built a Kinetoscope, a viewer that people looked into through a small hole. It was placed in penny arcades, where people could watch short, simple films. In April 1896, Thomas Armat made a deal with Edison. Edison's company made and sold the Vitascope, which showed films made in Edison's studio. It was advertised as an Edison invention, but Armat and C. Francis Jenkins had really invented it. Edison's film studio made nearly 1,200 films from 1894 to 1911. These included Fred Ott's Sneeze (1894), The Kiss (1896), The Great Train Robbery (1903), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1910), and the first Frankenstein film (1910). In 1908, Edison started the Motion Picture Patents Company, a group of nine major film studios known as the Edison Trust. In 1914, Edison let go of Edwin S. Porter, who had led the creative work in his movie business. After that, his movie business began to shrink.

Edison said his favorite movie was The Birth of a Nation. He felt that talkies had "spoiled everything." His favorite stars were Mary Pickford and Clara Bow.

National security

Because of concerns about World War I, Edison suggested forming a committee of scientists and industry leaders to advise and research for the US military. In 1915 he led the Naval Consulting Board, but because he was deaf, he went to few of its meetings. One of the board's main jobs was to prepare a research site for the navy. Edison wanted it far from Washington DC, because too many visits from officials would slow the work. The other board members did not follow his advice, so he turned to experiments in military technology. Early in the war, he tried several ways to improve submarine detection, but the Navy did not use them. He also let Miller Hutchinson promote his battery as a safer choice than lead batteries on submarines. Other batteries could leak acid that mixed with seawater and made chlorine gas inside a ship. Edison's nickel-iron batteries leaked hydrogen gas, which could catch fire in a submarine. In January 1916, a hydrogen explosion happened inside the USS E-2 while it was being fixed with the new Edison test battery. Edison and Hutchinson said the operator was to blame, but many naval officials felt they had promised too much about the battery. This hurt battery sales, but it did not end Edison's good standing with the navy.

In 1915, the United States used 75% of the world's rubber, but it made very little of its own. Edison and many other business leaders worried about depending on rubber from other countries. These worries grew when the British Stevenson Plan was started in 1921 to limit rubber supply and raise prices. Edison raised money from his friends Ford and Firestone to research plants that could be a new source of rubber. On his 80th birthday, he gave tours of his experimental garden. After testing 17,000 plant samples, he found a good option in the goldenrod plant. Near the end of 1929, he announced that Solidago leavenworthii, also known as Leavenworth's Goldenrod, could be bred to give a 12% latex yield. He judged plants by how much latex they had, how easily the latex could be removed, where it was found in the plant, how fast the plant grew, and how easily it could be harvested.

Further information: Great Phenol Plot

Edison licensed Condensite, a chemical made from phenol and formaldehyde, from another chemist. This coating made phonograph records much more durable. When World War I began, a large chemical shortage threatened his business. Edison responded by making phenol at his Silver Lake facility, using processes his chemists had developed. Production began in early September, about one month after fighting started in Europe. He also built two plants to make the raw material benzene, at Johnstown, Pennsylvania and Bessemer, Alabama. Another plant near Bessemer made aniline dyes, which Germany had once controlled through a monopoly. These shortages made his businesses profitable.

Final years

Edison and Henry Ford stayed friends until Edison died. Ford lived a short distance from Edison at his winter home in Fort Myers. From 1914 to 1924, they went on yearly motor camping trips with Harvey Firestone and nature writer John Burroughs. The trips helped advertise Ford cars, Firestone tires, and whatever Edison was working on at the time. Reporters joined the trips to share the news. In 1926, at 79 years old, Edison handed the leadership of Thomas A. Edison, Inc. to his son Charles.

Edison's health grew weaker over time. He died on October 18, 1931, at Glenmont and was buried on the property. After his death, his son Charles Edison asked that some test tubes near him be sealed. One was sent to Henry Ford and labelled "Edison's last breath." It is on display at the Henry Ford Museum.

For two days, Edison's body lay in state in his library in West Orange, so people could pay their respects. On October 21, 1931, at 9:59 pm Eastern Standard Time, many lights were turned off across the United States for one minute to honor him. The lights of New York City went dark, and the torch of the Statue of Liberty was darkened. This tribute was held at the request of President Herbert Hoover.

Family

Edison married Mary Stilwell on December 25, 1871. He was 24, and she was 16 and worked at one of his shops. They had three children: Marion, Thomas Alva Edison Jr., and William Leslie Edison. Edison often preferred his laboratory to spending time with his family. After the first few years of their marriage, he did not give his wife much attention. Mary died on August 9, 1884, at age 29. The cause of her death is unknown. Thomas Jr. was often sick as a child. He wanted to be an inventor, but he was not very good at it. From the 1890s, he became involved in snake oil products and shady businesses. His father had to deal with him through lawyers. His father agreed to pay him an allowance if he stopped using the Edison name. Thomas Jr. had a hard time with drinking and sadness. His marriage began in 1899 and lasted only one year. It caused a lot of talk.

Main article: Mina Miller Edison

Edison met Mina Miller at the World Cotton Centennial in December 1884. She was the daughter of the inventor Lewis Miller, who had become wealthy by selling a wheat mower. On February 24, 1886, Edison, who was then 39, married Mina, who was 20. The wedding took place in Akron, Ohio. They had three children: Madeleine, Charles Edison, and Theodore Miller Edison. Edison was often away and did not spend much time with his wife and children. He also made most of the decisions about family life. Mina took care of the housework and raised the children. After his father died, Charles took over the business. He later served one term as Governor of New Jersey.

Personal life

In December, Edison stayed home sick with pleurisy, an illness that affects the lungs. He got better, but in May 1887 he needed surgery to treat sore spots below his ear. He had more surgery there in 1906 and 1908. He became completely deaf in one ear and could barely hear with the other. Edison also had diabetes.

In 1885, Edison bought about 13 acres of land in Fort Myers, Florida. He built a winter home there, later called Seminole Lodge. In 1886, he bought a house called Glenmont in Llewellyn Park, in West Orange, New Jersey. He sold it to Mina in 1891. Edison enjoyed boats, cars, and fishing. He rarely drove, but he owned several cars for his research. This helped him bond with his son Charles, whom he encouraged to drive even when Charles was a child.

Views

Historian Paul Israel described Edison as a "freethinker". Edison was strongly influenced by Thomas Paine's book The Age of Reason, and he supported Paine's "scientific deism." In a 1910 interview, Edison said that nature is what we know, that nature is not kind or merciful, and that the gods of religions are not known. Some people called him an atheist because of these words. In a private letter, he said that what others call God, he called Nature, the supreme intelligence that rules matter. Edison also explored and promoted ideas in panpsychism.

Edison's father was a Democrat who supported the secession of the Confederate States of America. Edison, however, was a lifelong Republican. He briefly supported Theodore Roosevelt as a Progressive Party candidate in Roosevelt's third try for the presidency. Edison met several presidents, including Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. In 1928, he received the Congressional Gold Medal. Edison supported women's suffrage. He also spoke against aggressive nationalism in Europe.

Awards

Edison received many awards during his life. This list includes only some of them.

• In 1878, he received an honorary PhD from Union College
• On November 10, 1881, he became an Officer of the Legion of Honour
• In 1892, he was honored by the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
• In 1889, he received the John Scott Medal
• In 1899, he received the Edward Longstreth Medal from The Franklin Institute
• In 1904, he was elected an honorary member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• In 1908, he received the John Fritz Medal
• In 1915, he received the Franklin Medal from The Franklin Institute
• In 1920, he received the Navy Distinguished Service Medal.
• In 1923, he received the Edison Medal from the American Institute of Electrical Engineers
• In 1927, he became a member of the American Philosophical Society
• On May 29, 1928, he received the Congressional Gold Medal