Thomas Alva Edison Biography

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847 Milan, Ohio. He was a deaf American inventor, scientist and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting,practical electric light bulb. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large teamwork to the process of invention. Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors in history. He is credited with numerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications.
Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel "The Iron Shovel" Edison, Jr. and Nancy Matthews Elliott. He didn't go to school as other children did but, his mother home schooled him. Edison developed hearing problems at an early age. The cause of his deafness has been attributed to about of scarlet fever during childhood and recurring untreated middle ear infections. Around the middle of his career Edison attributed the hearing impairment to being struck on the ears by a train conductor when his chemical laboratory in a boxcar caught fire and he was thrown off the train. His life was bittersweet, he sold candies and newspapers. And he became a telegrapher in his early age. Edison requested the night shift, which allowed him plenty of time to spend at his two favourite pastimes-reading and experimenting. Eventually, the latter pre-occupation cost him his job. One night in 1867, he was working with a lead-acid battery when he spilled sulphuric acid onto the floor. It ran between the floorboards and onto his boss's desk below. The next morning Edison was fired. On December 25, 1871, Edison married 16-year-old Mary Stilwell, whom he had met two months earlier as she was an employee at one of his shops. Mary Edison died on August 9, 1884, possibly from a brain tumour. On February 24, 1886, at the age of 39, Edison married 20 year-old Mina Miller in Akron, Ohio. She was the daughter of inventor Lewis Miller. Thomas Edison began his career as an inventor in Newark, New Jersey, with the automatic repeater and his other improved telegraphic devices. But the invention which first gain him fame was the phonograph in 1877. This accomplishment was so unexpected by the public as large as to appear almost magical. His first phonograph had a poor sound quality; it could be replyed only a few minutes. In the 1880s, a redesign model using wax-coated cardboard cylinders was produced by Alexander Graham Bell, Chichaester Bell, and Charles Tainter. This was one reason that Thomas Edison continued work on his own "Perfected phonograph."
After many experiments, Edison returned to a carbon filament. The first successful test was on October 22, 1879. After through so many failures, he then successful in his invention of the light bulb, that can light up this whole world.

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