Plot Overview
Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio.
The youngest son of a modest family, he received most of his education
from his mother and from himself. At the age of twelve, he left
school for good. His first job was that of a "candy butcher" on
the Grand Trunk Railroad. Around the age of fifteen, he was an apprentice
to a telegraph operator, and he wandered around the Midwest for
the next six years working in telegraph offices. In the spring
of 1868, he landed in Boston, where he created his first, unsuccessful
invention, a vote recorder.
Edison's first contracts for inventions were with the
Gold and Stock Telegraph Company in New York City. With the money
he received from these invention contracts, he operated a few telegraph
manufacturing shops in Newark in the early 1870s. While operating
these businesses, he became embroiled in a patent battle over
one of his inventions, the quadruplex telegraph. When the battle
was settled, he received a new contract with Western Union. He used
this capital to establish a research laboratory in Menlo Park, New
Jersey, in 1876.
At the Menlo Park facility, Edison developed many important inventions.
He improved upon Alexander Graham Bell's telephone (1877–8) and
was embroiled in a number of court battles over the invention.
(Bell was the victor of these battles.) He also invented the
phonograph there. The device was patented on February 19, 1878.
His most famous invention, the electric light bulb, was developed
in 1878–9, with the breakthrough–Edison's use of a carbonized thread
filament–happening in October 1879. Edison moved rapidly from developing
the bulb to developing entire electrical systems with centralized
power stations.
After the development of the electric light system, Edison
fought off patent battles with another inventor, Joseph Swan,
and he engaged in market battles with George Westinghouse. Westinghouse
had invented a high-voltage system, the AC system, to compete
with Edison's low-voltage DC system. Eventually, Westinghouse's
system triumphed in the marketplace.
Edison built a new facility at West Orange, New Jersey
in 1886. The new focus of the facility was manufacturing rather
than invention. Still, important inventions were made at the West
Orange facility, including the Kinetoscope (a motion picture camera
in 1893), the dictating machine, and the storage battery (1909).
He was a key player in the development of the early motion picture industry.
In addition, Edison experienced failures, such as his attempt to
turn ore-milling into a profitable venture in the 1890s.
In 1911, all of Edison's businesses were incorporated
into Thomas Edison, Inc. Edison began spending more time at home
with his family and with his friend Henry Ford. He died on October
18, 1931.
