Thomas Edison
(1847-1931)
BIRTH
February 11, 1847
PLACE
Milan, Ohio
NAME
Thomas Alva Edison
DEATH
October 18, 1931
PLACE
West Orange, New Jersey
FAMILY
FATHER
Samuel Ogden Edison Jr.
(1804–1896)
MOTHER
Nancy Matthews Elliott
(c. 1808/1810–1871)
WIFE
Mary Stilwell Edison
(1855-1884)
WIFE
Mina Miller Edison
(1865-1947)
HOMES
NICKNAMES
Al; Wizard of Menlo Park
POLITICAL VIEWS
PROGRESSIVE, WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE ADVOCATE
RELIGIOUS VIEWS
FREETHINKER
DENOMINATION NOT DOCUMENTED
MEMBERSHIPS
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES MEMBER
AWARDS
ALBERT MEDAL RECIPIENT, CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL RECIPIENT, FRANKLIN MEDAL RECIPIENT, JOHN FRITZ MEDAL RECIPIENT, LEGION OF HONOUR RECIPIENT, NAVY DISTINGUISHED SERVICE MEDAL RECIPIENT, RUMFORD PRIZE RECIPIENT
American inventor Thomas Edison developed the phonograph, a practical incandescent light bulb, and early motion-picture equipment, holding more than 1,000 U.S. patents. He attended school only briefly and was taught at home by his mother. Edison's first patent, in 1869, was for an electric vote recorder. Edison married Mary Stilwell in 1871 and, after her death, Mina Miller in 1886. He died at his home, Glenmont, in West Orange on October 18, 1931.
EARLY LIFE
Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio, the youngest of seven children of Samuel Ogden Edison Jr. and Nancy Matthews Elliott. The family moved to Port Huron, Michigan, in 1854. He attended school only briefly and was taught at home by his mother. As a boy he sold newspapers and candy on the Grand Trunk Railway and printed his own newspaper on the train. He developed hearing loss as a child. After saving a station agent's son from an oncoming train, he was taught telegraphy by the boy's father, and he worked as an itinerant telegraph operator across the Midwest from the early 1860s.
Thomas Edison began his technical career as a telegraph operator and developed improvements in communications equipment. His first patent in 1869 concerned an electric vote recorder, but more successful work on stock tickers and telegraph systems financed further experimentation. He established a laboratory at Menlo Park in 1876, bringing skilled assistants together in an organized research environment. The invention of the phonograph in 1877 gave him international prominence by demonstrating the recording and reproduction of sound.
Edison's team developed a practical incandescent lighting system during the late 1870s. The achievement involved more than a lamp: generators, wiring, meters, switches, and methods of distribution were necessary for commercial use. Pearl Street Station opened in New York in 1882. Edison was one of several inventors working on incandescent lighting, and his patents and commercial success depended on collective laboratory effort and integration of a usable system rather than the first conception of electric light.
Competition over electrical distribution placed Edison's direct-current approach against alternating-current systems promoted by George Westinghouse and others. The dispute included publicity concerning electrical danger and aggressive commercial tactics. Edison opened a larger research complex at West Orange in 1887, where work continued on phonographs, motion-picture technology, and chemical and electrical problems. William Kennedy Laurie Dickson and other associates played major roles in developing the motion-picture camera and viewing apparatus associated with Edison.
Edison also pursued less successful enterprises, including large-scale iron-ore concentration, and developed storage batteries that eventually found practical markets. During the First World War he participated in naval advisory work. His businesses and laboratories produced a vast number of patents, but not every project succeeded or originated with him individually. He died in 1931. His career established an influential model of coordinated industrial invention, joining experimentation with manufacturing, finance, patents, and publicity. It helped bring electric power, recorded sound, and moving images into daily life. A balanced account recognizes the contributions of collaborators and competing inventors alongside his persistence and ability to turn technical ideas into systems capable of commercial adoption.
CAREER
DEATH
In the final years of his life, Edison continued to chew tobacco daily and his diabetes worsened. Edison died on October 18, 1931, at Glenmont and was buried on the property. Upon Edison's death, his son Charles Edison requested that several test tubes near him be sealed. One of these was sent to Henry Ford, being labelled as "Edison's last breath". The test tube is on display at the Henry Ford Museum. For two days Edison's body lied in state in his library in West Orange, where people could pay their respects. On the second day, an estimated 40,000 people visited his body. On October 21, 1931, for a minute at 9:59pm Eastern Standard Time, millions of lights were turned off throughout the United States for a minute to pay tribute. An estimated one tenth of New York City's lights were turned off. The city also had the torch of the Statue of Liberty darkened and subway lines halted. This commemoration was done at the request of President Herbert Hoover. The decline from diabetes should be distinguished from the many popular stories told about the moment of his death. Such anecdotes can be difficult to verify and do not replace a medical account. His final period remained closely associated with Glenmont, the family home in West Orange, after a long career in which work and domestic life often overlapped. The biography supports worsening illness in old age, but not every suggested complication or remembered final remark. His wife Mina survived him, and the burial on the property made the home itself part of the continuing commemoration of his life.
Glenmont Estate
Glenmont Estate, Llewellyn Park, West Orange, NJ 07052, USA
GRAVE
POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
1. Edison — Edmund Morris. Find on Amazon
2. Edison: A Life of Invention — Paul Israel. Find on Amazon
3. Edison: Inventing the Century — Neil Baldwin. Find on Amazon
4. Edison: A Biography — Matthew Josephson. Find on Amazon
5. The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World — Randall Stross. Find on Amazon
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