Invent-Tech’s Invention History series introduces famed inventor, Thomas Edison

August 22nd, 2006

Good afternoon, Invent-Tech’s Sr. Technical Writer here to introduce a new series of blog entries where we will focus on the history of great inventors and inventions. Just as it is with the inventors we represent, who are still aspiring toward the recognition achieved by famous inventors such as Thomas Edison—most recognized for inventing the modern incandescent bulb, each and every inventor’s success is shaped by their experiences and determination.

Though there are many noted inventors who came before him and many inventions that have had a greater impact on society’s progress than his own, we will begin our series with a brief history about Thomas Edison, who was the first inventor inducted into the National Inventor Hall of Fame in 1973 and is claimed by some to be the most influential figure of the second millennium..

Born in 1847 in Milan, Ohio, Edison came from a working-class family where his mind, not his resources, was responsible for his achievements. As a child, his inquisitive nature hindered his formal education—his teacher could not handle his constant questions. His mother began to teach him at home, but Edison’s hyperactive mind was constantly seeking a deeper understanding of advanced topics that surpassed the knowledge base of his parents. He continued his education with a tutor.

In his mid-teens, Edison set out on his own to pursue a career as a telegraph operator in Boston. In his spare time, he experimented with inventing. The telegraph was a modern concept at the time, and his experience with it exposed him to an environment of advancing technology. Most of his early experiments related to improving the telegraph system, including his first invention—the automatic telegraph repeater.

Edison received his first patent for an electric vote-recording machine. However, the concept was ahead of its time and was rejected by legislators. From that point on, he determined himself to only invent things that people would want to buy.

Edison was motivated by a few lectures he attended at Boston Tech (currently known as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to pursue the theory that human voices could be transmitted via electrical impulses at different frequencies—the concept behind the modern telephone.

This pursuit continued when Edison moved to New York. Even as he worked on a new stock ticker invention that he eventually sold to a corporation for $40,000 and developed the first phonograph as well as other inventions, he continued to work on a voice transmitter device until, to his disappointment, a duplex transmitter that allowed for audible conversations over long distances was patented by Alexander Graham Bell.

Despite not being the first to patent the telephone, Edison improved upon Bell’s concept with a quadruplex transmitter and created a carbon transmitter that made Bell’s telephone more practical. In fact, most of the inventions that Edison developed were improvements to existing inventions. Even the first commercially practical light bulb he invented in 1879, for which he earns much of his notoriety, was an improvement on the ideas of numerous other inventors.

Edison started Edison Electric Light Company, which later merged with another company to create General Electric, and his inventions continued to make money. Edison had the means and vision to create the world’s first research and development center. It was from this laboratory that Edison worked on many of his inventions, such as the first practical Dictaphone, mimeograph and storage battery.

Throughout the remainder of his career, Edison invented the Vitascope and Kinetiscope that would lead to the introduction of motion pictures and many more innovations that still reverberate in our everyday lives. Edison received 1,097 U.S. patents in his lifetime.

As you can see, an inventor can have a great impact on society. Throughout this series, we will discuss other influential inventors and inventions that you may or may not be familiar with. Hopefully, these entries will give you a better understanding of the experiences of other inventors, and why or how an invention becomes invaluable in our lives.

Comments on inventors or inventions you feel are important and would like to be covered in this series are welcome. Someday, it may even be your invention!

Facts gathered from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, and www.thomasedison.com

Entry Filed under: The Invention Hub