a class 2016-17 famous people

2. Thomas Edison was born in Ohio, U.S.A, in 1847. He was the seventh child of Sam
and Nancy Edison. When Thomas was seven, his family moved to Michigan. He
lived there until the age of sixteen. Edison had very little formal education as a
child. He went to school only for a few months. His mother taught him reading,
writing and arithmetic but he was always a very curious child and learnt a lot by
reading on his own.

3. Edison began working at an early age, as most boys did at the time. At thirteen, he took a
job as a newsboy, selling newspapers and candy on the trains. He spent much of his free
time reading books, and also had the opportunity, at this time, to learn how to operate a
telegraph. He became a telegraph operator and travelled a lot. Then he started working on
several inventions. His first successful invention was the universal stock printer. This gave
Edison the money he needed to set up his first small lab where he continued working to
improve the telegraph. In 1871 he got married and had two kids.

4. The first great invention developed by Edison was the tin foil phonograph, the first
machine that could record and reproduce sound. Edison, next, developed a practical
electric bulb.The idea of electric lighting was not new and a number of people had
worked on it. But up to that time, nothing had been developed that could be used at
home. Edison's bulb was practical, safe and economical.

5. The success of his electric light brought Edison fame and wealth, as electricity
spread around the world. Edison created various electric companies which continued
to grow and in 1889 they were brought together to form Edison General Electric.

6. By the 189O’s, Edison began to manufacture phonographs. He also developed
records to play, equipment to record the records and equipment to
manufacture the records and the machines. The development and
improvement of the phonograph was an on-going project, continuing almost
until Edison's death.

7. While working on the phonograph, Edison began working on a device that, “does for
the eye what the phonograph does for the ear.” This was to become the kinetophone
(motion pictures).The story of the cinema had begun!
However, even a genius can have a bad day! A few years later, he started a new
business in order to develop new ways of mining iron. It was a total failure and
Edison lost all the money he had invested! But he would never give-up!

8. His new challenge was to develop a better storage battery for cars. He thought that
electricity was the best method to power cars, but realized that the batteries of the time
didn’t last long. So, he developed an alkaline battery. This was Edison's most difficult
project, taking him ten years to finish! However, it was very profitable!

9. In 1931, Thomas Edison died. He was one of the greatest men who have ever lived
on earth! Without him, the world would never be the same place!