Thomas Edison invented the light bulb in 1879, profoundly changing life by illuminating the night and enabling activity after dark. Though he had little formal education, he showed an early fascination with mechanics and experimentation. Based in Menlo Park, New Jersey, Edison produced over 1,000 inventions, focusing on mass communication and electricity. Key inventions included the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and improvements to telegraph and telephone technologies. While sometimes credited with other inventions like the electric chair, the x-ray, and wax paper, Edison did not invent these. His most profitable invention was an improved alkaline storage battery.

2. The modern world is an electrified world.
The light bulb, in particular, profoundly
changed human existence by illuminating
the night and making it hospitable to a wide
range of human activity. The electric light,
one of the everyday conveniences that
most affects our lives, was invented in
1879 by Thomas Alva Edison. He put
together what he knew about electricity
with what he knew about gas lights and
invented a whole of electrical system.

3. Born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio;
the seventh and last child of Samuel and
Nancy Edison. When he was seven his
family moved to Port Huron, Michigan and
Edison lived there until he struck out on his
own at the age of sixteen. He had very little
formal education as a child, attending
school only for a few months. He was
taught reading, writing, and arithmetic by
his mother, but was always a very curious
child and taught himself much by reading
on his own. This belief in self-improvement
remained throughout his life.

4. He was a poor student. When a
schoolmaster called him "addled," his
furious mother took him out of the school
and proceeded to teach him at home.
Thomas Edison said many years later, "My
mother was the making of me. She was so
true, so sure of me, and I felt I had some
one to live for, some one I must not
disappoint." At an early age, he showed a
fascination for mechanical things and for
chemical experiments.

5. Thomas Alva Edison, one of the most
prolific inventors in history, produced more
than 1,000 inventions in his workshop in
Menlo Park, New Jersey. Edison strove to
create devices that could be the most
useful to a majority of people. His
inventions with the most impact contributed
to mass communication, particularly
telecommunications, electricity and the
motion picture industry.

6. Telegraphy
Automatic telegraphs transmit messages at
higher speeds than those sent and
received by Morse telegraph operators. In
1874, improving upon several of his
previous inventions, Edison invents the
quadruplex telegraph for Western Union,
which transmits four messages
simultaneously.

7. Telephony
Before 1877, telephones used magnets,
which produced weak currents that limited
the distance over which it could be used, to
transmit sound. Edison's invention of the
carbon transmitter for the telephone greatly
improved the distance over which a
telephone could be used. His basic design
continued to be used until the arrival of
digital telephones in the 1980s.

8. •Phonograph
•In 1877 while working on the telephone transmitter, Edison noticed that
the tape on the machine gave off a noise that sounded like words. This
helped him to consider the possibility of recording and playing back
telephone messages. Within six months, Edison had developed a basic
working design. Initially the phonograph was treated as a machine for
dictation. It was not until 1890 that it was used to record music.

9. Power System
Edison knew that without a method to
deliver electricity, his light bulb would be
ineffective. He modeled his system after
the gas systems of the time. Edison
designed a system of conductors, meters,
lamp fixtures, sockets, fuses and current-
switches.

10. Electric Generator
In 1879 Edison's research leads him to an
important discovery in improving the
design of generators. His invention led to
generators that had more efficient power
output than those in existence at the time.

11. •Motion Picture Camera
•Edison began working on motion pictures in the late 1880s. A member
of his experimental staff, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, played a key
role in the development of the Kinetograph (a motion picture camera)
and the Kinetoscope (motion picture viewer). In 1893, Edison
demonstrates his system for making and showing motion pictures. In
less than a decade, motion pictures become a popular and successful
industry.

12. He invented it in the year 1869. The
people, instead of heralding it, criticized his
invention severley due to which it was
rejected. But still he wasn't dissappointed
and did not lose hope but decided that he
will not waste his time on inventing things
no one wanted! What an attitude!!!

13. . The Electric Chair
The first practical electric chair was
invented by Harold P. Brown. Brown was
an employee of Thomas Edison, hired for
the purpose of researching
electrocution and for the development of
the electric chair. Since Brown worked for
Edison, and Edison promoted Brown’s
work, the development of the electric chair
is often erroneously credited to Edison
himself. Furthermore, Brown’s design was
based on George Westinghouse’s
alternating current (AC), which was then
just emerging as the rival to Edison’s less
transport-efficient direct current (DC),
which was further along in commercial
development

14. In 1887, Nikola Tesla, not Edison, was
among the first to investiage the nature of
X-Ray’s using designs based on the
Cathode Ray Tube. Eight years later,
Thomas Edison began investigating
materials’ ability to fluoresce when
exposed to x-rays. The fluoroscope he
developed became the standard for
medical X-ray examinations. Nevertheless,
Edison dropped X-ray research around
1903 after the death of Clarence Madison
Dally, one of his glassblowers. Dally had a
habit of testing X-ray tubes on his hands,
and acquired a cancer in them so
tenacious that both arms were amputated
in a futile attempt to save his life.

15. Although Edison claimed to have invented
wax paper, he did not. Waxed paper was
invented by Gustave Le Gray in 1851.
Used for hand-colouration, it allowed the
colour from the back of the photograph to
be seen from the front. The wax paper
revolutionized photography and also
became a commercially successful
household product for, among other things,
wrapping food.

16. The Storage Battery
What invention made Edison the most
money? The alkaline storage battery.
Ironically, though, Edison did not invent the
first storage battery, but combined new
materials to create a storage battery
suitable for practical use. By the time he
perfected the alkaline storage battery,
electric-powered cars had lost out in the
competition with gas-powered cars that
could be driven far greater distances. A
failure as the motive force for automobiles,
the alkaline storage battery was ultimately
a great commercial success as the power
source for train lights, marine appliances,
and miners’ lamps. Prior to this invention,
miners used candles or small oil lamps
attached to their hard hats as their light
source.