Edison

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He grew up in Michigan with little formal schooling and began working at a young age. He became deaf as a child and learned through books and tinkering. As a railroad telegrapher, he spent much of his time inventing improvements to telegraph systems. By the age of 22, he had sold a few of his early inventions and moved to New York to focus on engineering. He had three children with Mary, his first wife, but Edison was neglectful. She died at 29 years old. Edison had troubled relationships with his kids for the rest of his life. With the help of friends, the inventor attracted investment and grew his company. By the age of 29, he owned a telegraph recorder factory in Newark with over one hundred employees. Edison expanded, developing, Menlo Park, now considered the first industrial research laboratory. "The Wizard of Menlo Park" drove his staff extremely hard and constantly worked himself and his associates to exhaustion. In his life, he registered 1093 patents. The inventor also drove up investment and publicity. He rose to international fame with the invention of the phonograph which took many years to turn into a commercial success. He later built a larger research lab in West Orange, New Jersey. In 1878, Edison began working on an electrical lighting system which he hoped would replace the common gas lamps. Going from electrical light bulb to the modern electric grid took decades of invention, investment, and influence. Edison and his colleges had the opportunity to get enormously wealthy as they designed and built a nation of light-bulbs, generators, and electric distributions systems. Competition with Westinghouse's AC system forced Edison to yield and resulted in the creation of General Electric. Ever the inventor, Edison did not allow the business of illumination to capture his sole attention. He simultaneously created a mining company. This was never profitable and he nearly went broke. As his role in the illumination business declined, he established a cement company and began work on a motion picture camera. The motion picture camera went from an invention to the first movie production studio. He traveled around the United States and Europe promoting his many innovations during which he met Mina his second wife. They had three children together, and Edison was again neglectful. During their adulthood, he began to take more interest in his sons and they eventually worked for him. Charles Edison took over his father's business when he died. In addition to acute health issues from handling toxic and radioactive chemicals during his various experiments, Thomas faced a lifelong battle against diabetes. He worked vigorously until his death. Following the success of the illumination business, he ran several companies which produced batteries, movies, musical records, and phenol. His last obsession was the search for domestic rubber production.