Thomas Alva Edison

Thomas Alva Edison

U.S. History Since 1865 - HIST 2302

January 21, 2002

Thomas Alva Edison

Picture a world without electric light, the phonograph, or motion pictures. Picture a world without the greatness of Thomas Alva Edison. His most remarkable inventions have altered the lives of millions. Perhaps the greatest genius the world has ever known, Thomas Alva Edison was born February 11, 1847, in the small town of Milan, Ohio, to Samuel and Nancy Edison. He was the youngest of seven children and a very mischievous child who loved to play pranks. According to Richards (1984), at the age of six Thomas, whose nickname was "Al," for Alva, set a fire in his father's barn, "just to see what it would do" (p. 82). Al was also stubborn and difficult to raise. His teachers didn't believe he had much intelligence, labeled him as retarded, and expelled him from school. However as history proves, Al was not retarded, but rather had a great curiosity about everything, especially how things worked.

His education can be attributed to independent study, training, and his mother. She sensed his intelligence and educated him with books by Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. When he was nine, she gave him a science textbook, Parker's School of Natural Philosophy, containing chemical experiments, which could be conducted at home (Richards, 1884, p. 83). By age eleven, Edison not only had his own chemical laboratory, but had also read Gibbon's Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, Sear's History of the World, Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, and the Dictionary of Sciences (Hearst Entertainment, 1976).

At the age of twelve, Edison was ready to work and earn a living. His father scarcely made enough to support the family and allowed him to get a job. His first job was with the Grand Trunk Railway Line selling newspapers, candy, fruits, and vegetables on the morning train. The train made a three-hour commute from Port Huron, Michigan to Detroit, would remain in Detroit most of the day, then make its return trip to Port Huron. Edison, who was never satisfied with boredom and missed his laboratory experiments, received permission from the train master to set up his home laboratory in one of the baggage cars to consume some of his free time during the day. He also began publishing his own newspaper, and before long, his entrepreneur skills resulted in the hiring of other boys to expand his news business on the train, opening a vegetable and newsstand in Port Huron, and transporting vegetables to sell at the markets in Detroit. He continued with the railroad, selling, experimenting, and profiting until a few years later when an experiment turned into an explosion, starting a small fire in the baggage car. The conductor kindly asked Edison to leave the train. According to McCormick (2001), "by the time Edison was 14-years-old he had hired, fired, motivated, and managed more people than 99 percent of the college graduates of his (or our) day" (p. 56).

At the age of 13 Edison suffered severe hearing loss. Richards' (1984) reveals the hearing loss is attributed to a day Edison was late getting to the train. The train was already pulling away, and as he ran after it catching the rear step, a trainman reached down and grabbed him by the ears (p. 85). Edison provided conflicting stories about his deafness throughout the years. One such story revealed a baggage master was badly burned from the chemical explosion and boxed Edison's ears severely (McCormick, 2001, p. 34). Hearst Entertainment (1976) claims Edison had scarlet fever as a child and his hearing was impaired from this disease. Regardless of how the deafness occurred, Edison believed his "handicap" made him a better reader, gain a better focus, and be more creative (McCormick, 2001, p. 40).

At the age of 14, Edison's life changed forever. While waiting for a train, he witnessed a three-year-old boy wander onto the track as a train approached. Edison grabbed the child, saving him from certain death, and carried him to safety. The child's father, an experienced telegraph operator, was forever grateful and offered to teach Edison the professional method of telegraphy. Telegraphy was the high-tech industry of the late 1800s and promised a steady income. Edison gave up his train job and spent five months learning to send and receive messages. His deafness proved to be an advantage in this business as many of the telegraph offices had a dozen or more operators working at transmitters in the same room. Headphones had not been invented yet, but with his limited range of hearing Edison became a fast operator, especially at receiving. His quick and accurate skills earned him a night job at the Port Huron station. There weren't many trains at night, which left Edison plenty of free time to experiment with electrical circuits. His ingenuity and mischievousness as a child paid off when he transferred to the Stratford Junction Station in Ontario. Working a twelve-hour night shift, he was required to signal the main office at certain hours during the night to prove he was awake. Edison, wanting to get some sleep while still earning a paycheck, designed a revolving wheel attached to a clock that automatically sent the signal. According to Richards (1984), "It was his first real invention, although he had to keep it from his bosses" (p. 87).

Edison traveled the United States for six years seeking more interesting jobs. Along his travels, he gained a national reputation in the telegraphy community and continued his experiments with telegraph equipment during his free time. In February 1869, after reading Experimental Researches in Electricity by Michael Faraday, Edison announced his resignation in the telegrapher trade and his new beginning for inventions (Richards, 1984, p. 89). By June 1869, he received his first patent for the electronic vote recorder. He believed this invention would be useful to Congress for counting votes; however, a trip to Washington, D.C. to demonstrate his newest invention proved to be a disappointment as Congress did not feel they needed his machine. Richards (1984) states Edison was crushed, but learned from his experience. He vowed that he would only invent items that would serve as a necessity to the community at large (p. 90).

Edison's next attempt was an improved duplex telegraph machine, which would allow two messages to be sent over a single wire at the same time. He had secretly experimented with this invention at Western Union, but was caught by a supervisor and forced to stop his experiments. This improvement failed miserably, but not willing to give