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  • Author Author: patkelly
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Level 7: Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931)

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Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an  American inventor, scientist, and businessman who developed many devices  that greatly influenced life around the world, including the  phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical  electric light bulb.


Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park" (now Edison, New Jersey) by a newspaper reporter, he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large teamwork to the process of invention, and therefore is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory.image

Edison is the third most prolific inventor in history, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He is credited with numerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications. These included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures. His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his early career as a telegraph operator. Edison originated the concept and implementation of electric-power generation and distribution to homes, businesses, and factories – a crucial development in the modern industrialized world. His first power station was on Manhattan Island, New York.
 

  • Interestingly, Edison was not so much an inventor as a very good technical manager. Although he was an engineer himself, he primarily hired people to work on certain projects or areas of technology, like the telephone. He had the know-how, the resources, and good management skills. What more do you need?

  • One of the things I find intriguing is that from what we can understand, Edison may have been affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder, his Mother pulled him from public education due to their inability to work with him, labeling him as "addled".  Some documents I have read even say that she was told he was incapable of learning and should be put into a special home since he would never be able to function on his own.

     

    This gives me great hope and inspiration for our children today who we know are brilliant, but are having serious issues dealing with education programs designed for the mediocre and generalized for mass use across a wide population with no regards to talents and disabilities.

     

    I hear constantly of complaints of lack of drive and interest by the youth today, yet I see on the other side where creativity and interest is beat down because it doesn't follow the vanilla plan of the current curriculum.  We teach children to not be creative, not experiment, to not be interested and driven, instead follow this lesson plan with no deviation.

     

    We as Mentors and living examples can be the reason the next Edison comes into our Modern Times and influences technology in ways beyond the middle ground expectations!

     

    Google Books has converted some of the biographies out there for Edison and can be quite interesting reading if anyone has a desire to know beyond the short Wikipedia mention.  Here is a link to a pdf version:  https://ia801409.us.archive.org/23/items/edisonhislifean03martgoog/edisonhislifean03martgoog.pdf