Today, only an unenlightened person does not know the name of Edison, the famous inventor who managed to improve the light bulb, as well as the author of the electric chair and phonograph. In addition to the talent of the inventor, he possessed an equally valuable property - the ability to entrepreneurship.
Thomas Alva Edison was born in 1847 in Meilen, a small American town. His parents were from Holland. As a child, Alva was a rather painful child, in addition, he was short in stature and deaf in one ear. Therefore, his parents took great care of him and monitored his health.
At school, Thomas was recognized as incapable of studying and sent to home schooling. Everything that children learn in primary school, he was taught by his mother - a woman with a brilliant education. And to the surprise of the family, he showed excellent learning abilities.
He was very curious, watched the life around him and tried to learn everything that was interesting to him: he revolved around carpenters, walked in the port.
At the age of seven, he learned to read, and became a regular visitor to the People's Library. Mostly Thomas read the books of Richard Burton, David Hume, Edward Gibbon. And at the age of 9 he repeated experiments from the book of Richard Green Parker "Natural and Experimental Philosophy". That is, he wanted to come to everything himself, personally.
His experiments required a lot of money for various drugs, and in order to earn them, Edison began selling newspapers at the railway station. He even agreed to set up a chemical laboratory in an old carriage. But once there was a bad experience, a fire occurred, and Thomas lost his job and laboratory.
However, he was lucky: Thomas saved the son of the station manager from death, and he appointed him to the position of telegraph operator, where he worked for several years.
And he continued his experiments - it was his passion. He could never stop, and spent all his money on books and invention.
Inventions
The biography of the self-taught inventor is rich in many moments when he could be proud of himself: he received 1, 093 patents in the United States and 3, 000 in other countries.
However, luck did not come to him immediately: the society did not accept the counter of votes invented by him in the elections, considering it useless, as well as some other inventions.
The success came to Edison thanks to his experience in repairing telegraph devices: such a device broke in the Gold and Stoke company, and only Thomas could fix it. Here he studied the wiring system and applied it to informing about the rate of gold and stocks. The young inventor made it more convenient and efficient, and the company bought this invention from him. The money from the purchase went to the workshop where tickers were made for exchanges, and a year later Edison already had three of these workshops.
Further success awaited him: the founding of Pope, Edison & Co, the invention of the quadruplex telegraph, the opening of a laboratory in which the most advanced scientists of that time began to work. Inventions, experiments, rationalization - all this brought Edison great pleasure.
He was not limited to one particular area of knowledge: inventing the phonograph, he began to improve the light bulb. He simplified its production and increased its service life from 2 to 13 hours, and later to 1200 hours.
There were failures in his life, and even one local war - the "current war". Edison advocated the use of direct current, and his laboratory assistant Nikola Tesla claimed that alternating current was more suitable for long-distance transmission, and he won. Out of frustration, Edison invented the infamous electric chair.
Thomas Edison also invented a radiography device, carbon microphone, voice recorder, and alkaline battery. And he also became the forerunner of cinema: in his laboratory, on a kinetoscope, one could see the film through a special eyepiece.
