Thomas Edison
By: Elizma Lee 3rd Period

 

 

 

 

Thomas Edison was born February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio and died October 18, 1931 in West Orange, New Jersey.

Early Influences:
Thomas didn’t really have anyone that influenced him, you can say that his mother was a influence to him because she encouraged him to go to school as a little boy.
Education:
Edison dropped out of school at a young age where he spent three months of learning. The reason of him dropping out of school is because of hearing, the cause of his deafness has been attributed to scarlet fever during childhood and untreated middle-ear infections. Around the middle of his career, Edison attributed the hearing impairment to being struck on the ears by a train conductor when his chemical laboratory in a boxcar caught fire and he was thrown off the train in Smiths Creek, Michigan, along with his apparatus and chemicals. In his later years, he modified the story to say the injury occurred when the conductor, in helping him onto a moving train, lifted him by the ears.
Invention(s):
Thomas Edison had MANY inventions like the: phonograph, motion picture camera and last but not least the light bulb. And the invention that I chose was the light bulb because it had and/or has a great influence on the world.
After many experiments with platinum and other metal filaments, Edison returned to a carbon filament. The first successful test was on October 22, 1879, it lasted 13.5 hours. He continued to improve his design and by November 4, 1879, he filed for U.S. patent 223,898 [granted on January 27, 1880] for an electric lamp using a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected to platina contact wires. Not until several months after the patent was granted Edison and his team discovered a carbonized bamboo filament that could last over 1,200 hours.
In 1878, Edison formed the Edison Electric Light Company in New York City with several financers. He made the first public demonstration of his incandescent light bulb on December 31, 1879, in Menlo Park. During this time that he said: "We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles."

Contemporaries:
Philip H. Diehl (January 29, 1847 – April 7, 1913)  a German-American mechanical engineer and inventor who held several U.S. patents, including electric incandescent lamps, electric motors for sewing machines and other uses, and ceiling fans. Philip was a contemporary of Thomas Edison and his inventions caused Edison to reduce the price of his incandescent bulb.
How it affects me:
If Thomas Edison never invented the light bulb I think the world would still be using candles at night time for light and the sun for day time. We wouldn’t be able to see anything anywhere if there weren’t light bulbs in the world. Since Edison’s invention many new different types of light bulbs were made over the years like, energy bulbs, colored bulbs that many people use for decorations, lamps for certain types of animals that live in cages and etc.

 

Bibliography:
"Philip Diehl (inventor)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 May 2012. Web. 19 Dec. 2012.
"Thomas Edison." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Dec. 2012. Web. 19 Dec. 2012.

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