Background Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio in the United States of America on February 11th, 1847. Edison was the youngest of seven children and would spend most of his early life growing up in Port Huron, Michigan. Even though Edison would eventually grow up to become a world famous inventor, he only had three official years of schooling. His teacher, Reverend Engle once called him “addled”, this maybe a reason why Edison would later be noted for his distain of academia. At an early age Edison developed hearing problems that were attributed to an untreated ear infection and scarlet fever.
Around the age of 7, Edison sold candy and newspaper on trains that ran from Port Huron, Michigan to Detroit, Michigan. Eventually he would obtain
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Not only did he invent products and services, he built businesses to accompany those inventions. Thomas Edison is credited with inventing the modern day Incandescent lightbulb, the Phonograph, the Carbon Microphone, and the Movie Camera, not to mention another 1,089 other patents. One of his largest feats was the creation of the Edison Illuminating Company, founded on December 17th, 1880. This “first of a kind” electric company would eventually become known by the publicly traded name of General Electric Corporation.
Edison played many roles in his life, everything from inventor to manager, business owner, and leader of American innovation. The Washington Post would later describe Edison as a “genius” and his presentation as, “a scene that will live in history”. At the request of his friend and admirer, Henry Ford, Edison would go on to invent a new kind of battery for the “Self-Starter” edition of the model T ford automobile. During World War 1 Edison was asked by the U.S. government to head the Naval Consulting Board to oversee new inventions that could be used for military applications. Even though Edison was “uneducated”, his accomplishments in life earned the respect of other business leaders and government officials because he proved