Thomas Edison Legacy

In today’s society many of us experience something that was unknown to man over 100 years ago. This experience that all of us have comes from the lightbulb. This idea came from a man that had a unique mind. A mind that was difficult for the people of his time to fathom. This man was named Thomas Alva Edison. This man in particular was interesting and left a mystery to some as to how he came up with the ideas that he did. His inventions and creativity were going to be a lifeline of the modern day American society. He was going to push through and take part in shaping what America was going to be today. Thomas Edison left an interesting legacy behind and his life was even more interesting. Thomas Edison was born in the canal town of Milan,

In 1880 he was granted a patent for the lightbulb, which is seen as his most famous invention. When he was given the patent he set out to develop a company that would bring electricity to power and light cities of the world. The same year Edison founded the Edison Illuminating Company-the first investor-owned electric utility-which was later named General Electric Corporation. In the year 1881 Thomas Edison left Menlo Park to establish facilities in several cities that had electrical systems being set up. By 1882, the Pearl Street generating station brought 110 volts of electrical power to 59 customers in lower Manhattan. Furthermore, in 1884 as mentioned before Edison’s wife Mary died. Two years later he married Mina Miller, who was 19 years younger than him. In 1887 he built an industrial research laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, which served as the primary research for the Edison lighting companies. Edison ended up spending most of his time in West Orange, supervising the development of lighting technology and power systems. He also perfected the phonograph and developed the motion picture and alkaline storage

government to head the Naval Consulting Board, which looked at inventions submitted for military use. With this Edison worked on several projects, which included submarine detectors and gun-location techniques. However, due to Edison’s moral indignation toward violence, he specified that he would worked on defensive weapons, later noting, “I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill.” As the 1920s were coming to an end so was Thomas Edison. He was beginning to slow down in his 80s, but not before he applied for the last of 1,093 U.S. patents, for an apparatus for holding objects during the electroplating process. Eventually, Edison and his second wife, Mina, moved to their winter retreat in Fort Myers, Florida, where his friendship with the automobile tycoon Henry flourished and he continued to work on several projects, ranging from electric trains to finding a domestic source for natural