Thomas Edison Research Paper

Thomas Edison was born on February 11, 1847 and died on October 18, 1931. He was the last of seven children, and was largely home-schooled and self-educated. He married twice and had six children. He first worked as a telegrapher before becoming an inventor and entrepreneur. The Edison Manufacturing Company submitted 1,093 successful patents to the US patent office. He is credited with having invented the phonograph, motion pictures, a viable incandescent light bulb and practical electrical lighting and distribution system

Edison was issued more than thousand U.S. patents and made major contributions to the development of several of the modern world's most important industries-telegraphy, telephony, electric light and power, recorded sound

Edison often relied on scientific research to guide his work in mechanics and electricity but had to rely on trial and error in chemical research. Much Edison “mythology” has been based on the premise that Edison virtually plucked inspiration out of thin air. (Thus, a light bulb illuminating over one's head became the standard metaphor for the flash of a brilliant idea). However, at his research facilities at Menlo Park and West orange, New Jersey, Edison assembled the largest technical library in North America, their shelves filled with scientific and technical journals, academic books, and patent reports. Francis Upton, one of Edison's chief collaborators in electric lighting, was a brilliant mathematician educated at the Andover Academy, Bowdoin College, and Princeton University who also attended lectures by the German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz at Berlin University. In short, Edison exploited theoretical understandings as best he could; but the ends he sought quite often outran the limits of theory, forcing him and his researchers into uncharted terrain, where laborious trial-and-error protocols were the only practical

Edison's reputation began to soar in the 1870s, thanks in large measure to his successes with the phonograph. The device's power to capture and reproduce voices and music awed and fascinated the press and the public. For the most part however, journalists inaccurately reported Edison's claims and reveled in his eccentricities, a fact that Edison happily profited from. He was eager to play the part of the homespun genius who napped under his desk and was ready to take on virtually any technological challenge. On one occasion Edison jokingly claimed to have invented a machine that would feed the world. The news services ran the story, and millions of newspaper readers found it perfectly