Thomas Edison Research Paper

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Inventing Solutions Throughout the history of mankind, engineers have continued to thrive through the inventions of many assets needed in society. By looking at a specific inventions, the process of analysis, problem solving, discovery and solution is looked at by inventors, innovators and engineers in order to produce the ultimate outcome. Inventions have been created in order to revolutionize the way of thinking and living. Thomas Edison, arguably the most significant and best inventor to have ever lived, and is well known for his invention of electricity but also the many more contributions to society. Through history, it is depicted that Thomas Edison is the best inventor to have ever lived through his significant contribution to his …show more content…

Thomas was a hyperactive child, susceptible to distractions, causing him to struggle greatly in school once the family moved from their home town of Milan to Port Huron, Michigan. Due to his difficulties of being a student, his mother turned to teaching Thomas herself through home schooling, which elaborated on his skills of reading books, and a great interest for many subjects. Moreover, Thomas had scarlet fever at early stages of his life which led to many ear infections. This left him with hearing complications throughout his life, ultimately leading into adulthood where he would become nearly deaf. Edison made variations to this story to which he claims that his struggles with hearing in both ears was due to a train accident where his ears were damaged. At the early stages of his career, Thomas started selling newspapers to passengers at the Grand Trunk Railroad line, where he published his own small newspaper Grand Trunk Herald. This was the start of his entrepreneurial endeavours, leading him to conduct experiments using chemical in his secret laboratory set up in a train baggage cart. Unfortunately, one day while conducting an experiment, a chemical fire erupted causing the car to set fire, and him to get in trouble. Thomas was no …show more content…

Historians argue that Thomas Edison did not invent the first lightbulb, however, he created the first commercially viable lightbulb. The lightbulb at the time ha d been around for several years, however, they were expensive, short lasting and unreliable within homes. Inventors had a magnifying glass on the lightbulb at the time, and everyone was trying to invent a solution. The concept of revolutionizing the lightbulb came from inventing a solution to make the lightbulb affordable in order for people to use within their homes. Edison knew that if he chose a better filament within a lightbulb to burn, it would be most cost efficient and better to use. Edison tested over 6000 filaments within the lightbulb, only to conclude that the best filament is carbonized bamboo. By creating a vacuum like feature within the bulb itself, he managed to run a lower battery voltage through it, causing the bulb to last for many hours. Edison bragged that the use of carbon would last a lot longer than lightbulbs burning oxygen. Carbonized bamboo would be most heat resistant, incandescent and producing a greater light than ever before. By using this invention within homes, it would be affordable to the average American family, with only costing about 25 cents. This was a considerable enhancement, which only led to more and more improvements after Edison. Edison made the bulb increasingly more practical and cost-efficient which only

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