Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison

"Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration."

Thomas Alva Edison, Harper's Monthly (September 1932)
Born

Thomas Alva EdisonFebruary 11, 1847Milan, Ohio, United States

Died

October 18, 1931 (aged84)West Orange, New Jersey, United States

Occupation Inventor, scientist, businessman

Religion

Deist

Spouse

Mary Stilwell (m.18711884)

Mina Miller (m.18861931)

Children

Marion Estelle Edison (18731965)

Thomas Alva Edison Jr. (18761935)
William Leslie Edison (18781937)
Madeleine Edison (18881979)
Charles Edison (18901969)
Theodore Miller Edison (18981992)

Parents

Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. (18041896)

Nancy Matthews Elliott (18101871)

Relatives

Lewis Miller (father-in-law)

Signature

Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 October 18, 1931) was an
American inventor, scientist, and businessman who developed many
devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the
phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical
electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park" (now Edison,
New Jersey) by a newspaper reporter, he was one of the first inventors
to apply the principles of mass production and large teamwork to the
process of invention, and therefore is often credited with the creation
of the first industrial research laboratory.[1]
Birthplace of Thomas Edison

Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors in history,

holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the
United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He is credited with numerous
inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular,
telecommunications. These included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote
recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, recorded music
and motion pictures. His advanced work in these fields was an
outgrowth of his early career as a telegraph operator. Edison originated
the concept and implementation of electric-power generation and
distribution to homes, businesses, and factories a crucial
development in the modern industrialized world. His first power
station was on Manhattan Island, New York.

Historical marker of Edison's birthplace in Milan,

Ohio

Early life
Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio and grew up in Port Huron,
Michigan. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel Ogden Edison,
Jr. (180496, born in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia, Canada) and Nancy
Matthews Elliott (18101871).[2] His father had to escape from Canada
because he took part in the unsuccessful Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837.
Edison considered himself to be of Dutch ancestry.[3] In school, the
young Edison's mind often wandered, and his teacher, the Reverend
Engle, was overheard calling him "addled". This ended Edison's three
months of official schooling. Edison recalled later, "My mother was
the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me; and I felt I had
something to live for, someone I must not disappoint." His mother
homeschooled him.[4] Much of his education came from reading R.G.
Parker's School of Natural Philosophy and The Cooper Union. Edison
developed hearing problems at an early age. The cause of his deafness
has been attributed to a bout of scarlet fever during childhood and
Thomas Edison as a boy
recurring 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.[5] [6] Edison's family was forced to move to Port Huron,
Michigan, when the railroad bypassed Milan in 1854,[7] but his life there was bittersweet. He sold candy and

Thomas Edison

newspapers on trains running from Port Huron to Detroit, and he sold vegetables to supplement his income. This
began Edison's long streak of entrepreneurial ventures as he discovered his talents as a businessman. These talents
eventually led him to found 14 companies, including General Electric, which is still in existence and is one of the
largest publicly traded companies in the world.[8] [9]

Telegrapher
Edison became a telegraph operator after he saved three-year-old Jimmie MacKenzie from being struck by a
runaway train. Jimmie's father, station agent J.U. MacKenzie of Mount Clemens, Michigan, was so grateful that he
trained Edison as a telegraph operator. Edison's first telegraphy job away from Port Huron was at Stratford Junction,
Ontario, on the Grand Trunk Railway.[10] In 1866, at the age of 19, Thomas Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky,
where, as an employee of Western Union, he worked the Associated Press bureau news wire. Edison requested the
night shift, which allowed him plenty of time to spend at his two favorite pastimesreading and experimenting.
Eventually, the latter pre-occupation cost him his job. One night in 1867, he was working with a lead-acid battery
when he spilled sulfuric acid onto the floor. It ran between the floorboards and onto his boss's desk below. The next
morning Edison was fired.[11]
One of his mentors during those early years was a fellow telegrapher and inventor named Franklin Leonard Pope,
who allowed the impoverished youth to live and work in the basement of his Elizabeth, New Jersey home. Some of
Edison's earliest inventions were related to telegraphy, including a stock ticker. His first patent was for the electric
vote recorder, (U. S. Patent 90,646),[12] which was granted on June 1, 1869.[13]

Marriages and children

On December 25, 1871, Edison married 16-year-old Mary Stilwell,
whom he had met two months earlier as she was an employee at one of
his shops. They had three children:
Marion Estelle Edison (18731965), nicknamed "Dot"[14]
Thomas Alva Edison, Jr. (18761935), nicknamed "Dash"[15]
William Leslie Edison (18781937) Inventor, graduate of the
Sheffield Scientific School at Yale, 1900.[16]
Mary Edison died on August 9, 1884, possibly from a brain tumor.[17]
On February 24, 1886, at the age of thirty nine, Edison married
20-year-old Mina Miller in Akron, Ohio.[18] She was the daughter of
inventor Lewis Miller, co-founder of the Chautauqua Institution and a
benefactor of Methodist charities. They also had three children:
Madeleine Edison (18881979), who married John Eyre Sloane.[19]
[20]

Charles Edison (18901969), who took over the company upon his
father's death and who later was elected Governor of New
Jersey.[21] He also took charge of his father's experimental
laboratories in West Orange.

Mina Edison in 1906

Theodore Edison (18981992), (MIT Physics 1923), had over 80 patents to his credit.
Mina outlived Thomas Edison, dying on August 24, 1947.[22] [23]

Thomas Edison

Beginning his career

Thomas Edison began his career as an inventor in Newark, New Jersey, with the
automatic repeater and his other improved telegraphic devices, but the invention
which first gained him notice was the phonograph in 1877. This accomplishment
was so unexpected by the public at large as to appear almost magical. Edison
became known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park," New Jersey. His first
phonograph recorded on tinfoil around a grooved cylinder, but had poor sound
quality and the recordings could only be played a few times. In the 1880s, a
redesigned model using wax-coated cardboard cylinders was produced by
Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester Bell, and Charles Tainter. This was one
reason that Thomas Edison continued work on his own "Perfected Phonograph."

Menlo Park (18761881)

Photograph of Edison with his

phonograph, taken by Mathew Brady
in 1877

Edison's major innovation was the first industrial research lab, which was built in
Menlo Park, New Jersey. It was built with the funds from the sale of Edison's quadruplex telegraph. After his
demonstration of the telegraph, Edison was not sure that his original plan to sell it for $4,000 to $5,000 was right, so
he asked Western Union to make a bid. He was surprised to hear them offer $10,000, which he gratefully accepted.
The quadruplex telegraph was Edison's first big financial success, and Menlo Park became the first institution set up
with the specific purpose of producing constant technological innovation and improvement. Edison was legally
attributed with most of the inventions produced there, though many employees carried out research and development
under his direction. His staff was generally told to carry out his directions in conducting research, and he drove them
hard to produce results.
William J. Hammer, a consulting electrical engineer, began his duties
as a laboratory assistant to Edison in December 1879. He assisted in
experiments on the telephone, phonograph, electric railway, iron ore
separator, electric lighting, and other developing inventions. However,
Hammer worked primarily on the incandescent electric lamp and was
put in charge of tests and records on that device. In 1880, he was
appointed chief engineer of the Edison Lamp Works. In his first year,
the plant under General Manager Francis Robbins Upton turned out
50,000 lamps. According to Edison, Hammer was "a pioneer of
incandescent electric lighting".

Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory, removed to

Greenfield Village at Henry Ford Museum in
Dearborn, Michigan. (Note the organ against the
back wall)

Thomas Edison

Nearly all of Edison's patents were utility patents, which were protected for a
17-year period and included inventions or processes that are electrical,
mechanical, or chemical in nature. About a dozen were design patents, which
protect an ornamental design for up to a 14-year period. As in most patents, the
inventions he described were improvements over prior art. The phonograph
patent, in contrast, was unprecedented as describing the first device to record and
reproduce sounds.[24] Edison did not invent the first electric light bulb, but
instead invented the first commercially practical incandescent light. Many earlier
inventors had previously devised incandescent lamps including Henry
Woodward, and Mathew Evans. Others who developed early and not
commercially practical incandescent electric lamps included Humphry Davy,
James Bowman Lindsay, Moses G. Farmer,[25] William E. Sawyer, Joseph Swan
and Heinrich Gbel. Some of these early bulbs had such flaws as an extremely
short life, high expense to produce, and high electric current drawn, making them
Thomas Edison's first successful
light bulb model, used in public
difficult to apply on a large scale commercially. In 1878, Edison applied the term
demonstration at Menlo Park,
filament to the element of glowing wire carrying the current, although the
December 1879
English inventor Joseph Swan had used the term prior to this. Swan developed an
incandescent light with a long lasting filament at about the same time as Edison,
but it lacked the high resistance needed to be an effective part of an electrical utility. Edison and his co-workers set
about the task of creating longer-lasting bulbs. In Britain, Joseph Swan had been able to obtain a patent on the
incandescent lamp because of an oversight in the drafting of Edison's patent application.[26] Unable to raise the
required capital in Britain because of this, Edison was forced to enter into a joint venture with Swan (known as
Ediswan). Swan acknowledged that Edison had anticipated him, saying "Edison is entitled to more than I ... he has
seen further into this subject, vastly than I, and foreseen and provided for details that I did not comprehend until I
saw his system".[27] By 1879, Edison had produced a new concept: a high resistance lamp in a very high vacuum,
which would burn for hundreds of hours. While the earlier inventors had produced electric lighting in laboratory
conditions, dating back to a demonstration of a glowing wire by Alessandro Volta in 1800, Edison concentrated on
commercial application, and was able to sell the concept to homes and businesses by mass-producing relatively
long-lasting light bulbs and creating a complete system for the generation and distribution of electricity.
In just over a decade Edison's Menlo Park laboratory had expanded to occupy two city blocks. Edison said he wanted
the lab to have "a stock of almost every conceivable material". A newspaper article printed in 1887 reveals the
seriousness of his claim, stating the lab contained "eight thousand kinds of chemicals, every kind of screw made,
every size of needle, every kind of cord or wire, hair of humans, horses, hogs, cows, rabbits, goats, minx, camels...
silk in every texture, cocoons, various kinds of hoofs, shark's teeth, deer horns, tortoise shell... cork, resin, varnish
and oil, ostrich feathers, a peacock's tail, jet, amber, rubber, all ores..." and the list goes on.[28]
Over his desk, Edison displayed a placard with Sir Joshua Reynolds' famous quote: "There is no expedient to which
a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking."[29] This slogan was reputedly posted at several other
locations throughout the facility.
With Menlo Park, Edison had created the first industrial laboratory concerned with creating knowledge and then
controlling its application.

Thomas Edison

Carbon telephone transmitter

In 187778, Edison invented and developed the carbon microphone used in all telephones along with the Bell
receiver until the 1980s. After protracted patent litigation, in 1892 a federal court ruled that Edisonand not Emile
Berlinerwas the inventor of the carbon microphone. The carbon microphone was also used in radio broadcasting
and public address work through the 1920s.

Electric light
Building on the contributions of other developers over the previous
three quarters of a century, Edison made significant improvements to
the idea of incandescent light, and wound up in the public
consciousness as "the inventor" of the lightbulb.
After many experiments with platinum and other metal filaments,
Edison returned to a carbon filament. The first successful test was on
October 22, 1879;[30] it lasted 40 hours. Edison continued to improve
this design and by November 4, 1879, 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".[31]
Although the patent described several ways of creating the carbon
filament including "cotton and linen thread, wood splints, papers coiled
in various ways",[31] it was not until several months after the patent
Edison in 1878
was granted that Edison and his team discovered a carbonized bamboo
filament that could last over 1,200hours. The idea of using this
particular raw material originated from Edison's recalling his examination of a few threads from a bamboo fishing
pole while relaxing on the shore of Battle Lake in the present-day state of Wyoming, where he and other members of
a scientific team had traveled so that they could clearly observe a total eclipse of the sun on July 29, 1878, from the
Continental Divide.[32]
In 1878, Edison formed the Edison Electric Light Company in New York City
with several financiers, including J. P. Morgan and the members of the
Vanderbilt family. Edison made the first public demonstration of his
incandescent light bulb on December 31, 1879, in Menlo Park. It was during this
time that he said: "We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn
candles."[33]
George Westinghouse's company bought Philip Diehl's competing induction
lamp patent rights (1882) for $25,000, forcing the holders of the Edison patent to
charge a more reasonable rate for the use of the Edison patent rights and
lowering the price of the electric lamp.[34]
On October 8, 1883, the US patent office ruled that Edison's patent was based on
the work of William Sawyer and was therefore invalid. Litigation continued for
U.S. Patent#223898: Electric-Lamp.
nearly six years, until October 6, 1889, when a judge ruled that Edison's electric
Issued January 27, 1880.
light improvement claim for "a filament of carbon of high resistance" was valid.
To avoid a possible court battle with Joseph Swan, whose British patent had been
awarded a year before Edison's, he and Swan formed a joint company called Ediswan to manufacture and market the
invention in Britain.
Mahen Theatre in Brno in what is now the Czech Republic, was the first public building in the world to use Edison's
electric lamps, with the installation supervised by Edison's assistant in the invention of the lamp, Francis Jehl.[35] In

Thomas Edison

September 2010, a sculpture of three giant light bulbs was erected in Brno, in front of the theatre.[36]

Electric power distribution

Edison patented a system for electricity distribution in 1880, which was essential to capitalize on the invention of the
electric lamp. On December 17, 1880, Edison founded the Edison Illuminating Company. The company established
the first investor-owned electric utility in 1882 on Pearl Street Station, New York City. It was on September 4, 1882,
that Edison switched on his Pearl Street generating station's electrical power distribution system, which provided 110
volts direct current (DC) to 59 customers in lower Manhattan.[37]
Earlier in the year, in January 1882 he had switched on the first steam generating power station at Holborn Viaduct
in London. The DC supply system provided electricity supplies to street lamps and several private dwellings within a
short distance of the station. On January 19, 1883, the first standardized incandescent electric lighting system
employing overhead wires began service in Roselle, New Jersey.

War of currents
Edison's true success, like that of his friend Henry Ford, was in his
ability to maximize profits through establishment of mass-production
systems and intellectual property rights. George Westinghouse and
Edison became adversaries because of Edison's promotion of direct
current (DC) for electric power distribution instead of the more easily
transmitted alternating current (AC) system invented by Nikola Tesla
and promoted by Westinghouse. Unlike DC, AC could be stepped up
to very high voltages with transformers, sent over thinner and cheaper
wires, and stepped down again at the destination for distribution to
users.

Extravagant displays of electric lights quickly

became a feature of public events, as in this
picture from the 1897 Tennessee Centennial
Exposition.

In 1887 there were 121Edison power stations in the United States

delivering DC electricity to customers. When the limitations of DC
were discussed by the public, Edison launched a propaganda campaign to convince people that AC was far too
dangerous to use. The problem with DC was that the power plants could economically deliver DC electricity only to
customers within about one and a half miles (about 2.4km) from the generating station, so that it was suitable only
for central business districts. When George Westinghouse suggested using high-voltage AC instead, as it could carry
electricity hundreds of miles with marginal loss of power, Edison waged a "War of Currents" to prevent AC from
being adopted.
Despite Edison's contempt for capital punishment, the war against AC led him to become involved in the
development and promotion of the electric chair (using AC) as an attempt to portray AC to have greater lethal
potential than DC. Edison went on to carry out a brief but intense campaign to ban the use of AC or to limit the
allowable voltage for safety purposes. As part of this campaign, Edison's employees publicly electrocuted animals to
demonstrate the dangers of AC;[38] [39] alternating electric currents are slightly more dangerous in that frequencies
near 60Hz have a markedly greater potential for inducing fatal "cardiac fibrillation" than do direct currents.[40] On
one of the more notable occasions, in 1903, Edison's workers electrocuted Topsy the elephant at Luna Park, near
Coney Island, after she had killed several men and her owners wanted her put to death.[41] His company filmed the
electrocution.
AC replaced DC in most instances of generation and power distribution, enormously extending the range and
improving the efficiency of power distribution. Though widespread use of DC ultimately lost favor for distribution,
it exists today primarily in long-distance high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission systems. Low voltage DC
distribution continued to be used in high-density downtown areas for many years but was eventually replaced by AC

Thomas Edison
low-voltage network distribution in many of them. DC had the advantage that large battery banks could maintain
continuous power through brief interruptions of the electric supply from generators and the transmission system.
Utilities such as Commonwealth Edison in Chicago had rotary converters or motor-generator sets, which could
change DC to AC and AC to various frequencies in the early to mid-20th century. Utilities supplied rectifiers to
convert the low voltage AC to DC for such DC loads as elevators, fans and pumps. There were still 1,600DC
customers in downtown New York City as of 2005, and service was finally discontinued only on November 14,
2007.[42] Most subway systems still are powered by direct current.

Fluoroscopy
Edison is credited with designing and producing the first commercially available fluoroscope, a machine that uses
X-rays to take radiographs. Until Edison discovered that calcium tungstate fluoroscopy screens produced brighter
images than the barium platinocyanide screens originally used by Wilhelm Rntgen, the technology was capable of
producing only very faint images. The fundamental design of Edison's fluoroscope is still in use today, despite the
fact that Edison himself abandoned the project after nearly losing his own eyesight and seriously injuring his
assistant, Clarence Dally. Dally had made himself an enthusiastic human guinea pig for the fluoroscopy project and
in the process been exposed to a poisonous dose of radiation. He later died of injuries related to the exposure. In
1903, a shaken Edison said "Don't talk to me about X-rays, I am afraid of them."[43]

Work relations
Frank J. Sprague, a competent mathematician and former naval officer,
was recruited by Edward H. Johnson and joined the Edison
organization in 1883. One of Sprague's significant contributions to the
Edison Laboratory at Menlo Park was to expand Edison's mathematical
methods. Despite the common belief that Edison did not use
mathematics, analysis of his notebooks reveal that he was an astute
user of mathematical analysis conducted by his assistants such as
Francis Upton, for example, determining the critical parameters of his
electric lighting system including lamp resistance by a sophisticated
analysis of Ohm's Law, Joule's Law and economics.[44]
Another of Edison's assistants was Nikola Tesla. Tesla claimed that
Edison promised him $50,000 if he succeeded in making
improvements to his DC generation plants. Several months later, when
Tesla had finished the work and asked to be paid, he said that Edison
replied, "When you become a full-fledged American you will
appreciate an American joke."[45] Tesla immediately resigned. With
Photograph of Thomas Edison by Victor
Tesla's salary of $18 per week, the payment would have amounted to
Daireaux, Paris, circa 1880s
over 53 years' pay and the amount was equal to the initial capital of the
company. Tesla resigned when he was refused a raise to $25 per week.[46] Although Tesla accepted an Edison Medal
later in life, this and other negative series of events concerning Edison remained with Tesla. The day after Edison
died, the New York Times contained extensive coverage of Edison's life, with the only negative opinion coming from
Tesla who was quoted as saying:
"He had no hobby, cared for no sort of amusement of any kind and lived in utter disregard of the most
elementary rules of hygiene. [...] His method was inefficient in the extreme, for an immense ground had to be
covered to get anything at all unless blind chance intervened and, at first, I was almost a sorry witness of his
doings, knowing that just a little theory and calculation would have saved him 90% of the labour. But he had a
veritable contempt for book learning and mathematical knowledge, trusting himself entirely to his inventor's

Thomas Edison
instinct and practical American sense."
Nikola Tesla
It seems very likely that Tesla's description was accurate, considering one of Edison's famous quotes regarding his
attempts to make the light globe:
"If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong
attempt discarded is another step forward".[47]
Thomas Edison
When Edison was a very old man and close to death, he said, in looking back, that the biggest mistake he had made
was that he never respected Tesla or his work.[48]
There were 28 men recognized as Edison Pioneers.

Media inventions
The key to Edison's fortunes was telegraphy. With knowledge gained from years of working as a telegraph operator,
he learned the basics of electricity. This allowed him to make his early fortune with the stock ticker, the first
electricity-based broadcast system. Edison patented the sound recording and reproducing phonograph in 1878.
Edison was also granted a patent for the motion picture camera or "Kinetograph". He did the electromechanical
design, while his employee W.K.L. Dickson, a photographer, worked on the photographic and optical development.
Much of the credit for the invention belongs to Dickson.[30] In 1891, Thomas Edison built a Kinetoscope, or
peep-hole viewer. This device was installed in penny arcades, where people could watch short, simple films. The
kinetograph and kinetoscope were both first publicly exhibited May 20, 1891.[49]
On August 9, 1892, Edison received a patent for a two-way telegraph. In April 1896, Thomas Armat's Vitascope,
manufactured by the Edison factory and marketed in Edison's name, was used to project motion pictures in public
screenings in New York City. Later he exhibited motion pictures with voice soundtrack on cylinder recordings,
mechanically synchronized with the film.
Officially the kinetoscope entered Europe when the rich American
Businessman Irving T. Bush (18691948) bought from the Continental
Commerce Company of Franck Z. Maguire and Joseph D. Bachus a
dozen machines. Bush placed from October 17, 1894, the first
kinetoscopes in London. At the same time the French company
Kintoscope Edison Michel et Alexis Werner bought these machines
for the market in France. In the last three months of 1894 The
Continental Commerce Company sold hundreds of kinetoscopes in
Europe (i.e. the Netherlands and Italy). In Germany and in
The June 1894 LeonardCushing bout. Each of
Austria-Hungary the kinetoscope was introduced by the
the six one-minute rounds recorded by the
Deutsche-sterreichische-Edison-Kinetoscop Gesellschaft, founded by
Kinetoscope was made available to exhibitors for
[50]
the Ludwig Stollwerck[51] of the Schokoladen-Ssswarenfabrik
$22.50.
Customers who watched the final
round saw Leonard score a knockdown.
Stollwerck & Co of Cologne. The first kinetoscopes arrived in Belgium
at the Fairs in early 1895. The Edison's Kintoscope Franais, a
Belgian company, was founded in Brussels on January 15, 1895, with the rights to sell the kinetoscopes in Monaco,
France and the French colonies. The main investors in this company were Belgian industrialists. On May 14, 1895,
the Edison's Kintoscope Belge was founded in Brussels. The businessman Ladislas-Victor Lewitzki, living in
London but active in Belgium and France, took the initiative in starting this business. He had contacts with Leon
Gaumont and the American Mutoscope and Biograph Co. In 1898 he also became a shareholder of the Biograph and
Mutoscope Company for France.[52]

Thomas Edison

10

In 1901, he visited the Sudbury area in Ontario, Canada, as a mining prospector, and is credited with the original
discovery of the Falconbridge ore body. His attempts to actually mine the ore body were not successful, however,
and he abandoned his mining claim in 1903.[53] A street in Falconbridge, as well as the Edison Building, which
served as the head office of Falconbridge Mines, are named for him.
In 1902, agents of Thomas Edison bribed a theater owner in London for a copy of A Trip to the Moon by Georges
Mlis. Edison then made hundreds of copies and showed them in New York City. Mlis received no
compensation. He was counting on taking the film to the US and recapture its huge cost by showing it throughout the
country when he realized it had already been shown there by Edison. This effectively bankrupted Mlis.[54] Other
exhibitors similarly routinely copied and exhibited each others films.[55] To better protect the copyrights on his films,
Edison deposited prints of them on long strips of photographic paper with the U.S. copyright office. Many of these
paper prints survived longer and in better condition than the actual films of that era.[56]
Edison's favourite movie was The Birth of a Nation. He thought that talkies had "spoiled everything" for him. "There
isn't any good acting on the screen. They concentrate on the voice now and have forgotten how to act. I can sense it
more than you because I am deaf."[57] His favorite stars were Mary Pickford and Clara Bow.[58]
In 1908, Edison started the Motion Picture Patents Company, which was a conglomerate of nine major film studios
(commonly known as the Edison Trust). Thomas Edison was the first honorary fellow of the Acoustical Society of
America, which was founded in 1929.

West Orange and Fort Myers (18861931)

Edison moved from Menlo Park after the death of Mary Stilwell and
purchased a home known as "Glenmont" in 1886 as a wedding gift for
Mina in Llewellyn Park in West Orange, New Jersey. In 1885, Thomas
Edison bought property in Fort Myers, Florida, and built what was later
called Seminole Lodge as a winter retreat. Edison and his wife Mina
spent many winters in Fort Myers where they recreated and Edison
tried to find a domestic source of natural rubber.
Henry Ford, the automobile magnate, later lived a few hundred feet
away from Edison at his winter retreat in Fort Myers, Florida. Edison
even contributed technology to the automobile. They were friends until
Edison's death.

Thomas A. Edison Industries Exhibit, Primary

Battery section, 1915

In 1928, Edison joined the Fort Myers Civitan Club. He believed strongly in the organization, writing that "The
Civitan Club is doing things big things for the community, state, and nation, and I certainly consider it an honor
to be numbered in its ranks."[59] He was an active member in the club until his death, sometimes bringing Henry
Ford to the club's meetings.

The final years

Edison was active in business right up to the end. Just months before his death in 1931, the Lackawanna Railroad
implemented electric trains in suburban service from Hoboken to Gladstone, Montclair and Dover in New Jersey.
Transmission
was
by
means
of
an
overhead

Thomas Edison

11

catenary system, with the entire project under Edison's guidance. To

the surprise of many, he was at the throttle of the very first MU
(Multiple-Unit) train to depart Lackawanna Terminal in Hoboken,
driving the train all the way to Dover. As another tribute to his lasting
legacy, the same fleet of cars Edison deployed on the Lackawanna in
1931 served commuters until their retirement in 1984, when some of
them were purchased by the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum in
Lenox, Massachusetts. A special plaque commemorating the joint
achievement of both the railway and Edison can be seen today in the
waiting room of Lackawanna Terminal in Hoboken, presently operated
by New Jersey Transit.[60]

Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone.

Ft. Myers, Florida, February 11, 1929.

Edison was said to have been influenced by a popular fad diet in his last few years; "the only liquid he consumed
was a pint of milk every three hours".[30] He is reported to have believed this diet would restore his health. However,
this tale is doubtful. In 1930, the year before Edison died, Mina said in an interview about him that "Correct eating is
one of his greatest hobbies." She also said that during one of his periodic "great scientific adventures", Edison would
be up at 7:00, have breakfast at 8:00, and be rarely home for lunch or dinner, implying that he continued to have all
three.[57]
Edison became the owner of his Milan, Ohio, birthplace in 1906. On his last visit, in 1923, he was shocked to find
his old home still lit by lamps and candles.
Thomas Edison died of complications of diabetes on October 18, 1931, in his home, "Glenmont" in Llewellyn Park
in West Orange, New Jersey, which he had purchased in 1886 as a wedding gift for Mina. He is buried behind the
home.[61] [62]
Edison's last breath is reportedly contained in a test tube at the Henry Ford Museum. Ford reportedly convinced
Charles Edison to seal a test tube of air in the inventor's room shortly after his death, as a memento. A plaster death
mask was also made.[63]
Mina died in 1947.

Views on politics, religion and metaphysics

Historian Paul Israel has characterized Edison as a "freethinker".[30] Edison was heavily influenced by Thomas
Paine's The Age of Reason.[30] Edison defended Paine's "scientific deism", saying, "He has been called an atheist, but
atheist he was not. Paine believed in a supreme intelligence, as representing the idea which other men often express
by the name of deity."[30] In an October 2, 1910, interview in the New York Times Magazine, Edison stated:
Nature is what we know. We do not know the gods of religions. And nature is not kind, or merciful, or
loving. If God made me the fabled God of the three qualities of which I spoke: mercy, kindness,
love He also made the fish I catch and eat. And where do His mercy, kindness, and love for that fish
come in? No; nature made us nature did it all not the gods of the religions.[64]
Edison was called an atheist for those remarks, and although he did not allow himself to be drawn into the
controversy publicly, he clarified himself in a private letter: "You have misunderstood the whole article, because you
jumped to the conclusion that it denies the existence of God. There is no such denial, what you call God I call
Nature, the Supreme intelligence that rules matter. All the article states is that it is doubtful in my opinion if our

Thomas Edison
intelligence or soul or whatever one may call it lives hereafter as an entity or disperses back again from whence it
came, scattered amongst the cells of which we are made."[30]
Nonviolence was key to Edison's moral views, and when asked to serve as a naval consultant for World War I, he
specified he would work only on defensive weapons and later noted, "I am proud of the fact that I never invented
weapons to kill." Edison's philosophy of nonviolence extended to animals as well, about which he stated:
"Nonviolence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living
beings, we are still savages."[65] However, he is also notorious for having electrocuted a number of dogs in 1888,
both by direct and alternating current, in an attempt to argue that the former (which he had a vested business interest
in promoting) was safer than the latter (favored by his rival George Westinghouse).[66] Edison's success in promoting
direct current as less lethal also led to alternating current being used in the electric chair adopted by New York in
1889 as a supposedly humane execution method; because Westinghouse was angered by the decision, he funded
Eighth Amendment-based appeals for inmates set to die in the electric chair, ultimately resulting in Edison providing
the generators which powered early electrocutions and testifying successfully on behalf of the state that electrocution
was a painless method of execution.[67]

Tributes
Places named for Edison
Several places have been named after Edison, most notably the town of Edison, New Jersey. Thomas Edison State
College, a nationally known college for adult learners, is in Trenton, New Jersey. Two community colleges are
named for him: Edison State College in Fort Myers, Florida, and Edison Community College in Piqua, Ohio.[68]
There are numerous high schools named after Edison; see Edison High School.
The City Hotel, in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, was the first building to be lit with Edison's three-wire system. The hotel
was re-named The Hotel Edison, and retains that name today.
Three bridges around the United States have been named in his honor (see Edison Bridge).

Museums and memorials

In West Orange, New Jersey, the 13.5acre (5.5ha) Glenmont estate is maintained and operated by the National Park
Service as the Edison National Historic Site.[69] The Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower and Museum is in the
town of Edison, New Jersey.[70] In Beaumont, Texas, there is an Edison Museum, though Edison never visited there.
The Port Huron Museum, in Port Huron, Michigan, restored the original depot that Thomas Edison worked out of as
a young newsbutcher. The depot has been named the Thomas Edison Depot Museum.[71] The town has many Edison
historical landmarks, including the graves of Edison's parents, and a monument along the St. Clair River. Edison's
influence can be seen throughout this city of 32,000. In Detroit, the Edison Memorial Fountain in Grand Circus Park
was created to honor his achievements. The limestone fountain was dedicated October 21, 1929, the fiftieth
anniversary of the creation of the lightbulb.[72] On the same night, The Edison Institute was dedicated in nearby
Dearborn.
In early 2010, Edison was proposed by the Ohio Historical Society as a finalist in a statewide vote for inclusion in
Statuary Hall at the United States Capitol.

12

Thomas Edison

Companies bearing Edison's name

Edison General Electric, merged with Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric
Commonwealth Edison, now part of Exelon
Consolidated Edison
Edison International

Southern California Edison

Edison Mission Energy
Edison Capital
Detroit Edison, a unit of DTE Energy
Edison Sault Electric Company, a unit of Wisconsin Energy Corporation
FirstEnergy
Metropolitan Edison
Ohio Edison
Toledo Edison
Edison S.p.A., a unit of Italenergia
Boston Edison, a unit of NSTAR, formerly known as the Edison Electric Illuminating Company
WEEI radio station in Boston, established by the Edison Electric Illuminating Company (hence the call letters)
Trade association the Edison Electric Institute, a lobbying and research group for investor-owned utilities in the
United States

Awards named in honor of Edison

The Edison Medal was created on February 11, 1904, by a group of Edison's friends and associates. Four years later
the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), later IEEE, entered into an agreement with the group to
present the medal as its highest award. The first medal was presented in 1909 to Elihu Thomson and, in a twist of
fate, was awarded to Nikola Tesla in 1917. It is the oldest award in the area of electrical and electronics engineering,
and is presented annually "for a career of meritorious achievement in electrical science, electrical engineering or the
electrical arts."
In the Netherlands, the major music awards are named the Edison Award after him.
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers concedes the Thomas A. Edison Patent Award to individual patents
since 2000.[73]

Honors and awards given to Edison

The President of the Third French Republic, Jules Grvy, on the recommendation of his Minister of Foreign Affairs
Jules Barthlemy-Saint-Hilaire and with the presentations of the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs Louis Cochery,
designated Edison with the distinction of an 'Officer of the Legion of Honour' (Lgion d'honneur) by decree on
November 10, 1881;[74]
In 1983, the United States Congress, pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 140 (Public Law 97198), designated
February 11, Edison's birthday, as National Inventor's Day.
In 1887, Edison won the Matteucci Medal. In 1890, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of
Sciences.
In 1889, Edison was awarded the John Scott Medal.
In 1899, Edison was awarded the Edward Longstreth Medal.
Edison was awarded Franklin Medal of The Franklin Institute in 1915 for discoveries contributing to the foundation
of industries and the well-being of the human race.

13

Thomas Edison
Edison was ranked thirty-fifth on Michael H. Hart's 1978 book The 100, a list of the most influential figures in
history. Life magazine (USA), in a special double issue in 1997, placed Edison first in the list of the "100 Most
Important People in the Last 1000 Years", noting that the light bulb he promoted "lit up the world". In the 2005
television series The Greatest American, he was voted by viewers as the fifteenth-greatest.
In 2008, Edison was inducted in the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

Other items named after Edison

The United States Navy named the USS Edison (DD-439), a Gleaves class destroyer, in his honor in 1940. The ship
was decommissioned a few months after the end of World War II. In 1962, the Navy commissioned USS Thomas A.
Edison (SSBN-610), a fleet ballistic missile nuclear-powered submarine. Decommissioned on December 1, 1983,
Thomas A. Edison was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on April 30, 1986. She went through the Navy's
Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Bremerton, Washington, beginning on October 1, 1996.
When she finished the program on December 1, 1997, she ceased to exist as a complete ship and was listed as
scrapped.

In popular culture
Thomas Edison has appeared in popular culture as a character in novels, films, comics and video games. His prolific
inventing helped make him an icon and he has made appearances in popular culture during his lifetime down to the
present day. His history with Nikola Tesla has also provided dramatic tension and is a theme returned to numerous
times.

References
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specifically in the designing of motors and generators, recounted yesterday some of..."
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Was Stricken on August 1. World-Wide Tribute Is Paid to Him as a Benefactor of Mankind". New York Times. October 18, 1931. "West
Orange, New Jersey, Sunday, October 18, 1931. Thomas Alva Edison died at 3:24 o'clock this morning at his home, Glenmont, in the
Llewellyn Park section of this city. The great inventor, the fruits of whose genius so magically transformed the everyday world, was 84 years
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[62] Benoit, Tod (2003). Where are they buried? How did they die?. Black Dog & Leventhal. p.560. ISBN978-1-57912-678-0.
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in the following interview for the first time speaks to the public on the vital subjects of the human soul and immortality. It will be bound to be
a most fascinating, an amazing statement, from one of the most notable and interesting men of the age... Nature is what we know. We do not
know the gods of religions. And nature is not kind, or merciful, or loving. If God made me the fabled God of the three qualities of which I
spoke: mercy, kindness, love He also made the fish I catch and eat. And where do His mercy, kindness, and love for that fish come in? No;
nature made us nature did it all not the gods of the religions."
[65] Cited in Innovate Like Edison: The Success System of America's Greatest Inventor (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=DtjWFiDKsJ0C& pg=PA37& dq="Still+ savages"+ edison& ei=KiHMSLJSiNzKBIiglYsJ&
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"On January 1, 1889, the world's first electrical execution law went into full effect. Westinghouse protested the decision and refused to sell
any AC generators directly to prison authorities. Thomas Edison and Harold Brown provided the AC generators needed for the first working
electric chairs. George Westinghouse funded the appeals for the first prisoners sentenced to death by electrocution, made on the grounds that
"electrocution was cruel and unusual punishment." Edison and Brown both testified for the state that execution was a quick and painless form
of death and the State of New York won the appeals."
[68] "Edison Community College (Ohio)" (http:/ / www. edison. cc. oh. us/ ). Edison.cc.oh.us. . Retrieved January 29, 2009.
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[70] menloparkmuseum.org/tower-restoration (http:/ / www. menloparkmuseum. org/ tower-restoration). Retrieved 28 September 2010.
[71] (http:/ / www. phmuseum. org/ EdisonDepot. html). Retrieved 28 September 2010.
[72] (http:/ / www. buildingsofdetroit. com/ places/ ef). Retrieved 28 September 2010.
[73] "Thomas A. Edison Patent Award" (http:/ / www. webcitation. org/ 5umTifXDW). American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Archived
from the original (http:/ / www. asme. org/ Governance/ Honors/ SocietyAwards/ Thomas_Edison_Patent_Award. cfm) on 2010-12-06. .
[74] NNDB online website (http:/ / www. nndb. com/ honors/ 139/ 000048992/ ). The same decree awarded German physicist Hermann von
Helmholtz with the designation of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor, as well as Alexander Graham Bell. The decree preamble cited "for
services provided to the Congress and to the International Electrical Exhibition"

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Thomas Edison

Bibliography
Albion, Michele Wehrwein. (2008). The Florida Life of Thomas Edison. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
ISBN978-0-8130-3259-7.
Adams, Glen J. (2004). The Search for Thomas Edison's Boyhood Home. ISBN978-1-4116-1361-4.
Angel, Ernst (1926). Edison. Sein Leben und Erfinden. Berlin: Ernst Angel Verlag.
Baldwin, Neil (2001). Edison: Inventing the Century. University of Chicago Press. ISBN978-0-226-03571-0.
Clark, Ronald William (1977). Edison: The man who made the future. London: Macdonald & Jane's: Macdonald
and Jane's. ISBN978-0-354-04093-8.
Conot, Robert (1979). A Streak of Luck. New York: Seaview Books. ISBN978-0-87223-521-2.
Davis, L. J. (1998). Fleet Fire: Thomas Edison and the Pioneers of the Electric Revolution. New York:
Doubleday. ISBN978-0-385-47927-1.
Essig, Mark (2004). Edison and the Electric Chair. Stroud: Sutton. ISBN978-0-7509-3680-4.
Essig, Mark (2003). Edison & the Electric Chair: A Story of Light and Death. New York: Walker & Company.
ISBN978-0-8027-1406-0.
Jonnes, Jill (2003). Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World. New
York: Random House. ISBN978-0-375-50739-7.
Josephson, Matthew (1959). Edison. McGraw Hill. ISBN978-0-07-033046-7.
Pretzer, William S. (ed). (1989). Working at Inventing: Thomas A. Edison and the Menlo Park Experience.
Dearborn, Michigan: Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village. ISBN978-0-933728-33-2.
Stross, Randall E. (2007). The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World.
Crown. ISBN1-400-04762-5.

External links
Locations

Menlo Park Museum and Edison Memorial Tower (http://www.menloparkmuseum.com/)

Thomas Edison National Historical Park (http://www.nps.gov/edis/index.htm) (National Park Service)
Edison exhibit and Menlo Park Laboratory at Henry Ford Museum (http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/edison/)
Edison Museum (http://www.edisonmuseum.org/)
Edison Depot Museum (http://www.phmuseum.org/depot/depot.htm)
Edison Birthplace Museum (http://www.tomedison.org/)
Thomas Edison House (http://www.edisonhouse.org/)

Information and media

Thomas Edison (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wdjr8) on In Our Time at the BBC. ( listen now
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00wdjr8/In_Our_Time_Thomas_Edison))
The Diary of Thomas Edison (http://ariwatch.com/VS/TheDiaryOfThomasEdison.htm)
Works by Thomas Edison (http://www.gutenberg.org/author/Thomas+A.+Edison) at Project Gutenberg
Edison's patent application for the light bulb (http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals_iv/
sections/thomas_edison_patent.html) at the National Archives.
Thomas Edison (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0249379/) at the Internet Movie Database
Jan. 4, 1903: Edison Fries an Elephant to Prove His Point (http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/
2008/01/dayintech_0104?) Wired Magazine article about Edison's "macabre form of a series of animal
electrocutions using AC."
The Invention Factory: Thomas Edison's Laboratories (http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/twhp/wwwlps/
lessons/25edison/25edison.htm)
Edison, His Life and Inventions by Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin' (http://www.gutenberg.
org/etext/820) at Project Gutenberg

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Thomas Edison

Rutgers: Edison Papers (http://edison.rutgers.edu/)

Edisonian Museum Antique Electrics (http://www.edisonian.com/)
" Edison's Miracle of Light (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/edison/)"
Edison Innovation Foundation (http://www.thomasedison.org) Non-profit foundation supporting the legacy
of Thomas Edison.
Thomas Alva Edison (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1630) at Find a Grave
The Illustrious Vagabonds (http://www.hfha.org/HenryFord.htm#Ford-Edison-Firestone-Burroughs)
"The World's Greatest Inventor", October 1931, Popular Mechanics (http://books.google.com/
books?id=vuQDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA614&dq=Popular+Mechanics+1931+curtiss&hl=en&
ei=sZj0TNiVFcPXngeTp8W2CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&
ved=0CDMQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Popular Mechanics 1931 curtiss&f=true) detailed, illustrated article

18

Article Sources and Contributors

Article Sources and Contributors

Thomas Edison Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=412925318 Contributors: (jarbarf), -asx-, -love-revenge-, 0, 0dd1, 10stone5, 12fred, 194.237.150.xxx, 1exec1, 3.14159265,
41523, 8th Ohio Volunteers, 9870, A Softer Answer, A. Balet, ABF, AFoxtrotn00ber123, AHMartin, AKMask, AMazing101, Aaron Schulz, AaronY, Abductive, Abu-Fool Danyal ibn Amir
al-Makhiri, Accurizer, Adam Bishop, Adam00f, Adipatus, Adraeus, Afaprof01, Ageekgal, Agentseven, Ageyban, Ahoerstemeier, Aitias, Ajh16, Akamad, AlainV, Alan Canon, Alan
Rockefeller, Alangstone, Ale jrb, AlexBartlett4, AlexPlank, AlexiusHoratius, Alexlalala, Alexwcovington, Alkivar, Allen234, Alohawolf, Altenmann, Alvainstantmessenger, Amalthea, Amerias,
AmericanColumbia, Americanstar77, Ancheta Wis, Andre Engels, Andrevan, Andrewpmk, Andrewrp, AndyZ, Angela, Ann Stouter, Anna512, AnnaFrance, AnnaKucsma, AnonEMouse,
AnonMoos, Anonymi, Anonymous anonymous, Anoopan, Antaeus Feldspar, Antandrus, Anthony, AntiuserX, Antonrojo, Apworldhistorybitches, Aquizard, Arakunem, Arch dude, Archivist,
Archtransit, Ardara, Argyll Lassie, Arjun01, Art LaPella, Asarelah, Astrochemist, At yarraa, Atlant, Attilios, AuburnPilot, Aude, Av99, Avb, Average Earthman, Avian, Avnjay, Az1568,
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Inkypaws, Interiot, Iridescent, Irishguy, IronDuke, IronMaidenRocks, Isis, Isoxyl, Itobo, Ixfd64, J JMesserly, J.delanoy, JFreeman, JHeinonen, JRHorse, JSweit8573, JT72, JaGa, Jaardon, Jacek
Kendysz, Jack Rance, Jackehammond, Jackofblades1ul, Jackol, Jacoplane, Jak123, James.kendall, James086, JamesAM, Jan eissfeldt, Janke, Jaraalbe, Jaranda, Jarash, Jaredfaulkner, Jarle
fagerheim, Jason Recliner, Esq., Jason Stormchild, Jatkins, Jaxl, JayHenry, Jayman007, Jclemens, Jdforrester, Jdreed, JeLuF, Jeepday, Jeff G., Jeffhoy, Jennavecia, JenniferMarkisoto, Jensgb,
JeremyA, Jerome Kohl, Jerzy, JesseHogan, Jesusfreak 1997, Jfknrh, Jhbayless, Jihg, Jillsherman, Jim.henderson, Jimjones5, Jinxed, Jmiz5, Jmlk17, Joao Xavier, JoeSmack, Joey1707, John, John
Quincy Adding Machine, John Vandenberg, John wesley, John254, JohnOwens, Johnh7, Jojit fb, Jon Cates, JonGwynne, JongGuk, Jooler, Jordanmueller, Jose77, Joseph Solis in Australia,
Joseph Spadaro, Josephtan456, Joshua Haberman, Jossi, Jowan2005, Joy, Joyous!, Jpd, Jpgordon, Jpx122x, Jrcla2, Jsc1973, Jsc83, JuJube, Jumbuck, Jusdafax, JustAGal, JustJoe, JustUser,
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Leolisa1997, Leon7, Leonard G., Leonard^Bloom, Lerdthenerd, Lewisskinner, Leyo, Lifebaka, Light jakd2, Lightdarkness, Lightmouse, Ligulem, Lildrummer 94, Lilgliddie77, Lincher,
Linuxerist, Little Mountain 5, Little retard, Lkapit, Logan, Lokaydokay, Lookingforgroup, Lordfuzzz, Louis leo, Lucian Sunday, Lucifersinsanity, Luk, Luke for presedent 2008, Lumines111,
Luna Santin, Lupin, Lykantrop, M.nelson, M00dimus, M1xmast3r, M2Ys4U, MCheezy89, MD87, MER-C, MK013, MZMcBride, Maarten1963, Mac Davis, MacGyverMagic, MackSalmon,
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Mkamensek, Mkehrt, Modernist, Mojotoad, MonElisa, Monedula, Monstrosity, Montayxx1, Monterey2000, Moonriddengirl, Moralis, Moriori, Motor.on, Mr Stephen, Mr. Lefty, MrDolomite,
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Guru, Nobody of Consequence, Nubtage, NuclearWarfare, Nuttycoconut, Nv8200p, Nycosmo, Nyenyec, Oatmeal batman, Oaxaca dan, Obarskyr, Oberiko, Obli, Ocanter, Octavian history, Oda
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Swerdnaneb, Swid, Swiftly, Switchercat, Symane, Synchronism, SyntaxError55, Syrthiss, THEN WHO WAS PHONE?, TJDay, Tachyon01, Tactik, Tailpig, Tangotango, Tannin, Tanthalas39,
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Thatsreallynifty, The Anome, The Baroness of Morden, The Disco King, The Filmaker, The Mystery Man, The Rambling Man, The Rogue Penguin, The Transhumanist, The day of, The stuart,
The wub, TheBigJagielka, TheKMan, TheNewPhobia, Theda, Thefadedlinex, Thefamousgeoff, Themepark, Theo06, Theoboyd, Theodolite, Theone00, Theresa knott, Therightone, Thesteeltoe,
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Article Sources and Contributors

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Violentbob, Vipersrock, Viriditas, VirtualDelight, Viscious81, Vishnava, Vithorejs, Viva la nation, Vojvodaen, VolatileChemical, Volume12, WATP, WAvegetarian, WJBscribe, Wackymacs,
WadeSimMiser, Waggers, WarthogDemon, Washburnmav, Waterguy, Wayfarers43, Wayward, Webmc, West Brom 4ever, Whatthree16, Whatusername101, Wijnand, Wiki alf, Wikiacc,
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Yamaguchi, Yamamoto Ichiro, Yanwen, Yelyos, Yes yes yes yes, Yidisheryid, Yintan, Yoshi 96, Yosri, Youlsss, YourXsoXsXe, Youssefa, Yyg, Zachman16, Zafiroblue05, Zebra425,
Zigzig20s, Zoicon5, Zone156, Zosodada, Zsinj, Zunderbaal, Zzyzx11, , 3606 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors

File:Thomas_Edison2.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Thomas_Edison2.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: user:mvuijlst
File:Thomas Alva Edison Signature.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Thomas_Alva_Edison_Signature.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: Thomas Alva
Edison
File:Milan Ohio Thomas Edison Birthplace.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Milan_Ohio_Thomas_Edison_Birthplace.jpg License: Creative Commons
Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Contributors: User:Chris Light
File:Edison 07-04-2008 02;41;46PM altered 2 PsCSJPEGo10.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Edison_07-04-2008_02;41;46PM_altered_2_PsCSJPEGo10.jpg
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Contributors: Original uploader was Preslethe at en.wikipedia
File:Young Thomas Edison.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Young_Thomas_Edison.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Infrogmation, Juliancolton, Maksim,
Makthorpe, Meno25, Trelio, Vonvon, 9 anonymous edits
File:Mina Edison 1906.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Mina_Edison_1906.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Pach Bros.
File:Edison and phonograph edit1.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Edison_and_phonograph_edit1.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Levin C. Handy (per
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cwpbh.04326)
File:Menlo Park Laboratory.JPG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Menlo_Park_Laboratory.JPG License: Attribution Contributors: User:A. Balet
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File:Thomas Edison, 1878.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Thomas_Edison,_1878.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: ChrisHAu, Cohesion, Scoutersig,
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File:Light bulb Edison 2.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Light_bulb_Edison_2.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Thomas Edison (reprinted by the Norris
Peters Co.)
File:PyramidParthenon.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:PyramidParthenon.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Hameryko, Infrogmation, Kaldari,
Xnatedawgx, 2 anonymous edits
File:Thomas Edison cabinet card by Victor Daireaux, c1880s.JPG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Thomas_Edison_cabinet_card_by_Victor_Daireaux,_c1880s.JPG
License: Public Domain Contributors: Victor Daireaux
File:Leonard Cushing Kinetograph 1894.ogv Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Leonard_Cushing_Kinetograph_1894.ogv License: Public Domain Contributors: Hoo
man, Mahanga, R. Engelhardt, Scewing, Shoulder-synth, WikipediaMaster, 2 anonymous edits
File:Edison battery exhibit, 1915.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Edison_battery_exhibit,_1915.jpg License: unknown Contributors: Michal Nebyla, Tillman, 1
anonymous edits
File:Ford Edison Firestone1.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Ford_Edison_Firestone1.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Images of American Political
History-A collection of over 500 public domain images of American Political History.

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