Perhaps the leading pioneer in new technology was Thomas
Alva Edison. Curious about the world from an early age, he learned a lot about
the mechanical working of objects. Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18,
1931) was an American inventor and businessman. And a lot of his inventions are
still well-know or using by people, including the phonograph, the motion picture
camera, the light bulb, battery and the Dictaphone.
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. and Nancy Matthews Elliott.
His father had to escape from Canada because he took part in the unsuccessful
Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837. Edison reported being of Dutch ancestry. 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 taught him at home.
Much of his education came from reading R.G. Parker's School of Natural
Philosophy.
Nothing could stop Edison’s
inventing. In his early age, one time, his mother got appendicitis. Because of
no light bulb at that time, doctors could only do the operation with just kerosene.
Obviously, that would affect the operation, especially in dark places; so
little Edison decided to invent light bulbs to solve this problem.
On the business part, an Edison
company began to transform American society in 1882 when it started supplying
electric power to New York City. In 1889 several Edison companies merged to
form the Edison General Electric Company (today known as GE).
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