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Thomas Edison
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Thomas Alva Edison

"Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration."
– Thomas Alva Edison,Harper's Monthly (September 1932)
Born February 11, 1847(1847-02-11)
Milan, Ohio
Died October 18, 1931 (aged 84)
West Orange, New Jersey
Occupationinventor,scientist,businessman
Religious beliefsDeist
Spouse(s) Mary Stilwell (m. 1871–1884) «start: (1871)–end+1: (1885)»"Marriage: Mary Stilwell to Thomas Edison" Location: (linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison)
Mina Edison (m. 1886–1931) «start: (1886)–end+1: (1932)»"Marriage: Mina Edison to Thomas Edison" Location: (linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison)
Children Marion Estelle Edison (1873–1965)
Thomas Alva Edison Jr. (1876–1935)
William Leslie Edison (1878–1937)
Madeleine Edison (1888–1979)
Charles Edison (1890–1969)
Theodore Miller Edison (1898–1992)
Parents Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. (1804–1896)
Nancy Matthews Elliott (1810–1871)
RelativesLewis Miller (father-in-law)

Birthplace of Thomas Edison

Historical marker of Edison's birthplace inMilan, Ohio
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an Americaninventor,scientist andbusinessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including thephonograph, themotion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electriclight bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park" (nowEdison, New Jersey) by a newspaper reporter, he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles ofmass production and large teamwork to the process ofinvention, and therefore is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory.
Edison is considered one of the mostprolific inventors in history, holding 1,093U.S. patents in his name,as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Heis credited with numerous inventions that contributed tomass communicationand, in particular, telecommunications. His advanced work in thesefields was an outgrowth of his early career as a telegraph operator.Edison originated the concept and implementation of electric-powergeneration and distribution to homes, businesses, and factories – acrucial development in the modernindustrialized world. His firstpower station was onManhattan Island, New York.
Contents
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1 Early life
2 Telegrapher
3 Marriages and children
4 Beginning his career
5 Menlo Park (1876–1881)5.1 Carbon telephone transmitter
5.2 Electric light
5.3 Electric power distribution
5.4 War of currents
5.5 Fluoroscopy
5.6 Work relations
5.7 Media inventions
6 West Orange and Fort Myers (1886–1931)
7 The final years
8 Views on politics, religion and metaphysics
9 Tributes9.1 Places named for Edison
9.2 Museums and memorials
9.3 Companies bearing Edison's name
9.4 Awards named in honor of Edison
9.5 Honors and awards given to Edison
9.6 Other items named after Edison
9.7 In popular culture
10 See also
11 References
12 Bibliography
13 External links
Early life

Thomas Edison as a boy
Thomas Edison was born inMilan, Ohio, and grew up inPort Huron, Michigan. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel "The Iron Shovel" Edison, Jr. (1804–1896) (born inMarshalltown, Nova Scotia, Canada) and Nancy Matthews Elliott (1810–1871). He considered himself to be of Dutch ancestry.[1] 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 recalledlater, "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 motherhomeschooled him.[2] Much of his education came from reading R.G. Parker'sSchool of Natural Philosophy andThe Cooper Union. Edison developed hearing problems at an early age. The cause of his deafness has been attributed to a bout ofscarlet fever during childhood and recurring untreated middleear infections. Around the middle of his career Edison attributed thehearing impairmentto being struck on the ears by a train conductor when his chemicallaboratory in a boxcar caught fire and he was thrown off the train inSmiths Creek, Michigan,along with his apparatus and chemicals. In his later years he modifiedthe story to say the injury occurred when the conductor, in helping himonto a moving train, lifted him by the ears.[3][4] Edison's family was forced to move toPort Huron, Michigan, when the railroad bypassed Milan in 1854,[5] but his life there was bittersweet. He sold candy and newspapers on trains running from Port Huron toDetroit,and he sold vegetables to supplement his income. This began Edison'slong streak of entrepreneurial ventures as he discovered his talents asa businessman. These talents eventually led him to found 14 companies,includingGeneral Electric, which is still in existence and is one of the largestpublicly traded companies in the world.[6]
Telegrapher
Edison became atelegraph operator after he saved three-year-old Jimmie MacKenzie from being struck by arunaway train. Jimmie's father,station agent J.U. MacKenzie ofMount Clemens, Michigan,was so grateful that he trained Edison as a telegraph operator.Edison's first telegraphy job away from Port Huron was at StratfordJunction,Ontario, on theGrand Trunk Railway.[7] In 1866, at the age of 19, Thomas Edison moved toLouisville, Kentucky, where, as an employee ofWestern Union, he worked theAssociated Press bureaunews wire.Edison requested the night shift, which allowed him plenty of time tospend at his two favorite pastimes—reading and experimenting.Eventually, the latter pre-occupation cost him his job. One night in1867, he was working with alead-acid battery when he spilledsulfuric acid onto the floor. It ran between the floorboards and onto his boss's desk below. The next morning Edison was fired.[8]
One of his mentors during those early years was a fellow telegrapher and inventor namedFranklin Leonard Pope, who allowed the impoverished youth to live and work in the basement of hisElizabeth, New Jerseyhome. Some of Edison's earliest inventions were related to telegraphy,including a stock ticker. His first patent was for the electric voterecorder, (U. S. Patent 90,646),[9] which was granted on June 1, 1869.[10]
Marriages and children

Mina Edison in 1906
On December 25, 1871, Edison married 16-year-old Mary Stilwell, whomhe had met two months earlier as she was an employee at one of hisshops. They had three children:
Marion Estelle Edison (1873–1965), nicknamed "Dot"[11]
Thomas Alva Edison, Jr. (1876–1935), nicknamed "Dash"[12]
William Leslie Edison (1878–1937) Inventor, graduate of the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale, 1900.[13]
Mary Edison died on August 9, 1884, possibly from abrain tumor.[14]
On February 24, 1886, at the age of thirty nine, Edison married 20-year-old Mina Miller inAkron, Ohio.[15] She was the daughter of inventorLewis Miller, co-founder of theChautauqua Institution and a benefactor ofMethodist charities. They also had three children:
Madeleine Edison (1888–1979), who married John Eyre Sloane.[16][17]
Charles Edison (1890–1969), who took over the company upon his father's death and who later was electedGovernor of New Jersey.[18] He also took charge of his father's experimental laboratories inWest Orange.
Theodore Edison (1898–1992), (MIT Physics 1923), had over 80 patents to his credit.
Mina outlived Thomas Edison, dying on August 24, 1947.[19][20]
Beginning his career

Photograph of Edison with his phonograph, taken byMathew Brady in 1877

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Thomas Edison reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb"
Problems listening to this file? Seemedia help.
Thomas Edison began his career as an inventor inNewark, New Jersey, with the automatic repeater and his other improved telegraphic devices, but the invention which first gained him fame was thephonographin 1877. This accomplishment was so unexpected by the public at largeas to appear almost magical. Edison became known as "The Wizard ofMenlo Park," New Jersey, where he lived. His first phonograph recordedontinfoil around a grooved cylinder and had poorsound quality.The tinfoil recordings could be replayed only a few times. In the1880s, a redesigned model using wax-coated cardboard cylinders wasproduced byAlexander Graham Bell,Chichester Bell, andCharles Tainter. This was one reason that Thomas Edison continued work on his own "Perfected Phonograph."
Menlo Park (1876–1881)
Edison's major innovation was the first industrial research lab, which was built inMenlo Park, New Jersey. It was built with the funds from the sale of Edison'squadruplex telegraph.After his demonstration of the telegraph, Edison was not sure that hisoriginal plan to sell it for $4,000 to $5,000 was right, so he askedWestern Union to make a bid. He was surprised to hear them offer$10,000,[citation needed]which he gratefully accepted. The quadruplex telegraph was Edison'sfirst big financial success, and Menlo Park became the firstinstitution set up with the specific purpose of producing constanttechnological innovation and improvement. Edison was legally attributedwith most of the inventions produced there, though many employeescarried outresearch and developmentwork under his direction. His staff was generally told to carry out hisdirections in conducting research, and he drove them hard to produceresults. The large research group included engineers and other workers.

Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory, removed toGreenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. (Note the organ against the back wall)
William J. Hammer, a consultingelectrical engineer, began his duties as a laboratory assistant to Edison in December 1879. He assisted in experiments on thetelephone,phonograph, electric railway,iron ore separator,electric lighting,and other developing inventions. However, Hammer worked primarily onthe incandescent electric lamp and was put in charge of tests andrecords on that device. In 1880, he was appointed chief engineer of theEdison Lamp Works. In his first year, the plant under General ManagerFrancis Robbins Upton turned out 50,000 lamps. According to Edison, Hammer was "a pioneer of incandescent electric lighting".

Thomas Edison's first successful light bulb model, used in public demonstration at Menlo Park, December 1879
Nearly all of Edison's patents were utility patents, which wereprotected for a 17-year period and included inventions or processesthat are electrical, mechanical, or chemical in nature. About a dozenweredesign patents,which protect an ornamental design for up to a 14-year period. As inmost patents, the inventions he described were improvements overprior art. The phonograph patent, in contrast, was unprecedented as describing the first device to record and reproduce sounds.[21] Edison did not invent the first electric light bulb, but instead invented the first commercially practical incandescent light. Several designs had already been developed by earlier inventors including the patent he allegedly purchased fromHenry Woodward andMathew Evans. Others who developed early and not commercially practical incandescent electric lamps includedHumphry Davy,James Bowman Lindsay,Moses G. Farmer,[22]William E. Sawyer,Joseph Swan andHeinrich Göbel. Some of these early bulbs had such flaws as an extremely short life, high expense to produce, and highelectric current drawn, making them difficult to apply on a large scale commercially. In 1878, Edison applied the termfilament to theelement of glowing wire carrying the current, although the English inventorJoseph Swanhad used the term prior to this. Swan developed an incandescent lightwith a long lasting filament at about the same time as Edison, but itlacked the high resistance needed for central station DC service.Edison took the features of these earlier designs and set his workersto the task of creating longer-lasting bulbs. By 1879, he had produceda new concept: a high resistance lamp in a very high vacuum, whichwould burn for hundreds of hours. While the earlier inventors hadproduced electric lighting in laboratory conditions, dating back to ademonstration of a glowing wire byAlessandro Voltain 1800, Edison concentrated on commercial application, and was able tosell the concept to homes and businesses by mass-producing relativelylong-lasting light bulbs and creating a complete system for thegeneration and distribution ofelectricity.
In just over a decade Edison's Menlo Park laboratory had expanded tooccupy two city blocks. Edison said he wanted the lab to have "a stockof almost every conceivable material". A newspaper article printed in1887 reveals the seriousness of his claim, stating the lab contained"eight thousand kinds of chemicals, every kind of screw made, everysize 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, tortoiseshell ...cork, resin, varnish and oil, ostrich feathers, a peacock'stail, jet, amber, rubber, all ores ..." and the list goes on.[23]
Over his desk, Edison displayed a placard with Sir Joshua Reynolds'famous quote: "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort toavoid the real labor of thinking."[24] This slogan was reputedly posted at several other locations throughout the facility.
With Menlo Park, Edison had created the first industrial laboratoryconcerned with creating knowledge and then controlling its application.
Carbon telephone transmitter
In 1877–1878, Edison invented and developed thecarbon microphoneused in all telephones along with the Bell receiver until the 1980s.After protracted patent litigation, in 1892 a federal court ruled thatEdison—and notEmile Berliner—wasthe inventor of the carbon microphone. The carbon microphone was alsoused in radio broadcasting and public address work through the 1920s.
Electric light

Edison in 1878



Video clip of Thomas Edison talking about the invention of the light bulb, late 1920s
Main article:History of the light bulb
After many experiments withplatinum and other metal filaments, Edison returned to acarbon filament. The first successful test was on October 22, 1879;[25]it lasted 40 hours. Edison continued to improve this design and byNovember 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 andconnected to platina contact wires".[26]Although the patent described several ways of creating the carbonfilament including "cotton and linen thread, wood splints, paperscoiled in various ways",[26] it was not until several months after the patent was granted that Edison and his team discovered acarbonizedbamboo filament that could last over 1,200 hours. The idea of using this particularraw materialoriginated from Edison’s recalling his examination of a few threadsfrom a bamboo fishing pole while relaxing on the shore of Battle Lakein the present-day state ofWyoming, where he and other members of a scientific team had traveled so that they could clearly observe a totaleclipse of the sun on July 29, 1878 from theContinental Divide.[27]

U.S. Patent#223898: Electric-Lamp. Issued January 27, 1880.
Edison allegedly bought light bulb U.S. patent 181,613 ofHenry Woodwardthat was issued August 29, 1876 and obtained an exclusive license toWoodward's Canadian patent. These patents covered a carbon rod in anitrogen filled glass cylinder, and differed substantially from thefirst commercially practical bulb invented by Edison.[citation needed]
In 1878, Edison formed theEdison Electric Light Company in New York City with several financiers, includingJ. P. Morgan and the members of theVanderbilt family. Edison made the first public demonstration of hisincandescent light bulbon December 31, 1879, in Menlo Park. It was during this time that hesaid: "We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burncandles."[28]
George Westinghouse's company boughtPhilip Diehl's competinginduction lamppatent rights (1882) for $25,000, forcing the holders of the Edisonpatent to charge a more reasonable rate for the use of the Edisonpatent rights and lowering the price of the electric lamp.[29]
On October 8, 1883, theU.S. patent officeruled that Edison's patent was based on the work of William Sawyer andwas therefore invalid. Litigation continued for nearly six years, untilOctober 6, 1889, when a judge ruled that Edison's electric lightimprovement claim for "a filament of carbon of high resistance" wasvalid. To avoid a possible court battle withJoseph Swan, whose British patent had been awarded a year before Edison's, he and Swan formed a joint company calledEdiswan to manufacture and market the invention in Britain.
Mahen Theatre inBrnoin what is now the Czech Republic, was the first public building in theworld to use Edison's electric lamps, with the installation supervisedby Edison's assistant in the invention of the lamp,Francis Jehl.[30]
Electric power distribution
Edison patented a system forelectricity distribution in 1880, which was essential to capitalize on the invention of the electric lamp. On December 17, 1880, Edison founded theEdison Illuminating Company. The company established the first investor-owned electric utility in 1882 onPearl Street Station, New York City. It was on September 4, 1882, that Edison switched on hisPearl Street generating station's electrical power distribution system, which provided 110voltsdirect current (DC) to 59 customers in lowerManhattan.
Earlier in the year, in January 1882 he had switched on the first steam generating power station atHolborn Viaductin London. The DC supply system provided electricity supplies to streetlamps and several private dwellings within a short distance of thestation. On January 19, 1883, the first standardized incandescentelectric lighting system employingoverhead wires began service inRoselle, New Jersey.
War of currents
Main article:War of Currents

Extravagant displays of electric lights quickly became a feature ofpublic events, as this picture from the 1897 Tennessee CentennialExposition shows.
Edison's true success, like that of his friendHenry Ford, was in his ability to maximize profits through establishment of mass-production systems andintellectual propertyrights. This dampened the success of less profitable work by others whowere focused on inventing longer-lasting high-efficiency technology.[31][32]George Westinghouseand Edison became adversaries because of Edison's promotion of directcurrent for electric power distribution instead of the more easilytransmittedalternating current (AC) system invented byNikola Tesla and promoted by Westinghouse. Unlike DC, AC could be stepped up to very high voltages withtransformers, sent over thinner and cheaper wires, and stepped down again at the destination for distribution to users.
In 1887 there were 121 Edison power stations in the United Statesdelivering DC electricity to customers. When the limitations ofDirect Current (DC) were discussed by the public, Edison launched a propaganda campaign to convince people thatalternating current(AC) was far too dangerous to use. The problem with DC was that thepower plants could economically deliver DC electricity only tocustomers within about one and a half miles (about 2.4 km.) from thegenerating station, so that it was suitable only for central businessdistricts. When George Westinghouse suggested usinghigh-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 forcapital punishment, the war against AC led him to become involved in the development and promotion of theelectric chair(using AC current) as an attempt to portray AC to have greater lethalpotential than DC. Edison went on to carry out a brief but intensecampaign to ban the use of AC or to limit the allowable voltage forsafety purposes. As part of this campaign, Edison's employees publiclyelectrocuted animals to demonstrate the dangers of AC;[33][34]AC electric currents are slightly more dangerous in that frequenciesnear 60 Hz have a markedly greater potential for inducing fatal“Cardiac Fibrillation” than do DC currents.[35] On one of the more notable occasions, in 1903, Edison's workers electrocutedTopsy the elephant at Luna Park, nearConey Island, after she had killed several men and her owners wanted her put to death.[36] His company filmed the electrocution.
AC replaced DC in most instances of generation and powerdistribution, enormously extending the range and improving theefficiency of power distribution. Though widespread use of DCultimately lost favor for distribution, it exists today primarily inlong-distancehigh-voltage direct current(HVDC) transmission systems. Low voltage DC distribution continued tobe used in high density downtown areas for many years but waseventually replaced by AC low-voltage network distribution in many ofthem. DC had the advantage that largebattery banks could maintain continuous power through brief interruptions of the electric supply from generators and thetransmission system. Utilities such asCommonwealth Edison in Chicago had rotary converters, also known asmotor-generatorsets, which could change DC to AC and AC to various frequencies in theearly to mid-20th century. Utilities supplied rectifiers to convert thelow voltage AC to DC for such DC loads as elevators, fans and pumps.There were still 1,600 DC customers in downtown New York City as of2005, and service was finally discontinued only on November 14, 2007.[37] Mostsubway systems still are powered by direct current.
Fluoroscopy
Edison is credited with designing and producing the first commercially availablefluoroscope, a machine that usesX-rays to takeradiographs. Until Edison discovered thatcalcium tungstate fluoroscopy screens produced brighter images than the bariumplatinocyanide screens originally used byWilhelm Röntgen,the technology was capable of producing only very faint images. Thefundamental design of Edison's fluoroscope is still in use today,despite the fact that Edison himself abandoned the project after nearlylosing his own eyesight and seriously injuring his assistant,Clarence Dally.Dally had made himself an enthusiastic human guinea pig for thefluoroscopy project and in the process been exposed to a poisonous doseof radiation. He later died of injuries related to the exposure. In1903, a shaken Edison said "Don't talk to me about X-rays, I am afraidof them."[38]
Work relations
Frank J. Sprague, a competent mathematician and formernaval officer, was recruited byEdward H. Johnsonand joined the Edison organization in 1883. One of Sprague'ssignificant contributions to the Edison Laboratory at Menlo Park was toexpand Edison's mathematical methods. Despite the common belief thatEdison did not use mathematics, analysis of his notebooks reveal thathe was an astute user of mathematical analysis conducted by hisassistants such as Francis Upton, for example, determining the criticalparameters of his electric lighting system including lamp resistance bya sophisticated analysis ofOhm's Law,Joule's Law andeconomics.[39]
Another of Edison's assistants wasNikola Tesla,to whom Edison promised $50,000 if he succeeded in making improvementsto his DC generation plants. Several months later, when Tesla hadfinished the work and asked to be paid, Edison said, "When you become afull-fledged American you will appreciate an American joke."[40]Tesla immediately resigned. With Tesla's salary of $18 per week, thepayment would have amounted to over 53 years' pay and the amount wasequal to the initial capital of the company. Tesla resigned when he wasrefused a raise to $25 per week.[41] Although Tesla accepted anEdison Medal later in life, this and other negative series of events concerning Edison remained with Tesla. The day after Edison died, theNew 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" and that, "Hismethod was inefficient in the extreme, for an immense ground had to becovered to get anything at all unless blind chance intervened and, atfirst, I was almost a sorry witness of his doings, knowing that just alittle theory and calculation would have saved him 90% of the labour.But he had a veritable contempt for book learning and mathematicalknowledge, trusting himself entirely to his inventor's instinct andpractical American sense." It seems very likely that Tesla'sdescription was accurate, considering one of Edison's famous quotesregarding his attempts to make the light globe: "If I find 10,000ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged,because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward"[42].When Edison was a very old man and close to death, he said, in lookingback, that the biggest mistake he had made was that he never respectedTesla or his work.[43]
There were 28 men recognized asEdison Pioneers.
Media inventions
The key to Edison's fortunes was telegraphy. With knowledge gainedfrom years of working as a telegraph operator, he learned the basics ofelectricity. This allowed him to make his early fortune with thestock ticker,the first electricity-based broadcast system. Edison patented the soundrecording and reproducing phonograph in 1878. Edison was also granted apatent for themotion picture camera or "Kinetograph". He did the electromechanical design, while his employeeW.K.L. Dickson, a photographer, worked on the photographic and optical development. Much of the credit for the invention belongs to Dickson.[25] In 1891, Thomas Edison built aKinetoscope,or peep-hole viewer. This device was installed in penny arcades, wherepeople could watch short, simple films. The kinetograph and kinetoscopewere both first publicly exhibited May 20, 1891.[44]
On August 9, 1892, Edison received a patent for a two-way telegraph. In April 1896,Thomas Armat'sVitascope,manufactured by the Edison factory and marketed in Edison's name, wasused to project motion pictures in public screenings in New York City.Later he exhibited motion pictures with voice soundtrack on cylinderrecordings, mechanically synchronized with the film.
Officially the kinetoscope entered Europe when the rich American BusinessmanIrving T. Bush(1869–1948) bought from the Continental Commerce Company of Franck Z.Maguire and Joseph D. Bachus a dozen machines. Bush placed from October17, 1894 the first kinetoscopes in London. At the same time the Frenchcompany Kinétoscope Edison Michel et Alexis Werner bought thesemachines for the market in France. In the last three months of 1894 TheContinental Commerce Company sold hundreds of kinetoscopes in Europe(i.e. the Netherlands and Italy). In Germany and inAustria-Hungary the kinetoscope was introduced by the Deutsche-österreichische-Edison-Kinetoscop Gesellschaft, founded by the Ludwig Stollwerck[45] of the Schokoladen-Süsswarenfabrik Stollwerck & Co of Cologne. The first kinetoscopes arrived in Belgium at theFairsin early 1895. The Edison's Kinétoscope Français, a Belgian company,was founded in Brussels on January 15, 1895 with the rights to sell thekinetoscopes in Monaco, France and the French colonies. The maininvestors in this company were Belgian industrialists. On May 14, 1895the Edison's Kinétoscope Belge was founded in Brussels. The businessmanLadislas-Victor Lewitzki, living in London but active in Belgium andFrance, took the initiative in starting this business. He had contactswithLeon Gaumont and theAmerican Mutoscope and Biograph Co. In 1898 he also became a shareholder of the Biograph and Mutoscope Company for France.[46]
In 1901, he visited theSudbury area in Ontario, Canada, as amining prospector, and is credited with the original discovery of theFalconbridge ore body. His attempts to actually mine the ore body were not successful, however, and he abandoned his mining claim in 1903.[47] A street in Falconbridge, as well as theEdison Building, which served as the head office ofFalconbridge Mines, are named for him.
In 1902, agents of Thomas Edison bribed a theater owner in London for a copy ofA Trip to the Moon byGeorges Méliès.Edison then made hundreds of copies and showed them in New York City.Méliès received no compensation. He was counting on taking the film tothe US and recapture its huge cost by showing it throughout the countrywhen he realized it had already been shown there by Edison. Thiseffectively bankrupted Méliès.[48] Other exhibitors similarly routinely copied and exhibited each others films.[49] To better protect the copyrights on his films, Edison deposited prints of them on long strips ofphotographic paper with theU.S. copyright office. Many of these paper prints survived longer and in better condition than the actual films of that era.[50]
Edison's favourite movie wasThe Birth of a Nation.He thought that talkies had "spoiled everything" for him. "There isn'tany good acting on the screen. They concentrate on the voice now andhave forgotten how to act. I can sense it more than you because I amdeaf."[51]
In 1908, Edison started theMotion Picture Patents Company,which was a conglomerate of nine major film studios (commonly known asthe Edison Trust). Thomas Edison was the first honorary fellow of theAcoustical Society of America, which was founded in 1929.
West Orange and Fort Myers (1886–1931)

Thomas A. Edison Industries Exhibit, Primary Battery section, 1915

Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone—the fathers of modernity.Ft. Myers,Florida, February 11, 1929.
Edison moved from Menlo Park after the death of Mary Stilwell andpurchased a home known as "Glenmont" in 1886 as a wedding gift for MinainLlewellyn Park inWest Orange, New Jersey. In 1885, Thomas Edison bought property inFort Myers,Florida, and built what was later calledSeminole Lodgeas a winter retreat. Edison and his wife Mina spent many winters inFort Myers where they recreated and Edison tried to find a domesticsource ofnatural rubber.
Henry Ford,the automobile magnate, later lived a few hundred feet away from Edisonat his winter retreat in Fort Myers, Florida. Edison even contributedtechnology to the automobile. They were friends until Edison's death.
In 1928, Edison joined the Fort MyersCivitan Club.He believed strongly in the organization, writing that "The CivitanClub is doing things —big things— for the community, state, and nation,and I certainly consider it an honor to be numbered in its ranks."[52] 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, theLackawanna Railroad implemented electric trains in suburban service fromHoboken toGladstone,Montclair andDoverin New Jersey. Transmission was by means of an overhead catenarysystem, with the entire project under Edison's guidance. To thesurprise of many, he was at the throttle of the very first MU(Multiple-Unit) train to depart Lackawanna Terminal in Hoboken, drivingthe train all the way to Dover. As another tribute to his lastinglegacy, the same fleet of cars Edison deployed on the Lackawanna in1931 served commuters until their retirement in 1984, when some of themwere purchased by the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum in Lenox, MA. Aspecial plaque commemorating the joint achievement of both the railwayand Edison, can be seen today in the waiting room of LackawannaTerminal in Hoboken, presently operated byNew Jersey Transit.[53]
Edison was said to have been influenced by a popularfad diet in his last few years; "the only liquid he consumed was a pint of milk every three hours".[25]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 hisgreatest hobbies." She also said that during one of his periodic "greatscientific adventures", Edison would be up at 7:00, have breakfast at8:00, and be rarely home for lunch or dinner, implying that hecontinued to have all three.[51]
Edison became the owner of hisMilan, 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" inLlewellyn Park inWest Orange, New Jersey, which he had purchased in 1886 as a wedding gift for Mina. He is buried behind the home.[54][55]

Seminole Lodge,Edison's winter home inFort Myers, Florida
Mina died in 1947. Edison's last breath is reportedly contained in a test tube at theHenry FordMuseum. Ford reportedly convinced Charles Edison to seal a test tube ofair in the inventor's room shortly after his death, as a memento. Aplasterdeath mask was also made.[56]
Views on politics, religion and metaphysics
Historian Paul Israel has characterized Edison as a "freethinker".[25] Edison was heavily influenced byThomas Paine'sThe Age of Reason.[25] Edison defended Paine's "scientificdeism", saying, "He has been called anatheist,but atheist he was not. Paine believed in a supreme intelligence, asrepresenting the idea which other men often express by the name ofdeity."[25] In an October 2, 1910 interview in theNew York Times Magazine, Edison stated:
Nature is what we know. We do not know the gods of religions. Andnature is not kind, or merciful, or loving. If God made me – the fabledGod of the three qualities of which I spoke: mercy, kindness, love – Healso 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 itall – not the gods of the religions.[57]
Edison was called an atheist for those remarks, and although he didnot allow himself to be drawn into the controversy publicly, heclarified himself in a private letter: "You have misunderstood thewhole article, because you jumped to the conclusion that it denies theexistence of God. There is no such denial, what you call God I callNature, the Supreme intelligence that rules matter. All the articlestates is that it is doubtful in my opinion if our intelligence or soulor whatever one may call it lives hereafter as an entity or dispersesback again from whence it came, scattered amongst the cells of which weare made."[25]
Nonviolence was key to Edison's moral views, and when asked to serve as a naval consultant forWorld 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, aboutwhich he stated: "Nonviolence leads to the highest ethics, which is thegoal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings,we are still savages."[58]
Tributes
Places named for Edison
Several places have been named after Edison, most notably the town ofEdison, New Jersey.Thomas Edison State College, a nationally-known college for adult learners, is inTrenton, New Jersey. Two community colleges are named for him:Edison State College in Fort Myers, Florida, and Edison Community College inPiqua, Ohio.[59] There are numerous high schools named after Edison; seeEdison High School.
The City Hotel, inSunbury, Pennsylvania,was the first building to be lit with Edison's three-wire system. Thehotel was re-named The Hotel Edison, and retains that name today.
Three bridges around the United States have been named in his honor (seeEdison Bridge).
Museums and memorials
In West Orange, New Jersey, the 13.5 acre (5.5 ha) Glenmont estate is maintained and operated by theNational Park Service as theEdison National Historic Site.[citation needed] TheThomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower and Museum is in the town of Edison, New Jersey.[citation needed] InBeaumont, Texas, there is an Edison Museum, though Edison never visited there.[citation needed] ThePort Huron Museum, inPort Huron, Michigan, restored the original depot that Thomas Edison worked out of as a youngnewsbutcher. The depot has been named theThomas Edison Depot Museum.[citation needed] The town has many Edison historical landmarks, including the graves of Edison's parents, and a monument along theSt. Clair River. Edison's influence can be seen throughout this city of 32,000. InDetroit,the Edison Memorial Fountain in Grand Circus Park was created to honorhis achievements. The limestone fountain was dedicated October 21, 1929.[citation needed]
Companies bearing Edison's name
Edison General Electric, merged withThomson-Houston Electric Company to formGeneral Electric
Commonwealth Edison, now part ofExelon
Consolidated Edison
Edison InternationalSouthern California Edison
Edison Mission Energy
Edison Capital
Detroit Edison, a unit ofDTE Energy
Edison Sault Electric Company, a unit ofWisconsin Energy Corporation
FirstEnergy Metropolitan Edison
Ohio Edison
Toledo Edison
Edison S.p.A., a unit ofItalenergia
Boston Edison, a unit ofNSTAR, formerly known as the Edison Electric Illuminating Company
WEEI radio station in Boston, established by the Edison Electric Illuminating Company (hence the call letters)
Awards named in honor of Edison
TheEdison Medal was created on February 11, 1904, by a group of Edison's friends and associates. Four years later theAmerican Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), laterIEEE, entered into an agreement with the group to present the medal as its highest award. The first medal was presented in 1909 toElihu Thomson and, in a twist of fate, was awarded toNikola Tesla in 1917. It is the oldest award in the area ofelectrical and electronics engineering,and is presented annually "for a career of meritorious achievement inelectrical science, electrical engineering or the electrical arts."
In the Netherlands, the major music awards are named theEdison Award after him.
TheAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers concedes theThomas A. Edison Patent Award to individual patents since 2000.[60]
Honors and awards given to Edison
ThePresident of theThird French Republic,Jules Grévy, on the recommendation of hisMinister of Foreign AffairsJules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire and with the presentations of theMinister of Posts and TelegraphsLouis Cochery, designated Edison with thedistinction of an 'Officeer of the Legion of Honour' (Légion d'honneur) by decree on November 10, 1881[61];
 
Decree awarding Helmholtz, Bell, and Edison, the Legion of Honour



In 1983, theUnited States Congress, pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 140 (Public Law 97—198), designated February 11, Edison's birthday, as NationalInventor's Day.
In 1887, Edison won theMatteucci Medal. In 1890, he was elected a member of theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Edison was ranked thirty-fifth onMichael H. Hart's 1978 bookThe 100, a list of the most influential figures in history.Lifemagazine (USA), in a special double issue in 1997, placed Edison firstin the list of the "100 Most Important People in the Last 1000 Years",noting that thelight bulb he promoted "lit up the world". In the 2005 television seriesThe Greatest American, he was voted by viewers as the fifteenth-greatest.
In 2008, Edison was inducted in theNew Jersey Hall of Fame.
Other items named after Edison
TheUnited States Navy named theUSS Edison (DD-439), aGleaves class destroyer, in his honor in 1940. The ship was decommissioned a few months after the end ofWorld War II. In 1962, the Navy commissionedUSS Thomas A. Edison (SSBN-610),a fleet ballistic missile nuclear-powered submarine. Decommissioned onDecember 1, 1983, Thomas A. Edison was stricken from theNaval Vessel Register on April 30, 1986. She went through the Navy’sNuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program atBremerton,Washington,beginning on October 1, 1996. When she finished the program on December1, 1997, she ceased to exist as a complete ship and was listed asscrapped.
In popular culture
Main article:Thomas Edison in popular culture
Thomas Edison has appeared inpopular culture as a character innovels,films,comics andvideo games.His prolific inventing helped make him an icon and he has madeappearances in popular culture during his lifetime down to the presentday. His history withNikola Tesla has also provided dramatic tension and is a theme returned to numerous times.
See also
Thomas Alva Edison Birthplace
List of Edison patents
History of the light bulb
List of people on stamps of Ireland
USS Edison (DD-439)
John I. Beggs
Animated Hero Classics – Animated DVD biography series of historical figures, including Thomas Edison
References
^ Baldwin, Neal (1995). Edison: Inventing the Century.Hyperion. pp. 3–5.ISBN0-7868-6041-3.
^ "Edison Family Album". US National Park Service.http://www.nps.gov/edis/home_family/fam_album.htm. Retrieved March 11, 2006.
^ "Edison" byMatthew Josephson. McGraw Hill, New York, 1959,ISBN 0-07-033046-8
^ "Edison: Inventing the Century" by Neil Baldwin, University of Chicago Press, 2001,ISBN 0-226-03571-9
^ Josephson, p 18
^ "Global 500 2008: Annual ranking of the world's largest companies from Fortune Magazine". Money.cnn.com.http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/. Retrieved January 29, 2009.
^ Baldwin, page 37
^ Baldwin, pages 40–41
^U. S. Patent 90,646
^The Edison Papers, Rutgers University. Retrieved March 20, 2007
^ Baldwin, Neal (1995). Edison: Inventing the Century.Hyperion. pp. 60.ISBN0-7868-6041-3.
^ Baldwin, Neal (1995). Edison: Inventing the Century.Hyperion. pp. 67.ISBN0-7868-6041-3.
^ "Older Son To Sue To Void Edison Will; William, Second Child Of The Counsel.". New York Times. October 31, 1931. "The will of Thomas A. Edison, filed in Newark last Thursday, which leaves the bulk of the inventor's $12 million estate to the sons of his second wife, was attacked as unfair yesterday by William L. Edison, second son of the first wife, who announced at the same time that he would sue to break it."
^The Life of Thomas Edison.American Memory from the Library of Congress. Retrieved March 3, 2009.
^Virtual Museum, IEEE. Retrieved Jan 15, 2007
^ "Madeleine Edison a Bride. Inventor's Daughter Married to J. E. Sloan by Mgr. Brann.". New York Times. June 18, 1914, Thursday.
^ "Mrs. John Eyre Sloane Has a Son at the Harbor Sanitarium Here.". New York Times. January 10, 1931, Saturday.
^ "Charles Edison, 78, Ex-Governor Of Jersey and U.S. Aide, Is Dead". New York Times. August 1969.
^ "Edison's Widow Very III". New York Times. August 21, 1947, Thursday.
^ "Rites for Mrs. Edison". New York Times. August 26, 1947, Tuesday.
^ Evans, Harold, "They Made America." Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2004.ISBN 0-316-27766-5. p. 152.
^ "Moses G. Farmer, Eliot's Inventor".http://www.eliotmaine.org/mosespage.htm. Retrieved March 11, 2006.
^ Shulman, Seth (1999). Owning the Future. Houghton Mifflin Company. pp. 158–160.
^ "Real Labor",Time Magazine, Dec. 8, 1930. (retrieved Jan 10, 2008)
^abcdefgIsrael, Paul (2000). Edison: A Life of Invention.John Wiley & Sons.ISBN0471362700.
^abU.S. Patent 0,223,898
^ Flannery, L. G. (Pat) (1960). John Hunton's Diary, Volume 3. pp. 68, 69.
^ ""Keynote Address – Second International ALN1 Conference (PDF)".http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:aXya_5s0sjEJ:www.sloan-c.org/conference/proceedings/1996/doc/96_gomory.doc+%22We+will+make+electricity+so+cheap+that+only+the+rich+will+burn+candles.%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3&client=firefox-a.
^ "Diehl's Lamp Hit Edison Monopoly," Elizabeth Daily Journal, Friday Evening, October 25, 1929
^ "About the Memory of a Theatre". National Theatre Brno.http://www.ndbrno.cz/en/about-us/theatre-buildings/mahen-theatre/history-of-mahen-theatre/history-mt/. Retrieved December 30, 2007. . Retrieved September 18, 2007
^ "Urban Legends Reference Pages: Livermore Lightbulb". snopes.com.http://www.snopes.com/science/lightbulb.asp. Retrieved January 29, 2009.
^ "The Henry Ford". Hfmgv.org.http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/edison/. Retrieved January 29, 2009.
^ "IMDB entry on Electrocuting an Elephant (1903)".http://imdb.com/title/tt0231523/. Retrieved March 11, 2006.
^ "Wired Magazine: "Jan. 4, 1903: Edison Fries an Elephant to Prove His Point"".http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/01/dayintech_0104?. Retrieved January 4, 2008.
^ "Electrocution Thresholds for Humans".http://www.bassengineering.com/E_Effect.htm. Retrieved February 26, 2009.
^ Tony Long (January 4, 2008). "Jan. 4, 1903: Edison Fries an Elephant to Prove His Point". AlterNet.http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/01/dayintech_0104. Retrieved January 4, 2008.
^ Lee, Jennifer (November 14, 2007). "Off Goes the Power Current Started by Thomas Edison". The New York Times Company.http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/off-goes-the-power-current-started-by-thomas-edison/. Retrieved December 30, 2007.
^ Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library : Edison fears the hidden perils of the x-rays. New York Worldb/, Aug 3, 1903, Durham, NC.
^ "The Thomas A. Edison Papers". Edison.rutgers.edu.http://edison.rutgers.edu/. Retrieved January 29, 2009.
^ "Tesla – Master of Lightning:Coming to America".http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_america.html. Retrieved March 11, 2006.
^ Jonnes, p110
^ "Quotations Page".http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/35566.html.
^ "Tesla Says Edison was an Empiricist. Electrical Technician Declares Persistent Trials Attested Inventor's Vigor. 'His Method Inefficient' A Little Theory Would Have Saved Him 90% of Labor, Ex-Aide Asserts. Praises His Great Genius.". New York Times. October 19, 1931. "Nikola Tesla, one of the world's outstanding electrical technicians, who came to America in 1884 to work with Thomas A. Edison, specifically in the designing of motors and generators, recounted yesterday some of ..."
^ "History of Edison Motion Pictures".http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edmvhist.html. Retrieved October 14, 2007.
^ "Martin Loiperdinger. ''Film & Schokolade. Stollwercks Geschäfte mit lebenden Bildern ''. KINtop Schriften Stroemfeld Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, Basel 1999 ISBN 3-87877-764-7 (Buch) ISBN 3-87877-760-4 (Buch und Videocassette". Victorian-cinema.net.http://www.victorian-cinema.net/stollwerck.htm. Retrieved January 29, 2009.
^ "Guido Convents, ''Van Kinetoscoop tot Cafe-Cine de Eerste Jaren van de Film in Belgie, 1894–1908, pp. 33–69.'' Universitaire Pers Leuven. Leuven: 2000. Guido Convents, "'Edison's Kinetscope in Belgium, or, Scientists, Admirers, Businessmen, Industrialists and Crooks", pp. 249–258. in C. Dupré la Tour, A. Gaudreault, R. Pearson (Ed.) ''Cinema at the Turn of the Century''. Québec, 1999". Imdb.com.http://www.imdb.com/company/co0111244/. Retrieved January 29, 2009.
^ "Thomas Edison".Greater Sudbury Heritage Museums.http://www.sudburymuseums.ca/index.cfm?app=w_vmuseum&lang=en&currID=2031&parID=2029. Retrieved December 30, 2007.
^Rémi Fournier Lanzoni, French Cinema: From Its Beginnings to the Present, (2002)
^Siegmund Lubin (1851–1923), Who's Who of Victorian Cinema. Retrieved August 20, 2007
^"History of Edison Motion Pictures: Early Edison Motion Picture Production (1892–1895)", Memory.loc.gov,Library of Congress. Retrieved August 20, 2007
^ab Reader's Digest, March 1930, pp. 1042–1044, "Living With a Genius", condensed from The American Magazine February 1930
^ Armbrester, Margaret E. (1992). The Civitan Story. Birmingham, AL: Ebsco Media. p. 34.
^ Holland, Kevin J. (2001). Classic American Railroad Terminals. MBI Publishing Company.ISBN0760308322.
^ "Thomas Edison Dies in Coma at 84; Family With Him as the End Comes; Inventor Succumbs at 3:24 A.M. After Fight for Life Since He 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 and 8 months old."
^ Benoit, Tod (2003). Where are they buried? How did they die?. Black Dog & Leventhal. p. 560.ISBN1-57912-678-2.
^"Is Thomas Edison's last breath preserved in a test tube in the Henry Ford Museum?",The Straight Dope, 11-Sep-1987. Retrieved August 20, 2007
^ ""No Immortality of the Soul" says Thomas A. Edison. In Fact, He Doesn't Believe There Is a Soul—Human Beings Only an Aggregate of Cells and the Brain Only a Wonderful Machine, Says Wizard of Electricity.". New York Times. October 2, 1910, Sunday. "Thomas A. Edison 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."
^ Cited inInnovate Like Edison: The Success System of America's Greatest Inventor by Sarah Miller Caldicott, Michael J. Gelb, page 37.
^ "Edison Community College (Ohio)". Edison.cc.oh.us.http://www.edison.cc.oh.us/. Retrieved January 29, 2009.
^ "Thomas A. Edison Patent Award".American Society of Mechanical Engineers.http://www.asme.org/Governance/Honors/SocietyAwards/Thomas_Edison_Patent_Award.cfm.
^NNDB online website. Note that the same decree awarded German physicistHermann von Helmholtz with the designation of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor, as well asAlexander Graham Bell. The decree preamble cited "for services provided to the Congress and to the International Electrical Exhibition"
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.ISBN0-226-03571-9.
Clark, Ronald William (1977). Edison: The man who made the future. London: Macdonald & Janès: Macdonald and Jane's.ISBN0-354-04093-6.
Conot, Robert (1979). A Streak of Luck. New York: Seaview Books.ISBN0-87223-521-1.
Essig, Mark (2004). Edison and the Electric Chair. Stroud: Sutton.ISBN0-7509-3680-0.
Essig, Mark (2003). Edison & the Electric Chair: A Story of Light and Death. New York: Walker & Company.ISBN0-8027-1406-4.
Jonnes, Jill (2003). Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World. New York: Random House.ISBN0-375-50739-6.
Josephson, Matthew (1959). Edison. McGraw Hill.ISBN0-07-033046-8.
Pretzer, William S. (ed). (1989). Working at Inventing: Thomas A. Edison and the Menlo Park Experience. Dearborn, Michigan: Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village.ISBNISBN 0-933728-33-6.
Stross, Randall E. (2007). The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World. Crown.ISBN1-400-04762-5.
External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:Thomas Edison
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:Thomas Alva Edison
Works by Thomas Edison atProject Gutenberg
Edison's patent application for the light bulb at the National Archives.
Thomas Edison at theInternet Movie Database
Jan. 4, 1903: Edison Fries an Elephant to Prove His Point –Wired Magazine article about Edison's "macabre form of a series of animal electrocutions using AC."
The Invention Factory: Thomas Edison's Laboratories
Edison, His Life and Inventions by Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin' atProject Gutenberg
The Diary of Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison House
Edison Depot Museum
Menlo Park Museum and Edison Memorial Tower
Edison exhibit and Menlo Park Laboratory at Henry Ford Museum
Edison Museum
Rutgers: Edison Papers
Edisonian Museum Antique Electrics
"Edison's Miracle of Light"
Edison Innovation Foundation -Non-profit foundation supporting the legacy of Thomas Edison.
[show]
Articles Related to Thomas Edison
Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Leon TrotskyCover of Time Magazine Succeeded by
Richard Swann Lull
[]v • d • e
General Electric Co.
Founders
Thomas Edison ·Edwin J. Houston ·Elihu Thomson
Corporate
directors
James Cash, Jr. ·Ann Fudge ·Claudio Gonzalez ·Susan Hockfield ·Jeffrey Immelt ·Andrea Jung ·Alan Lafley ·Robert Lane ·Ralph Larsen ·Rochelle Lazarus ·Sam Nunn ·Roger Penske ·Robert Swieringa ·Douglas A. Warner III ·Bob Wright
Primary
businesses
GE Capital ·GE Technology Infrastructure ·GE Energy Infrastructure ·GE Consumer & Industrial ·NBC Universal (80%)
Annual revenue  ▲USD 163.391 billion (2006)    Employees  316,000 (2005)    Stock symbol NYSE: GE    Website www.ge.com
Persondata
NAME Edison, Thomas Alva
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION American inventor and businessman
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1847
PLACE OF BIRTHMilan, Ohio, United States
DATE OF DEATH October 18, 1931
PLACE OF DEATHWest Orange, New Jersey, United States
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison"
Categories:American inventors |Canadian Americans |Dutch Americans |English Americans |Scottish Americans |Cinema pioneers |Congressional Gold Medal recipients |Deaf people |National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees |People associated with electricity |People from Erie County, Ohio |People of United Empire Loyalist descent |Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences |Deists |Thomas Edison |1847 births |1931 deaths