EDISON, THOMAS ALVA

born Feb. 11, 1847, Milan, Ohio, U.S. died Oct. 18, 1931, West Orange, N.J. American genius of technology, who held patents for more than 1,000 inventions, including the incandescent electric lamp, the phonograph, and the motion-picture projector. Edison set up a laboratory in his father's basement when he was 10 years old. At the age of 12 he began selling newspapers and candy on the trains between Port Huron and Detroit. From 1862 to 1868 he worked as a roving telegrapher. He obtained a position as a night operator for Western Union Telegraph Company in 1868. In 1869 he decided to give up his career in telegraphy in order to pursue invention and entrepreneurship. He moved to New York City, and within a year he was successful enough to establish a workshop in Newark, N.J. During this time he produced the Edison Universal Stock Printer and other printing telegraphs. In 1876 he gave up his telegraph factory and set up a research laboratory in nearby Menlo Park. There, with the help of several highly talented associates, Edison achieved his greatest successes. In 1877 he invented the phonograph. He began work on the light bulb in 1878 and demonstrated his carbon filament lamp in 1879. In 1883 he accidentally discovered the Edison effect, which later became the basis of the electron tube. He also perfected motion-picture equipment. born Feb. 11, 1847, Milan, Ohio, U.S. died Oct. 18, 1931, West Orange, N.J. Edison demonstrating his tinfoil phonograph, photograph by Mathew Brady, 1878. American inventor who, singly or jointly, held a world record 1,093 patents. In addition, he created the world's first industrial research laboratory. Edison was the quintessential American inventor in the era of Yankee ingenuity. He began his career in 1863, in the adolescence of the telegraph industry, when virtually the only source of electricity was primitive batteries putting out a low-voltage current. Before he died, in 1931, he had played a critical role in introducing the modern age of electricity. From his laboratories and workshops emanated the phonograph, the carbon-button transmitter for the telephone speaker and microphone, the incandescent lamp, a revolutionary generator of unprecedented efficiency, the first commercial electric light and power system, an experimental electric railroad, and key elements of motion-picture apparatus, as well as a host of other inventions. Edison was the seventh and last childthe fourth survivingof Samuel Edison, Jr., and Nancy Elliot Edison. At an early age he developed hearing problems, which have been variously attributed but were most likely due to a familial tendency to mastoiditis. Whatever the cause, Edison's deafness strongly influenced his behaviour and career, providing the motivation for many of his inventions. Additional reading Alfred O. Tate, Edison's Open Door: The Life Story of Thomas A. Edison, a Great Individualist (1938), which tells the story of the early years of the West Orange laboratory, was written by Edison's secretary of the period. Francis Jehl, Menlo Park Reminiscences, 3rd ed. (193741), is a firsthand account of the 187880 period at Menlo Park, by an assistant who came to dislike Edison but was later the first curator at Henry Ford's Edison Institute. Thomas A. Edison, The Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas A. Edison, ed. by Dagobert D. Runes (1948, reprinted 1976), provides insight into Edison's feelings and thoughts, especially in the period following the death of his first wife. Matthew Josephson, Edison: A Biography (1959), is based on the correspondence and laboratory notebooks in the Edison Laboratory archives, though at the time of its publication the access to the records was severely restricted, which makes the book outdated. Robert Conot, A Streak of Luck (1979, reprinted 1986 as Thomas A. Edison), is the first comprehensive biography based entirely on the original sources from the West Orange and other depository archives. Wyn Wachhorst, Thomas Alva Edison: An American Myth (1981), is a revisionist study of Edison's place in the cultural history of the United States, with an extensive bibliography. See also Robert Friedel and Paul Israel, Edison's Electric Light: A Biography of an Invention (1986), a well-researched, illustrated account. Archival papers of Edison and his associates are published in Thomas A. Edison Papers: A Selective Microfilm Edition (1985 ); part 1, for the period 185078, and part 2, for 187986, have been filmed from the West Orange archives. Subsequent parts will include documents from other repositories. Matthew Josephson Robert E. Conot