Synopsis
Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio, Thomas Edison started out from humble beginings of work to work and become an inventor of major technology. Setting up a lab in Menlo Park and becoming to be called Wizard of Menlo Park, some of the products he developed included the telegraph, phonograph, electric light bulb, alkaline storage batteries and Kinetograph (a camera for motion pictures). He died on October 18, 1931, in West Orange, New Jersey leaving behind his lab to his son to be in charge of. Now Thomas lab and home is a museum site for curious people to see.
Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio, Thomas Edison started out from humble beginings of work to work and become an inventor of major technology. Setting up a lab in Menlo Park and becoming to be called Wizard of Menlo Park, some of the products he developed included the telegraph, phonograph, electric light bulb, alkaline storage batteries and Kinetograph (a camera for motion pictures). He died on October 18, 1931, in West Orange, New Jersey leaving behind his lab to his son to be in charge of. Now Thomas lab and home is a museum site for curious people to see.
1847 - 1854
Thomas Edison is born in Milan, Ohio, on February 11,1847. Then later in 1854 Edison’s family moved to Port Huron, Michigan
1859
Edison gets a job as a trainboy on the Grand Trunk Railroad. While on the train he sets up a chemistry lab and a printing press.
1863 - 1867
Edison works as a telegraph operator in cities in the Midwest, becoming a first class presswire operator and experimenting with telegraph instruments
1868 - 1869
Edison becomes a telegraph operator in main Western Union office in Boston and files his first patent application then later he retires and moves to New York City, where he works for the Laws Gold Indicator Company.
1870
Edison moves to Newark, New Jersey, with some money from a contract he opens a telegraph manufacturing shop where he also conducts his inventive work.
1871
Edison improves on his stock ticker technology. Then later on Christmas Day he marries Mary Stillwell, one of his employees.
1874
Invents the quadruplex telegraph for Western Union, which transmits four messages simultaneously (two in each direction).
1875
Edison separates his laboratory from the manufacturing shop. He then invents the electric pen and also announces the discovery of “etheric force” but his controversial claim was not accepted by the scientific community.
1876
Edison moves to Menlo Park, New Jersey, and establish his first full-scale industrial research laboratory.
1877
T.A.E. invents the carbon transmitter, and also invents the phonograph. Which he demonstrates at the offices of Scientific American on December 7.
1879
Edison invents the carbon filament lamp and demonstrates it on New Year’s Eve publicly at Menlo Park.
1880
Hires a larger staff to help him improve on his electric lighting system for a commercial use. And he sets up a factory for the manufacture of electric lamps at Menlo Park.
1881
He leaves menlo park and opens a new office in New York City. He then began the construction first permanent power station, on Pearl Street, which opens September 1882.
1883 - 1884
Edison spends a year promoting the installation of central stations and also establishes a company to build the stations.
1884 - 1886 - 1887
Mary Stillwell dies and later in 1886 Thomas marries Mina Miller, then moves into a new laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey.
1888
Spurred by the graphophone which Edison improves with Alexander Graham Bell, he develops his perfected phonograph.
1890
During this time Edison hears that William Kemmler becomes the first man to be executed with an electric chair.
1892
The Thomson-Houston Company and Edison General Electric merge to form General Electric. Edison leaves electric lighting and spends the rest of the time to develop a method for processing low-grade iron for use by eastern smelters, which fails after the discovery of rich new mines in the Midwest.
1893
The Columbian Exposition in Chicago is powered by alternating-current and the Niagara Falls Commission approves AC as the system for the first large-scale electrical generator in the world.
Edison demonstrates his system for making and showing motion pictures.
1896
Introduces the Home Phonograph, an inexpensive, spring-motor phonograph.
1900
General Electric organizes the first modern research-and-development laboratory.
Edison begins work on a storage battery for use in electric cars.
1909
Edison markets his alkaline storage battery, which is used extensively in a host of commercial application after the market for electric automobiles declines.
1915
Influenced by a New York Times interview with Edison, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels convinces Edison to head a Naval Consulting Board to investigate new military technology.
1916
Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone begin a tradition of vacationing together and are followed by the press everywhere they go.
1927
Edison begins an effort to find a natural substitute for rubber that can be grown and processed quickly in case of shortages caused by war, eventually settling on goldenrod as the best material.
1929
Edison re-enacts the invention of the incandescent light at the Golden Jubilee celebration in Dearborn, Michigan, where Henry Ford has reconstructed the Menlo Park laboratory.
1931
Edison dies in Llewellyn Park, New Jersey, on October 18. The nation dims its light bulbs for one minute on the day of his funeral.