Thomas Edison 1847 1931 Childhood Thomas Edison was

Thomas Edison 1847 - 1931

Childhood • Thomas Edison was born in Ohio, America. He was one of seven children. • As a child, he had hearing problems from the illness scarlet fever. He wasn’t completely deaf, but said that he liked being able to not hear as it meant he could concentrate on his experiments and inventions. • Edison wasn’t a great pupil at school and only lasted three months! Luckily, his mother was a teacher so was taught at home. • Edison was known by his middle name, Al, as a boy, rather than being called Thomas Edison as a boy

Jobs • When he was 15 years old, Edison started printing newspapers to sell on board trains. • He got his next job by accident when he saved a three-year boy from being hit by a train. The boy’s father was so grateful that he gave Thomas a job as a telegraph operator. • When he was a telegraph operator, Edison often asked for night shifts so that he could spend some of his time sneaking in some experiments while he was working. Unfortunately, he split sulphuric acid on the floor and it dripped through the wooden floorboard on to the desk of his boss below. Thomas Edison lost his job!

Inventions • Thomas Edison’s first invention was completed in 1877 – the phonograph. This was a machine that could record and replay sound. • Thomas Edison didn’t invent the first lightbulb – that had happened over 50 years before he was doing his inventing. He did, however, want to invent a light that did not need oils or gas to be lit. After some tests and changes, Edison created a ‘gentle’ light in a bulb that could stay lit using electricity for 13 and a half hours! This was called an incandescent lightbulb. • Edison and his team of inventors created and developed a way of sending electricity into homes so that domestic lightbulbs could be used. This became known as the electric power system. • In 1882, Thomas Edison had founded the Edison Electric Light Company in New York, which had a generating station, providing New York City with electric lighting. The phonograph

Edison famously said, " Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration. " In other words, it's not enough to have a great idea – you have to work incredibly hard to develop it, too!

An Amazing Man • Thomas Edison was a very careful worker, who went on to become one of the most famous inventors in history. He always thought carefully about all the different things that could go wrong in his projects and how to put them right. • Thomas Edison died in 1931 from problems with diabetes. He was 84 years old. Almost everyone in the world has used at least one of his inventions, the electric lightbulb. We are still using them today, over 100 years later! Watch this video for more Thomas Edison facts…. https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Kg. Si_R 1 Wcyk