Thomas Edison: Background

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When you were a kid, did you ask “Why?” after being told something like “This does this.” and then you would ask “Why does it do that?”? Well, that’s what Thomas Edison was like as a child. In fact, he asked “Why?” so much, to the point where he got on his teachers nerves and was later withdrawn from school. Thomas Edison was the kind of kid who wanted to know why things happened, which made Thomas Edison the way he was. Thomas Edison’s childhood, education, and inventions are some of the key topics of his life including his death.

Thomas Edison’s childhood life was spent living and learning in a family of seven children and two loving parents. Edison was the last child in the family born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio. Edison didn’t learn how to speak until he was four years old. After that, he was asking everyone why and how things work. In 1854, his family moved to Port Huron, Michigan. When Edison was seven years old, he was withdrawn from school and started to be homeschooled. As a kid, Edison grew an interest in world history and English literature. He later became interested in Shakespeare, which led him to want to become an actor. His high-pitched voice and shyness made him change his mind. Edison, as a child, enjoyed reading and reciting poetry. When he was eleven, Edison began to use the local library to help gain more knowledge. Edison’s poor hearing, which got worse throughout his life, had a negative impact on his life and education. At age 12, Edison got a job selling newspapers, snacks, and candy at the local railroad station. He had later started a separate business selling fruits and vegetables. When he was 14 years old, he started to write and sell his own newspaper called the Weekly Herald. More than 300 people had quickly subscribed to his paper. He was earning ten dollars a day through his newspaper and was using the money on laboratory equipment and chemicals, which he set up in his basement. He was later told that his laboratory wasn’t safe, so he moved his things into a locked room in his basement and into his locker room on the train he was working on. During a bumpy section on a railroad track, a stick of phosphorous fell on the floor and caught on fire. Edison caught the baggage car on fire which made the conductor very mad. The conductor hit Edison on the side of his head, which is probable one of the reasons why Edison’s hearing became bad, along with having had scarlet fever. Edison was banned from selling his newspaper on that railroad track because of the accident. One day, when Edison was at a train station, he saw the stationmaster’s young son wander onto the tracks where a train was coming. Edison saved the kid when the train was just about to hit the child. As a reward, the father taught him how to use Morse Code and the telegraph. Once he was fifteen, he mastered the skills. Many of the telegraphy operators left to serve in the Civil War, so Edison got a job as a replacement for one of those people. When he was 16, Edison came up with his first invention after working at many different telegraph offices. (Beals 3)

Thomas Edison’s education wasn’t that great, but he still gained a lot of knowledge by self teaching himself. When Edison was seven, he spent 12 weeks in a one-room schoolhouse with 38 other students of a variety of ages. Edison’s teacher became very annoyed with him because of his persistent questioning. Edison’s mother, Nancy Edison, noticed what was going on and withdrew him from school. Edison’s mother began to home-school him, teaching him reading, writing, arithmetic, and the Bible. His father, Samuel Edison, gave him ten cents for each one of the great classics that he read. When Edison was eleven, his parents taught him how to use the local library, which led him to prefer learning through self instruction. In the library, he started to read all the books on the shelves, starting with the last book on the bottom self, but his parents told him to be more selective in what he read. Once he turned twelve, he had read Gibbon’s Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, Sears’ History of The World, Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, and The World Dictionary of Science. Edison grew an interest in Science, so when he asked a question about science to his parents, they wouldn’t know. His parents gathered enough money together so that they could hire a tutor for him. From there on, he grew an interest in electrical science. (Pretzer 27)

Thomas Edison invented many inventions during his life. His first invention that he created, when he was 16, was called an automatic repeater. It transmitted telegraph signals between unmanned stations, allowing anyone to easily and accurately translate the codes at the speed that they wanted. Then he invented an electric vote recording machine. It turned out to be a disaster. With his parents, and himself, low on money, he vowed from then on to “never waste time inventing things that people would not want to buy.” (Beals 4). Edison later improved the duplex transmitter, invented by George Stearns, and invented the first quadruplex transmitter. When Edison left to New York, a corporation paid him $40,000 for all the rights to his invention, the stock ticker. When Edison moved his laboratory to Menlo Park, N.J. in 1876, he invented, a year later, the first phonograph. In 1879, Edison invented the first incandexent electric light bulb. In 1890, Edison invented the first vitascope, which led to the first silent motion pictures. Later, he invented the first dictaphone, mimeograph, and storage battery. Once he created the kinetiscope, he created the first “talking pictures” by putting audio and silent motion pictures together. The 10 minute clip was called The Great Train Robbery in 1903. Edison acquired his last patent, out of 1,093, when he was 83 years old (Hoar 2).

Thomas Edison died at 9 P.M. on October 18, 1931 in New Jersey at the age of 84. When Edison woke up from his coma before passing away, he whispered to his wife Mina, “It is very beautiful over there.” (Beals 7). After his death, people around the world dimmed their lights or turned off their electric power in his honor. He was laid to rest in Glenmont, New Jersey (Beals 7).

Because of Thomas Edison’s persistent questioning and his thirst for knowledge, he was able to become one of the greatest inventors in the world. Edison’s childhood life was spent learning new things and working. Even though Edison went to school for 3 months, he was still able to learn a lot of things just by reading. Through his knowledge and different way of thinking, he was able to invent many different things. He may not have had the most fun when he was a child or the best education, but he was able to invent some of the best inventions in the world during his time.

Bibliography

·        Beals, Gerald. The Biography of Thomas Edison.1999. Brocktorma.com. Accessed 24            Oct, 2009. .

·        Hoar, William. “The Man Who Lit Up the World.” The New American. 06-30-2003: 6

·        Pretzer, William. “A Model Technology Educator: Thomas A. Edison.” The Technology           Teacher. 09-01-2007:27