Essay/Term paper: Person who changed america

Essay, term paper, research paper:  English Papers

Matt VanEtten VanEtten 1

Mr. Murfee

English III

Dec.13 1999



Thomas Edison:The man of a thousand inventions



Thomas Edison changed America in a very big way,He held



patents for over a 1000 inventions.His most important one was the



electic lamp.Thomas Edison has made America a better place to live.



Born In Milan,Ohio Thomas Edison was an American genius of



technology , His most known inventions were the electric lamp the



phonograph and the motion picture projector.Edison set up a labrotory in



his fathers basement when he was just 10 years old.At the age of 12 he



began selling news papers 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 as a



telegrapher to pursue inventing and entreprenuership.He moved to New



York City and within a year he was sucessful enough to establish a



workshop in Newark, N.J. During this time he produced the Edison



stock printer and other printing telegraphs.In 1876 he gave up his



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telegraph factory and set up a research lab. in nearby Menlo Park.There



with the help of highly talented asoiates he achieved his greatest sucess





(the electric lamp).In 1877 he invented the phonograph.he began work



on the light bulb in 1878 and demonstrated his lamp in 1879.In 1883 he



acidentally discovered the "Edison effect" which later became the basis



of the electron tube.He also perfected motion picture equipment.(Britannica p.370-371)



Edison executed the first of his 1,093 successful U.S. patent

applications (the most by anyone ever.)on 13 October 1868, at the age of



21. Which was the Electrographic Vote-Recorder.

(Internet:Edisons U.S Patents)

Though Edison invented all of the inventions he did he was not a

good student and Edison also had a hearing problem. (Internet:A

Thousand Inventions)In August of 1931, he took a turn for the worse,

and it was clear to everyone that he was slipping away. Someone asked

him if he had thought about a life hereafter, and he replied, "It does not

matter. No one knows." He passed away early Sunday morning, October

18, 1931.(Internet:Edison) Thomas Edison will always be rembered as

the man who invented the light but and to me the man who made



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America a better place to live.