|
|
|
  |
| Sunday, 16 January 2005 |
 |
|
 |
Junior Observer |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) : Lighting up the world The electric light bulb is something that we can't do without in this modern age. As students, you would know just how important this invention is to our lives. But do you know who was responsible for coming up with this marvel which changed the course of the modern world?
Edison was born in Ohio, USA in 1847. In 1854 the family settled in Port Huron, Michigen, where Edison attended school for three months. This was his only formal education. His mother continued to teach him reading, writing and arithmetic. At the age of 12, Edison started working, selling newspapers, apples and candy on the Detroit and Port Huron branch of the Grand Trunk Railroad. Around this time, his hearing began to decline, possibly due to a childhood attack of scarlet fever. When he was 15 years old, while still working on the railroad, Edison bought a small secondhand printing press and 136 kg of type. He installed the press in a baggage car and soon began producing a newspaper, the Weekly Herald, which he printed, edited and sold on the Grand Trunk Railroad. In 1862, Edison saved a three-year old boy, the son of a stationmaster, from being run over by a boxcar. In gratitude, the stationmaster taught him how to operate the telegraph. For five months, he learned to send and receive dispatches and during the next four years, he travelled thousands of miles as a telegrapher. During this period, he spent most of his salary on laboratory and electrical instruments, which he would take apart and rebuild. Through his knowledge of electricity and telegraphy he had acquired - in 1868, at the age of 21, he developed a telegraphic vote-recording machine, the first of his inventions to be presented. In 1876, Edison established a laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey, the first laboratory dedicated to industrial research in the world. Within ten years people throughout the world knew Edison as the Wizard of Menlo Park. Edison focused on his work so much that he spent little time with his family. He avoided most social occasions and often wore dirty shirts and shabby working clothes. Many of his associates however spoke of his virtues. Before starting an experiment, Edison tried to read all the literature on the subject to avoid repeating experiments that other people had already conducted. Perhaps, the best illustration of Edison's working methods is his own famous statement: "Genius is one per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration". In 1881, he was awarded the French Legion of Honour for developing electric power distribution systems. Italy made him a Grand Officer of the Crown in 1889, and he received awards from the governments of Chile, Britain, Japan, Russia and many other nations. When Edison died in 1931, the U.S. government considered turning off the electric current in the country for a minute or two as a tribute to him. It became apparent, however, that the operation of the great electrical distribution systems could not be interrupted even for a moment without disastrous results. Within Edison's lifetime, the system that he had pioneered had become essential to the nation's way of life. |
|
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Politics | Produced by Lake House |
The light bulb was only one among many inventions of the great
scientist, Thomas Alva Edison, who was known as one of the greatest
inventors of all time. The American began his scientific work at an early
age, which was continued right until his death. The period from 1879 to
1900, when Edison produced and perfected most of his devices, has been
called the Age of Edison. The great scientist was responsible for
patenting over 1,000 inventions including the phonograph (an early form of
gramophone) and the motion-picture camera.
