Thomas Edison: America's Inventor
Thomas Edison, America's most famous inventor, received 1,093 patents during his life time. Edison learned early in life that a successful invention needed to have a practical use.
Edison as a Boy
Edison was born in 1847 in Milan, Ohio. His family moved to Port Huron, Michigan when he was a young boy. As a young boy in Port Huron, Michigan, Edison was interested in learning about the world around him- he explored nature and read all his family's science books. He was fascinated by this new form of communication, the telegraph.
Edison's family was poor and he needed to work to help support his family. He got a job in the baggage car on the local railroad. He found a small printing press and printed and sold a small newspaper. And in his free time he set up a chemistry lab int the baggage car. He was fired from the job after his lab caught on fire and damaged the baggage car.
Edison continued to hang around the train station, and saved the life of a young boy. The boy's father, the local telegraph operator, offered Edison his choice of a reward. Edison, remembering his love of his the telegraph, asked to learn about the telegraph.
The telegraph was Edison's first experience with electricity. He became one of the top operators in the country. He learned everything he could about the telegraph, and still wanted to learn more and improve the telegraph. This is the moment he became an inventor.
Thomas Edison at about fourteen years of age. At this time he was employed in the baggage car of the Grand Trunk Railroad out of Port Huron, Michigan, and ran a printing press in his spare time.
Weekly newspaper printed and sold by Thomas Edison at the age of 14. Edison had taken a job in the baggage car of the Grand Trunk Railroad. With free time while the train was moving, he acquired an old printing press and began publishing a weekly newspaper, for the price of eight cents per month.
Second page of "The Weekly Herald," a newspaper published by Thomas Edison at the age of 14, while he worked on the Grand Trunk Railroad in Port Huron, Michigan. Edison's publishing career ended when his chemistry laboratory caught fire and burned the baggage car, damaging his printing press. Edison was fired from his job in the baggage car.
Edison the Inventor
Edison's first invention, the vote recorder. Thomas Edison's first invention was a failure. In 1868 Edison was 21 and living in Boston and working as a telegraph operator. He invented an automatic vote recorder that allowed legislatures to vote faster. Edison, proud of his new invention, brought it to Congress. Several Congressmen told him they did not like his invention - they liked the way they voted just fine. Edison left, disappointed. But he learned a valuable lesson - before creating an invention, he made sure people were interested in it.
Thomas Edison demonstrates his early work with the telegraph.
In 1873, Edison's workshop was located in Newark, NJ.
Edison's electric pen was later developed into the mimeograph machine.
Edison lost the race for the invention of the telephone to Alexander Graham Bell. He did develop a major improvement to the telephone, the carbon microphone, that helped make the telephone commercially successful. Edison's experience working with carbon proved useful when he began his lighting research.
Menlo Park
Edison's early inventions focused on improving his own job - telegraph operator. These new machines, including a telegraph that could send and record multiple messages, an electric pen that allowed the user to make multiple copies at once, and the stock ticker, a special telegraph used by the stock market, gave Edison the funds to become a full time inventor and allowed him to set up his own research laboratory at Menlo Park in 1876.
Edison built the Menlo Park complex in early 1876. With expanded operations in New York City, Edison left Menlo Park. In 1886 Edison built his new laboratory complex in nearby West Orange, New Jersey.
Edison is in the white shirt at the far right.
Edison is sitting in the center, holding a straw hat.
The Phonograph
At Menlo Park, Edison assembled a whole team of inventors- scientists, engineers and mathematicians. Their work began to veer off into new uses for electricity. Edison was one of the inventors racing to invent the telephone - transmitting the human voice using electrical impulses. Edison lost that race to Alexander Graham Bell, but Edison's invention of the carbon microphone made the telephone a useful invention.
Edison's next invention made him the most famous inventor in the world - the phonograph. During the telephone experiments, Edison noticed a faint recording. This led him and his team to invent the phonograph - the first device to record and play sounds. The phonograph invention created an international sensation and the world eagerly awaited Edison's next invention.
Edison was thirty years old when this photograph was created.
Photo of Thomas Edison's first successful tinfoil phonograph, built by his top machinist John Kruesi.
Updated sketch of the Edison tinfoil phonograph, dated November 29, 1877 and signed by Thomas Edison, Charles Batchelor and John Kruesi.
A Photograph taken in Washington, D.C. on the occasion of Edison's exhibit of the phonograph to government officials, April 18, 1878. Photograph was created at Matthew Brady's studio.
Sketch of Thomas Edison using his tinfoil phonograph, May 18, 1878. The artist was J.E. Kelly. A note from Kelly said that Edison signed both the names on the sketch. The drawings was given "to Mr. Charles Edison from the Engineer john W. Evans.
Edison and the incandescent lamp
In October 1878 Edison announced his next challenge, bringing electric light to the home. He wanted to use a thin piece of wire, known as a filament, that would glow and give off light when an electric current went through it. Other inventors had worked on this problem for 70 years, but had little success.
Edison and his staff researched a variety of materials for the lamp. In early experiments, platinum worked the best, but it was too rare and expensive. Edison settled on carbon, and after a year of research, he had developed a filament (carbon from burnt cardboard baked onto a thread) that lasted 40 hours. On October 21, 1879, Edison declared success, and the world went wild. Artist Dean Cornwell created this image of Edison and his staff performing the experiment that created the first successful incandescent lamp for the General Electric promotional calendar.
Edison wrote this letter to General Electric publicist John W. Hammond, who was writing a GE history, "Men and Volts" Edison described creating a substitute for the existing gas-lighting system, and the importance of creating an entire electrical system.
Edison replica lamp, circa 1978. Lamp is an inaccurate replica due to the lack of the simple horseshoe filament and the use of plastic.
Image taken February 22, 1880. Left to right: Ludwig Boehm, Charles L. Clarke, Charles Batchelor (seated beneath the hanging lamps), William Carman, Samuel Mott, George Dean, Edison (below the tallest organ pipe), Charles Hughes, George Hill, George Carman, Francis Jehl, John Lawson, Charles Flammer, Charles Mott, and James MacKenzie (at the desk near the window). Notice the incandescent lamps in the gas fixtures. The organ in back was a gift from Hilborne Roosevelt, an early investor in the phonograph. Photo IDs from Edison Paper Project, Rutgers University
Diagram showing Edison's "latest" electric lamp. Features figures isolating fixture and filament.
Line sketch depicting Thomas Edison lighting his first electric incandescent lamp which burned for 40 hours
Edison Lamp first commercially used. Carbonized Bristol- Board "Horseshoe" filament. Produced Nov. 1879-May 1880. Dimensions in inches -Total Height 8 1/16; diameter of base, 3 5/16; bulb diameter, 2 5/16; bulb neck from bulb to stem seal; 1 7/8.
Thomas Edison lighting first incandescent lamp, drawing
Mr. Edison is seen at the left grasping the hand-rail. Mr. Charles Batchelor is seen in the center and at the right hand is Major S.B. Eaton, president of the company.
Edison assistant William Hammer designed the first electric sign for the 1881 Crystal Palace exposition in London, UK.
An electrical system
Edison knew that he needed to develop an entire electrical system - one that would generate electricity and distribute it to homes. Without that system, his new lamp would be a novelty.
Edison spent the next three years developing a central station system that could generate electricity and send it to multiple buildings. In September 1882, Edison opened the Pearl Street Station in New York City, which used 6 dynamos to generate electricity for 7200 lights. Cities around the world wanted Edison's new system faster than he could manufacture it.
The S.S. Columbia, owned by financier Henry Villard, was the first installation using Edison's system. The drawing includes the ship and an image of the power room. The dynamos powered lights on the ship.
Note written below image says that it is too early to be a Z-type dynamo as listed on the original photo caption. The note, written by Charles L. Clarke, one of Edison's long-time assistants, reads: "This is not a "Z" dynamo, which had an iron base, and were first built very early in 1881. The statement that it (one of four) was installed on the S.S. Columbia is correct. Between the S.S. Columbia machines and the "Z" came the "A," which also had an iron base. Charles L. Clarke, January 8, 1929, with Edison at Menlo Park, NJ.
The Hinds-Ketcham Co. was located at 229 Water Street, New York, NY. Edison used a 60-light machine, built at Menlo Park. January 1, 1881. The image includes a drawing of the Hinds-Ketcham structure, and a circuit diagram for the electrical system.
The drawing shows power poles with dozens of criss-crossing lines. Lines included high voltage power lines for arc lighting installations and low voltage telegraph lines. The lines were installed by dozens of different companies. Some lines were abandoned and varied in the quality of insulation. Lines would sometimes arc between each other.
An unnamed Edison employee stands in a ditch dug to lay underground wire in lower Manhattan for Edison's first large scale electric utility at Pearl Street Station.
Drawing showing the exterior of Edison's Pearl Street Station, Edison's first large scale electric generating station.
One of the six Edison jumbo dynamos in Pearl Street Station, Edison's first large utility installation. Each of the six dynamos generated enough electricity to power 1,200 lights.
Photo of one of the Edison jumbo dynamos at Pearl Street station, Edison's first utility installation. Image includes 2 workers, and the Armington Sims steam engine direct connected to the dynamo.
Drawing of dynamo room in Pearl Street station. Shows workers and all six of the original dynamos.
Early Edison bi-polar generator, installed in Argentina.
Menlo Park lamp factory image. Includes executive staff - Philip S. Dyer, William J. Hammer, Francis R. Upton, and James Bradley
Drawing of Edison Machine Works, New York City, 1885.The Edison Machine Works moved to Schenectady in 1886.
Edison Machine Works office force, 104 Goerck Street, New York, 1885.Left to right - Theodore Van deVenter, Robert Losier, Quinn, Howard Maclean, General Manager Charles Batchelor, John Campbell, Superintendent McDougall, Ernest Berggren
Old model of Edison chemical 2-wire meter. The meter dates from the 1880s, but was photographed prior to the GE exhibit at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri. Edison developed this meter to measure electrical usage, a key element of a utility being able to charge for electrical consumption.
Edison employees participate in electric torchlight parade in New York City to promote the use of electric light
Two workers pose with Edison bipolar dynamo electric generators at the Kansas City Power and Light power plant.
Edison Machine Works moves to Schenectady, 1886
Edison created a new company, the Edison Machine Works, to manufacture his power generating equipment. In 1886, Edison was looking to expand his machine works and looked for a new location. Harry Livor, one of Edison’s top sales agents, passed through Schenectady in May 1886 and noticed two vacant factory buildings in between the Erie Canal and New York Central rail line. Edison purchased the buildings in June 1886, and by December of that year had 300 workers building motors and dynamos in the two renovated factory buildings.
Edison Machine Works stock certificate, issued in 1889 to Thomas Edison.
A view of the Edison Machine Works, likely from the Erie Canal. The Edison Machine Works opened in 1886 with two buildings. The image is from later than 1886, since there are multiple buildings on the site. In 1892 the facility became known as the General Electric Schenectady Works after the merger between Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston.
Drawing of an early aerial view of the Edison Machine Works. Pictured are about half a dozen buildings.
Drawing of Edison's wire and wire insulation factory, part of the Edison Machine Works in Schenectady, New York.
Drawing of Edison underground tube manufacturing facility in Schenectady, New York, part of the Edison Machine Works.
Interior of Building 12, one of the two original buildings of the Edison Machine Works in Schenectady. The photo documents a flood during the spring of 1893. Machinery is partially under water, and three workers in a rowboat are rowing through the building.
Consolidation
In less than 15 years, the electrical industry transformed from a collection of small startup companies to a large industry dominated by two companies, GE and Westinghouse. As the industry grew in the early 1880s, Edison and Thomson-Houston became two leaders, and purchased other companies to expand product lines or strengthen their patent control. Edison purchased Sprague Electric, which developed one of the first electric streetcar systems, while Thomson-Houston bought Brush Electric to strengthen its position in power generation and arc lighting, and Van Depoele Electric for its street railway system.
Aerial view shows the Edison General Electric Company, positioned between the Erie Canal and New York Central Railroad. The factory had grown to more than a dozen large buildings.
Mine equipment advertisement from Edison General Electric Company. Included electric generators, electric motors, transmission of power over long distance, electric percussion drills, electric rotary drills, electric coal cutters, and electric mine locomotives
Shows sizes of Edison dynamo generators, ranging from 0.5 kw to 200 kw
Edison built an experimental two-mile electric railway at his Menlo Park complex. The locomotive used an Edison dynamo as a motor.
Electric street car on Pittsburgh's Pleasant Valley Line. The car is parked in front of a large bank in downtown Pittsburgh.
Edison beyond electricity
Thomas Edison poses in front of a workbench at his West Orange, New Jersey laboratory complex. Edison largely backed away from electricity research after the formation of GE. Edison continued to develop the phonograph, invented motion pictures, and created the Edison Portland Cement Company. Edison became one of the most popular Americans, and his opinions were widely sought after for topics ranging from science and politics to healthy living and the occult.
Thomas Edison at the close of five days and nights of continued work in perfecting the early Wax-cylinder type of Phonograph - June 16, 1888. This is the longest continuous session of labor he ever performed.
Edison's improved wax cylinder phonograph was miniaturized and used on a doll. The cylinder would wear out quickly and give the doll a gravel-type voice.
Edison checks the quality of motion picture film, 1912. Next to him is one of early movie projectors, the Edison kinetoscope.
Edison works in the Chemical Department building in his West Orange, New Jersey laboratory complex, 1890
Thomas Edison reads while at work in a laboratory in his West Orange, New Jersey laboratory complex.
Edison poses in his West Orange laboratory with a Crookes tube used to discover the Edison effect, the basic principles of electronics.
Advertisement for Detroit Electric automobiles in the March 28, 1914 Saturday Evening Post, featuring Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.
Thomas Edison poses with a Bailey Electric Car. The car has a sign, which reads "1000 mile endurance run, Bailey Electric, new Edison storage batteries."
Legacy in lighting
Drawing of Edison lamp exhibit created by General Electric for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The exhibit featured displays at the base, and a large tower capped by a giant lamp.GE continued to improve Edison's incandescent lamp, developing a new ductile tungsten filament in 1908. As the costs of electricity and light bulbs continued to decline, electric lighting became affordable for the average American.
Featured in December 9, 1905 Electrical World and Engineer
A woman reclines on a Victorian style sofa while wearing a white dress and holding a General Electric Edison Mazda lamp. Mazda was GE's major lamp model name, beginning about 1908.
A woman stands in front of an oriental rug and holds a General Electric Edison Mazda lamp. Mazda was GE's major lamp model name, beginning about 1908.
200 Watt Edison Mazda Lamp with tungsten filament. Larger incandescent lamps finally began supplanting arc lamps for street lighting
Thomas Edison listens to GE inventor William Coolidge during Edison's visit to Schenectady on October 18, 1922. Coolidge is likely telling Edison about his ductile tungsten swaging machine. Coolidge discovered the process from making tungsten ductile, or flexible. Coolidge's discovery led to the use of tungsten as a lamp filament, replacing the carbon filament used by Edison.
Edison visits Schenectady, 1922
On October 18, 1922, Thomas Edison returned to Schenectady to witness the transformation of his inventions. He visited the GE Research Laboratory to examine the latest developments in electric lighting, saw the GE turbine factory, and witnessed a demonstration of Charles Steinmetz's lightning machine.
Thomas Edison poses with top General Electric inventors during his visit to the GE Schenectady Works on October 18, 1922. From left to right: William Coolidge, Willis Whitney, Thomas Edison, Charles Steinmetz and Irving Langmuir
Thomas Edison and General Electric Honorary Chairman Edwin W. Rice, Jr. greet the Edison Pioneers during Edison's October 18, 1922 visit to GE's Schenectady Works.
Thomas Edison poses with the Edison Pioneers in front of the GE restaurant building. Taken during his visit to the GE Schenectady Works, October 18, 1922
Thomas Edison rides in car with GE engineer Charles Steinmetz during Edison's tour of General Electric's Schenectady Works.
Edison stands near an entrance to Building 5 at General Electric's Schenectady Works. Above the entrance is a plaque in Edison's honor created by GE porcelain specialist Julius Pardi. Pictured with Edison is Willis Whitney, Edwin Rice, Jr., Charles Steinmetz and Gerard Swope.
Edison autographed this photo to General Electric engineer Charles Steinmetz.
Thomas Edison and Charles Steinmetz examine a piece of wood and a porcelain insulator struck by lightning produced by Steinmetz's lightning generator.
General Electric President Edwin W. Rice, Jr., Thomas Edison, and Charles Steinmetz are among the group standing in front of the 5000 kW vertical Curtis turbine monument. The boy at the right of the image is probably Nicholas Mangino, who worked at GE as a messenger boy and accidentally ended up in the photo.
Thomas Edison and GE engineer William LeRoy Emmet stand next to a large turbine rotor. Emmet, together with GE engineer Oscar Junggren, developed the first large steam turbine generator in 1903. Building 60 was one of the early turbine buildings at GE.
The generator in the background generated sufficient electricity for two million Edison Mazda Lamps. The generators at Edison's Pearl Street Station in 1882 each generated enough electricity to power 1,200 lamps.
Later years
Edison examines a carbon filament during the re-creation of his lamp experiments at Greenfield Village during the Light's Golden Jubilee celebration in 1929. As the 50th anniversary of Edison's electric light approached, monuments, awards and accolades honored Edison's achievement. Henry Ford restored Edison's Menlo Park laboratories at Greenfield Village and the State of New Jersey honored Edison's work at the Menlo Park site. Edison died in 1931 at the age of 84.
Commemorative marker being unveiled to Thomas A. Edison, at Menlo Park, NJ, May 16, 1925. Thomas Edison and wife Mina are in front of the marker.
Three speeches by Thomas Edison in 1929.
Thomas Edison, at home, delivering his speech by radio for unveiling historic tablet at GE Schenectady Works, December 15, 1928.
Edison re-created his lamp experiment during the Light's Golden Jubilee radio broadcast in October 1929. Pictured behind Edison are Henry Ford and Francis Jehl. Jehl was one of Edison's chief assistants. Ford moved the remains of Menlo Park to his Greenfield Village attraction in Dearborn, Michigan and reconstructed the laboratory complex.
Edison working in the laboratory at his Fort Myers, Florida winter home
Employees look at an early Edison dynamo generator. At the time of the image, the dynamo was stored at General Electric's Schenectady Works.
This exhibit was developed in 2017 by miSci, the Museum of Innovation & Science. All photos were scanned from the General Electric Photograph Collection.
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