A Brief Biography of Thomas Edison
adapted from the National Park Service
Thomas Alva Edison was born February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio. In 1854, when he was seven, the family moved to Michigan, where Edison spent the rest of his childhood.
"Al," as he was called as a boy, went to school only a short time. He did so poorly that his mother, a former teacher, taught her son at home. Al learned to love reading, a habit he kept for the rest of his life, and he also liked to make experiments in the basement.
Al not only played hard, but he also worked hard. At the age of 12, he sold fruit, snacks, and newspapers on a train as a "news butcher." He even printed his own newspaper, the Grand Trunk Herald, on a moving train.
At 15, Al roamed the country as a "tramp telegrapher," using a kind of alphabet called Morse Code in order to send and receive messages over the telegraph. Even though he was already losing his hearing, he could still hear the clicks of the telegraph. In the next seven years, he moved over a dozen times, often working all night, taking messages for trains and even for the Union Army during the Civil War. In his spare time, he took things apart to see how they worked until finally, he decided to invent things himself.
Edison moved to New York City, where he found a way to improve the way the stock ticker worked. This was his big break, and by 1870, his company was manufacturing his stock ticker in Newark, New Jersey. He also improved the telegraph, making it send up to four messages at once.
Edison moved from Newark to Menlo Park, New Jersey, in 1876, where he built his most famous laboratory and hired "muckers" to help him out. These "muckers" came from all over the world to make their fortune in America. They often stayed up all night working with the "chief mucker," Edison himself. He is sometimes called the "Wizard of Menlo Park" because he created two of his three greatest works there.
The phonograph, which was the first machine that could record the sound of someone's voice and play it back, was one of Edison's inventions. In 1877, Edison recorded the first words on a piece of tin foil. He recited the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and the phonograph played the words back to him. It is impressive that, although Edison's hearing was so poor he thought of himself as deaf, he was still able to develop the phonograph so successfully.
In 1878, Edison and the "muckers" worked on one of his greatest achievements: the electric light system. It was more than just an incandescent lamp, or "light bulb." Edison also designed a system of power plants that make the electrical power and the wiring that brings it to people's homes.
In 1887, Edison built a laboratory in West Orange that was ten times larger than the one in Menlo Park. In fact, it was one of the largest laboratories in the world, almost as famous as Edison himself. Well into the night, laboratory buildings glowed with electric light while Edison and his "muckers" turned his dreams into inventions, including X-rays, storage batteries, and the first talking doll. He worked there until his death on October 18, 1931, at the age of 84.
By that time, the whole world called him a genius, but he knew that having a good idea was not enough. It takes hard work to turn dreams into reality, which is why Edison liked to say, "Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration."
Drag each tile to the correct box.
Place the following sentences in the correct order to reflect the events that led to Thomas Edison's eventual success as an inventive "genius" of his day.
Edison was taught at home
and conducted experiments
in his basement.
Edison improved the stock
ticker, manufacturing it
all over Newark, New Jersey.
Edison built a laboratory
in Menlo Park and invented
the first-ever phonograph.
As a "tramp telegrapher,"
Edison spent his spare
time taking things apart.
Edison and his "muckers" created
the electric light system that
brings light to people's homes.
Edison built another laboratory
in West Orange, where he continued
to invent things still used today.
1. Edison was taught at home and conducted experiments in his basement.
4. As a "tramp telegrapher," Edison spent his spare time taking things apart.
2. Edison improved the stock ticker, manufacturing it all over Newark, New Jersey.
3. Edison built a laboratory in Menlo Park and invented the first-ever phonograph.
5. Edison and his "muckers" created the electric light system that brings light to people's homes.
6. Edison built another laboratory in West Orange, where he continued to invent things still used today.