Thomas Edison Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Thomas Edison - Research Paper Example Edison obtained the majority of his educational materials from The Cooper Union, which specialized in supplying higher education materials and instruction for students. Through his education, Edison became interested in various branches of science, which played a role in his later career as an experimenter and inventor. Growing up, Edison held a variety of odd jobs to increase his income. While living in Michigan, he made a modest salary by selling candy and newspapers on the trains that ran through his city. He also sold vegetables to help his family with their expenses. Edison’s first stable job came after he saved a little boy from being hit by a runaway train. The station agent, J.U. MacKenzie, who was also the father of the little boy, was so appreciative of Edison’s actions that he trained Edison to be a telegraph operator. Edison spent many years in this position. When he was nineteen, he moved to Kentucky where he received a boost in his career by being given a job with the Associated Press news wire. During his career on the news wire, Edison made sure that he always received the night shift so that he would be able to work, read, and experiment. However, on one particular night, Edison’s attention on his experimenting ended up costing him his job when a lead-acid battery he was playing with spilled sulfuric acid onto the floor, which then leaked through the floorboards and spilled onto the desk of his boss below. Edison was immediately fired upon arriving at work the following morning. However, despite losing his job, one good thing came from Edison’s time as a telegraph operator. While working, he met Franklin Pope, another telegrapher and an inventor himself. Pope allowed Edison to work out of the basement of his home, which allowed Edison the space he needed for his first two inventions, a stock ticker and the electric vote recorder that was officially patented on June 1, 1869 (Pretzer, 1989). When Edison was twenty-four , he married Mary Stilwell. He met her while she was working at one of his shops. Together they had three children, Marion, Thomas Jr., and William. Mary died thirteen years later from a brain tumor; two years later, Edison married again, this time to Mina Miller, who was almost half of Edison’s age and the daughter of a famous inventor. They also had three children, including Charles and Theodore, both of whom went on to follow in their father’s footsteps as inventors. Mina outlived her husband, dying in 1947 from natural causes. Thomas Edison became most known for his numerous inventions, obtaining over one thousand patents in the United States during his lifetime, as well as many patents in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. As previously mentioned, among Edison’s first inventions were a stock ticker and an electric vote recorder. He also invented numerous telegraph machines and improved on telegraph machines that had already been invented, such as inve nting the quadruplex telegraph, which made it possible to transmit four messages at once. He also invented the electric pen, which was a device used for copying. However, regardless of these first useful inventions, Edison first became known for his invention of the phonograph in 1877, which is the first record player. Even though the phonograph had very poor sound quality and could only be used a few times, the public was taken back by this surprising, wonderful invention, giving Edison the nickname of the Wizard of Menlo Park. Edison spent a few years perfecting his original phonograph,