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History.com, Thomas Edison, access date January 29, 2018
Prezi, Jake Morelle, access date January 29, 2018

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Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio and he grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel Edison Jr. and Nancy Edison. Edison only attended school for a few months and was taught by his mother at home. Much of his education came from reading. He developed hearing problems when he was young. The cause of his deafness was developing the Scarlet fever during childhood, though Edison mentioned one time that his hearing problem was because of an accident. Edison sold candy and newspapers on trains running from Port Huron to Detroit. In 1863, he worked as a telegraph operator for the Grand Trunk Railway in Stratford, Ontario when he was just sixteen. He began discovering his talents as a businessman and obtained the exclusive right to sell newspapers on the road. After that, he succeeded to type and print the Grand Trunk Herald which he sold with other papers. He got married at the age of 24 and had three children. At the age of 39, he remarried again after the death of his first wife and had three other children

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Edison became a telegrapher operator after saving a three years old Jimmy MacKenzie from being struck by a train. Jimmy's father so grateful to him and he trained him as a telegrapher operator. Edison's first job in Telegraphy was on the Grand Trunk Railway in Ontario. In 1866, at the age of 19, Edison moved to Kentucky working at Western Union in the Press Bureau. He took nightshifts which allowed him to spend a lot of time reading and experimenting. He got fired while working on a lead-acid battery. He spilled sulfuric acid onto his bosses desk. One of his Mentors allowed him to live and work for him in New Jersey. Some of Edison's early inventions were related to telegraphy including a stock ticker and his first patent was for the electric vote recorder.

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Edison began his career as an inventor in Newark, New Jersey. He Invented an automatic repeater and other Telegraphic devices. The invention that caught the peoples attention was the phonograph. It was almost magical that Edison became known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park," New Jersey. In 1878, Edison traveled to Washington to demonstrate the phonograph before the National Academy of Sciences, Congressmen and the US President. Although Edison obtained a patent for the phonograph in 1878 he did little to develop it. In 1876, Edison Built an Industrial Research Lab in Menlo Park in New Jersey with machine shops laboratories

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In 1876, Edison began work to improve the microphone for telephones and finally succeeded to invent a carbon telephone transmitter. He used the carbon microphone concept to create an improved telephone for Western Union. He also found a way to improve a Bell Telephone microphone, that was made in The Bell Telephone Company by Alexander Graham Bell, one that used loose contact ground carbon, he made it work far better after roasting the carbon. His carbon telephone invention was put to use since 1890 and used in all telephones along with the Bell receiver until the 1980s.
In 1878, Edison also began working on a system of Electrical illumination. He wished to eliminate the flaws of short-lasting, expensive to produce light bulbs. After many experiments, Edison Invented an electric lamp with a carbon filament that was the first commercially sold electric bulb. He formed the Edison Electric Light Company in New York City. He made his first public demonstration of his light bulb in 1879 in Menlo Park. He said, "We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles." In 1880, Edison and his personnel installed Colombia's new lighting system in New York after Villard, the Colombia company owner, requested that Edison install his electric lighting system. Edison also founded the Edison Illuminating Company and he patented a system for electricity distribution. Edison used direct current "DC" power delivery system and he received competition from George Westing House Electric Company that used "AC" alternating current systems

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In 1896, Edison became the first person to project a motion picture, holding the worlds first motion picture screening at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City. As the automobile industry began to grow, Edison worked on developing a suitable storage battery that could power an electric car. He designed a battery for the self-starter on the Model T for his friend Henery Ford in 1912.
During World War I, the US government asked Edison to hed the Naval Consulting Board, which examined inventions submitted for military use.
By the end of the 1920s, Thomas Edison was in his 80s. He and his second wife, Mina, spent their winters in Florida where Edison's friendship with Henery Ford, the automobile tycoon, flourished and he continued to work on several projects.

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Thomas Edison Inventions had a great impact on society and economy. When his electric light bulb was turned on, he helped turn into an everyday source of light and power. Electricity began to flow to homes, stores, and factories and the age of electricity began. People used candles for lighting which often caused a lot of fires. After the light bulb, people could work more and be more productive as the light bulbs light their working places for longer times and hence, more products where produced. Factories replaced water wheels and steam engines with electric motors. New electric power devices made everything in life even housework easier. The world economy flourished. Edison's phonograph, the motion picture projector, the electric light bulb, and many other inventions brought financial gain to the whole world through record playing industry, filmmaking, etc...

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During the last two years of his life, Edison was in increasingly poor health. On October 1931, Edison died of a complication of diabetes in his home.
His rise from poor, uneducated railroad worker to one of the most famous men in the world made him a folk hero. More than any other individual, he was credited with building the framework for modern technology and society in the age of electricity. One of his famous quotes was, "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."