– Thomas Edison, interview 1929
Short Biography Thomas Edison
thomas-edisonThomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio on Feb 11, 1847, the youngest of seven siblings. His parents were middle class, though they were not wealthy, especially when the railroad bypassed Milan, forcing the family to move to Port Huron, Michigan. He attended only three months of formal schooling, he irritated his teacher with his repeated questioning and inability to just follow instructions. He was largely disinterested at school, and was mainly self-educated through reading. He took upon it himself to read every book on the library shelf. By the age of 12, he was reading Sir Isaac Newton’s famous work – Principa Mathematica. However, Edison was not impressed by the complex maths of Newton, and resolved to try and make science more understandable.
As a youngster he tried various odd jobs to earn a living. This including selling candy, vegetables and newspapers. He had a talent for business, and he successfully printed the Grand Trunk Herald along with his other newspapers. This included selling photos of his hero, Abraham Lincoln. He was able to spend his extra income on a growing chemistry set.
Unfortunately, from an early age, Edison developed a severe deafness, which ultimately left him almost 90% deaf. He would later refuse any medical treatment, saying it would be too difficult to retrain his thinking process. He seemed to take his deafness in his stride, and never saw it as a disability.
edisonEdison had a big break when he saved a young boy on the railway track from being struck by a runaway train. His grateful father, J.U. Mckenzie, had Edison trained as a telegraph operator, and aged 19, Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky to work as a telegraph operator for Western Union.
From childhood, Edison loved to experiment, especially with chemicals. however, these experiments often got Edison into difficulties. A chemistry experiment once exploded on a train, and when working on a night shift at Western Union, his lead acid battery leaked sulphuric acid through the floor onto his boss’ desk. Edison was fired the next day.
However, Edison was undimmed and despite scrapping by in impoverished conditions for the next few years, he was able to spend most of his time working on inventions. He received his first patent in June 1, 1869 for the stock ticker. This would later earn him a considerable sum.
In the 1870s, he sold the rights to the quadruplex telegraph to Western Union for $10,000. This gave him the financial backing to establish a proper research laboratory and extend his experiments and innovations. Edison once described his invention methods as involving a lot of hard work, and repeated trial and error until a method was successful.