Thomas Edison - 1847 to 1931

Thomas Edison (Inventor) 1847- 1931

Thomas Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio. He was a poor student and was often put down by his teacher because he was "slow" so his mother decided to take him out of school and home school him. She read him lots of books and was the main reason he became fascinated with mechanical and chemical experiments. At the age of ten he already had a laboratory in his basement. He began selling newspapers on the Grand Trunk Railroad, was a young entrepreneur that took snacks to sell to the train passengers and even set up his another chemical lab and a printing press.

He was the youngest of seven children that were born to Samuel Ogeden Edison Jr. and Nancy Elliot. On December 25, 1871 he married Mary Stillwell and they had three children together Marion Estell, Thomas Alva, and William Leslie. Unfortunately Mary passed away on August 8, 1884. Then he one of his colleagues Mina Miller and they had three more children Charles, Madeline, and Theodore.

Moving from place to place he settled in Boston, Massachusetts in 1868 where he worked for Western Union Telegraph Company where he made his first invention of the electric vote recorder. Following the Phonograph in 1877 and began working on the light bulb in 1878, followed by the kinetograph. He received many awards