THOMAS A. EDISON Born in 1847 - Died in 1931 Enter your search terms Submit search form   Web gardenofpraise.com

Thomas Alva Edison was called Alva, or Al by his family. He was a very curious child. He was always asking questions. Even his mother, who had once been a schoolteacher could not answer all his questions. He would experiment to try to find the answers. Once he tried to hatch some eggs by sitting on them. Another time he accidently burned down the family's barn.

The teacher told someone she thought there was something wrong with Alva; that he was "addled" * . He told his mother and they took him out of the school. He only went to school for 3 months in his whole life. Afterwards , he was taught at home.

He wanted to experiment. To make money for his experiments, he went to work at age 12 selling newspapers and candy on a train. When he had some spare time on the train, he would do experiments in the baggage car.

When he was 16 he went to work for the telegraph * office sending messages.

He became nearly deaf due to an injury to his ears. He later said he didn't mind being deaf because it helped him to concentrate.

When he was 22 years old he went to New York. He only had $1 in his pocket. He hunted for a job during the day, and at night he slept in the basement of a gold company. He watched everything around him very closely. Some equipment broke down and Edison was able to fix it because he had been watching it work before he went to sleep each night. The owners gave him a job. He improved the machine so much the company paid him $40,000 for his invention. He started the American Telegraph Works in New Jersey.

He built a laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. It was here with his employees he made many of his inventions. He would work night after night, and sometimes he would fall asleep at his workbench. His wife wouldn't see him for days at a time.

He and his team worked to make a light bulb which would burn for a long time without burning out. They tried 1,500 materials and nothing worked well. Finally he tried a new material in the filament * that burned nearly 200 hours.

After he had made the light bulb, he worked to make a power system so people could use the bulb. In 1882 he flipped a switch and 85 houses in New York City had electric lights for the first time.




Thomas Edison was probably the world's greatest inventor. He had a patent on 1,093 inventions. In addition to the electric light, he also invented the phonograph * , a camera to take motion pictures, a cement mixer, the automatic * telegraph, and he improved Alexander Graham Bell's telephone.

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Pioneers of Electricity from SCE Edison Antique Electric Museum Edison's Miracle of Light PBS site Thomas Edison Birthplace Museum Biography of Thomas Edison from World of Biography Edison Invents from the Smithsonian Timeline of Edison's life Edison After Forty from American History Thomas Edison at Time For Kids Edison's Miracle of Light transcript of the film at PBS Thomas Edison from The Learning Page at the Library of Congress Thomas A. Edison Papers Rutgers The Wizard of Menlo Park from Franklin Institute Online A Trip with Edison Norm Brauer Publications Thomas Alva Edison at Buzzle.com Thomas Alva Edison from Hero History Inventors and Inventions at Kid Info More Inventors from Enchanted Learning Brief Biography of Edison from the National Park Service Questions and Answers about Edison National Park Service Online book "Inventors" Thomas Edison, page 223 At biography.com search for Thomas Edison. Scroll the panel for the "Video & Audio Results".

Thomas Edison: A Brilliant Inventor By Lisa DeMauro, ed. / Harpercollins Publishing Take a close-up look Thomas Edison, the brilliant scientist who perfected the light bulb and founded the first movie studio. Interviews with experts and lively writing deliver the accurate reporting you expect from TIME for Kids. Historical and contemporary photographs capture the life of this inventor who revolutionized our world. Recommended for ages 7 to 9.

Electricity, Intermediate Thematic Unit By Teacher Created Resources Thematic Units from Teacher Created Materials are literature based, cross-curricular, and ready to use. They provide activities, many of them hands-on, for all areas of the curriculum, including math, science, language arts, social studies, physical education, art, and music. Each book offers two or more literature-based units and lesson plans plus cross-curricular activities and worksheets, a culminating activity, management ideas, and a bibliography. Complete and comprehensive, these reproducible units are designed with student interest and teacher usability in mind. The planning is complete. The book used in "Electricity" (that will need to be purchased or borrowed) is: "Electricity" by Steve Parker There are also several articles in this workbook about Inventors and their Inventions.

Inventor Resource
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From Word Central's Student Dictionary
by Merriam - Webster
(Pronunciation note: the schwa sound is shown by &)

addled, addle
Pronunciation: 'ad-&l
Function: verb
Inflected Form: ad·dled
: to make or become confused...

telegraph
Pronunciation: 'tel-&-"graf
Function: noun
: an electric device or system for sending messages
by a code over wires ...

phonograph
Pronunciation: 'fO-n&-"graf
Function: noun
: an instrument that reproduces sound recorded on a grooved disk ...

filament
Pronunciation: 'fil-&-m&nt
Function: noun
: a single thread or a thin flexible threadlike object, process, or part: as a : a wire (as in a light bulb) that is made to glow by the passage of an electric current...

automatic
Pronunciation: "ot-&-'mat-ik
Function: adjective
: having devices or mechanisms (as timers) that permit operation without help from a person, (automatic washer)...

Biographies in this Series

Presidents of the United States	George Washington 1st U.S. President	John Adams 2nd U.S. President	Thomas Jefferson 3rd U.S.President
	James Monroe 5th U.S. President	Andrew Jackson 7th U.S. President	Abraham Lincoln 16th U.S.President
	Franklin D. Roosevelt 32nd U.S. President	John F. Kennedy 35th U.S. President	James Madison 4th U.S. President
	Theodore Roosevelt 26th U.S. President	Ronald Reagan 40th U.S. President	Barack Obama 44th U.S. President-elect
American Patriots	Benjamin Franklin patriot and statesman	Francis Scott Key Star Spangled Banner	Deborah Sampson woman soldier in the Revolutionary War
World Leaders	Constantine Roman Emperor	Alexander the Great conqueror	Winston Churchill British Prime Minister
Inventors	Alexander Graham Bell telephone	Johann Gutenberg printing press	Cyrus McCormick mechanical reaper
	The Wright Brothers first airplane	Henry Ford Automaker	Thomas A. Edison electric light bulb
	Sequoyah Cherokee alphabet	Nikola Tesla 700 patents	.
Explorers	Christopher Columbus explorer	Meriwether Lewis explorer	Robert Peary Arctic explorer
	John Muir Naturalist	Matthew Henson Arctic Explorer	Sir Edmund Hillary Mr.Everest
	Kit Carson Indian agent	"Johnny Appleseed" orchardist	.
Women who made a difference	Clara Barton founder of the Red Cross	Helen Keller overcame blindness & deafness	Florence Nightingale founder of nursing profession
	Joan of Arc religious and military leader	Amelia Earhart Aviator	Annie Oakley sharpshooter
	Susan B. Anthony Suffragette	Elizabeth Keckly Seamstress	Harriet Tubman deliverer of slaves
	Anne Frank Diarist	Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian	.
Scientists	George Washington Carver botanist and educator	Sir Isaac Newton explained gravity and properties of light	Marie Curie scientist, physicist
	Louis Pasteur Biologist	Albert Einstein physicist, genius	Galileo Astronomer, physicist
	Lise Meitner Physicist	.	.
Educators	Noah Webster writer of dictionary	Booker T. Washington leader and educator	Aristotle Greek philosopher
Physicians	Hippocrates father of medicine	Walter Reed discovered cause of yellow fever	Albert Schweitzer humanitarian
Religious Leaders	Increase Mather Salem witch trials	.
Athletes	Lou Gehrig baseball player	Wilma Rudolph Olympic gold medal winner	Tiger Woods golfer
	Michael Phelps Olympic swimmer	.	.
Civil Rights Leaders	Martin Luther King civil rights leader	Rosa Parks bus desegregation	Sojourner Truth Former slave
	Frederick Douglass Abolitionist	Mary Ann Shadd Cary Civil rights leader	James Forten Inventor, abolitionist
	Gandhi Indian civil rights leader	César Chávez Civil rights leader	.
Composers	Beethoven composer
Artists	John James Audubon artist and naturalist	Gutzon Borglum sculptor, Mount Rushmore	Ansel Adams photographer

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Puzzles on these pages courtesy of
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Light bulb courtesyWikipedia