Thomas Edison (1847-1931) By: Emily Paige King

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio; the seventh and last child of Samuel and Nancy Edison. When Edison was seven his family moved to Port Huron, Michigan. Edison lived here until he struck out on his own at the age of sixteen. Edison had very little formal education as a child, attending school only for a few months. He was taught reading, writing, and arithmetic by his mother, but was always a very curious child and taught himself much by reading on his own. I choose Thomas Edison because I thought he was very interesting and he created an object that has changed the world forever.

Death Of A Great Inventor He died of old age (natural causes) on October 21, 1931. He was 84 years old when he died. Edison had six children, three from his first marriage. Marion, Thomas Alva Jr. , William. Then tree from his second wife. Madeleine, Charles, Theodore. He will be dearly missed by everyone. He changed the world forever.

Birth Certificate Date Of Birth: February 11th 1847 Mother: Nancy Edison Father: Samuel Edison

Diary Entry Today my teacher called me “slow”. And mother was so mad. She came to the school and she took me out of school she said she could teacher me better then they could.

Time Line 1847- Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio. 1854- The Edison family moves to Port Huron, Michigan. 1859- Edison gets a job as a train boy on the Grand Trunk Railroad, selling newspapers and candy.  He sets up a chemistry lab and a printing press on the train. 1863- Edison works as a telegraph operator in various cities of the Midwest, becoming a first-class press-wire operator and experimenting with telegraph instruments 1868- Edison becomes a telegraph operator in the main Western Union office in Boston and files his first patent application for an automatic vote recorder for legislatures. 1869- Edison retires as a telegraph operator to devote his time to invention.  He patents several telegraph devices and moves to New York City, where he works for the Laws Gold Indicator Company. 1870- Edison moves to Newark, New Jersey, and with money from a contract with the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company, he opens a telegraph manufacturing shop where he also conducts his inventive work. 1871- Edison devises several important improvements in stock ticker technology. On Christmas Day, he marries Mary Stillwell, one of his employees. 1874- Edison invents the quadruplet telegraph for Western Union, which transmits four messages simultaneously 1879- Edison invents the carbon-filament lamp and a direct-current generator for incandescent electric lighting.  A New Year's Eve demonstration of his system is held for the public at Menlo Park. 1880- Edison hires a larger staff to help him develop the components of his electric lighting system for commercial use and sets up a factory for the manufacture of electric lamps at Menlo Park. 1881- Edison leaves Menlo Park and opens new offices in New York City.  He establishes factories to make various parts of the electric light and power system and begins construction of the first permanent central power station, on Pearl Street, which opens in September 1882. 1883-1884- Edison spends a year promoting the installation of central stations for small manufacturing cities and towns and establishes a company to build the stations. 1884- Mary (Stillwell) Edison dies. 1887- Edison moves into a new laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey. 1890- William Kemmler becomes the first man executed with an electric chair. 1931- Edison dies in Llewellyn Park, New Jersey, on October 18.  The nation dims its light bulbs for one minute on the day of his funeral.

Interesting fact "He led no armies into battle, he conquered no countries, and he enslaved no peoples... Nonetheless, he exerted a degree of power the magnitude of which no warrior ever dreamed. His name still commands a respect as sweeping in scope and as world-wide as that of any other mortal - a devotion rooted deep in human gratitude and untainted by the bias that is often associated with race, color, politics, and religion."