Thomas Edison

Early Life Thomas Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio. Edison was one of seven children. He had a hard time focusing in school. He was kicked out of school only three months after starting. His mom believed that he had great potential and decided to home school him.

Young Thomas Edison Thomas Edison left home at age 13 and began selling papers as a newsboy. He loved to read and spent much of his free time reading scientific and technical books about how things worked. Edison began developing new inventions, but success did not come quickly.

First Invention = Failure! Thomas Edison’s first invention was an electric vote recorder. He made a machine that would record the votes that people made during election time. This was a big failure because no one wanted it. Edison said from that moment on, he would only invent things that people wanted. This failure spurred Edison on to invent bigger and better things. Edison realized that “necessity was the mother of invention.” That means inventors must find what problems that people have, and then invent a way to solve them!

Winners Don’t Quit! Thomas Edison did not stop inventing. He continued to invent devices that could help people. He worked and worked and finally started having some success. He made enough money to open a “inventing lab” where he could invent all day long. This lab was in Menlo Park, New Jersey. Thomas Edison’s nickname became the “Wizard of Menlo Park”

What did Edison invent? The phonograph, a machine that could record and reproduce sound A way to mass produce the electric light bulb The motion picture camera

Thomas Edison was one of the greatest inventors of all time Thomas Edison was one of the greatest inventors of all time! Click on the icon to hear a message from Thomas Edison!