1. Thomas Alva Edison
"Be courageous! Whatever setbacks America  has encountered, it has always emerged as a stronger and more prosperous nation.... Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith and go forward!"  ~ Thomas Alva Edison

2. Family Life Born in Ohio in 1847
Parents were Samuel and Nancy Elliott Edison
Married Mary Stillwell – had 3 children before her death
Married Mina Miller – had 3 more children

3. Education Attended public school for a short amount of time
Mother decided to home school Edison
She helped him develop a love of reading
Edison self taught himself in many ways by reading and experimenting

4. Hardships Mourned the death of first wife
Methods of mining iron ore were never made commercially practical
Lost millions of dollars
First patent (Electric Vote Recorder) was a failure
Many other inventions failed

5. Edison’s Failed Inventions

6. Accomplishments Patented 1,093 Inventions
Demonstrated invention of phonograph to President Hayes
Developed many companies
Started the recording industry
Received Congressional Medal of Honor in 1929

7. Inventions Patented a Total of 1,093
Improved the phone invented by Alexander G. Bell
Incandescent Light (1879)
Phonograph
His favorite
One of Mr. Edison’s First Phonographs Replica of First Incandescent Bulb – Edison National Historic Site

8. Inventions
Motion picture camera (kinetograph) and a motion picture viewer (kinetoscope).
(view Congress of Nations)
Some other inventions include the storage battery, a talking doll, an electric motor, and a telegraph

9. Credits
Unless noted otherwise, all photos are from the American Memory Collection

10. Go Back To Mr. Godfrey’s Thomas Edison Project Page