Essay on Thomas Edison
There exist a lot of great personalities who changed our reality for ever, and Thomas Edison is among them. Thus, the main aim of the project is to observe the personality of Thomas Edison, to discuss his inventions, and to explain what place he occupies in American history.
First of all, it is important to state that Thomas Alva Edison was a famous American inventor and entrepreneur, born on 11 February, 1847, in the city Milan, Ohio (USA). Surprisingly, but Alva Edison, who was the last of seven children in a large family, can not learn to speak for a long time and spoke for the first time only in 4 years. Right after that he begged every adult who was met on his way to explain how works this or that device, including everything that came his way. This interest to everything in the world allows to suppose that Thomas was very inquisitive and curious, while his favorite question was “why?” Silverberg demonstrated that Thomas Edison, the greatest inventor and entrepreneur of the twentieth century, had no formal education and did not bother about it (Silverberg, 1967). As it is said in the famous phrase that the bumblebee can not fly by the laws of aerodynamics, Edison preferred to know nothing about the opinions of experts who said that something is impossible.
In fact, starting from 7 to 12 years, Thomas Edison tried to go to school. But the boy could not fit into the school system because of the natural curiosity, mental alertness, inability to follow routine, hearing problems, and due to the strength of character in pursuing the own interests. Thus, he continued his education at home, where his parents (exactly his mother in a large degree) were trying to teach their son in the best way, allowing him to read different books, beginning with spiritual literature, classic literature and ending with scientific works of greatest scientists.
Beginning the observation of Edison’s inventions and thinking about Edison’s life, we can note that Edison left his job at the telegraph company “Western Union” in Boston in 1869, when he was 21, and decided to become a freelance inventor. He received his first patent in June 1869, and it was the “electric voting machine” designed for the U.S. Congress; moreover, Edison was even able to collect a few hundred dollars for his future invention from Boston industrialists. But the machine was rejected as undesirable from a political point of view, and Edison decided to devote himself to the creation of only those inventions that could bring commercial success.
It is undoubted fact that Edison’s inventions were very popular all over the globe many decades ago and are popular even nowadays; and Thomas Edison received 1093 patents on different inventions in the United States during his life, while he had something about three thousands of patents worldwide. Adair mentioned that the cost of all his companies at the time was estimated at $ 15 billion, while the company “General Electric” created by Edison, is one of the largest companies in the world even nowadays (Adair, 1996).
As it was previously stated, everything invented by Thomas Edison was practical by its direction because the inventor tried to create only those things that were in demand. For instance, one of his devices, such as telegraph answering machine, was extremely necessary to the inventor because he worked at the telegraph at that time, and his wit put into his invention allowed Edison to sleep at night.
Thinking about Edison’s personality, it is possible to pay a specific attention to the fact that the inventor always used empirical methods, trying to use them to find the key answer to solving the problem, while he was keenly interested in the theory of the encountered phenomena. He had a great intuition and great “feel” where to look for a decision, what kinds of experiments should be conducted, and his enthusiasm and curiosity knew no bounds. He also firmly believed that one should keep in mind not just one, but a number of problems awaiting solution, and was always ready to take advantage of a good idea to solve one or the other task. Despite this, he could create his inventions almost “to order”, if it was needed in an area with which he was familiar, or could learn by reading some special books. Edison had the ability to read quickly and to immediately draw from memory all the facts as necessary. Although he had no formal scientific education, he deeply studied electrical engineering, mechanics and chemistry.
In 1878, Edison applied to the problem of electric lighting and, having made more than six thousand experiments in a year in search of material for the filament lamp, he created the first carbon filament lamp suitable for commercial production in 1879. Moreover, he also designed lamp socket and cap for it. Enumerating some further Edison’s inventions, we can said that Edison created extra-high-power electric generator and participated in the construction and start-up of the world’s first central thermal power plant with an extensive network of supply of electricity for lighting and other purposes in New York, in 1881. In addition, Edison invented the nickel-iron alkaline battery, fuse, rotary switch, and a megaphone.
In 1891, Edison received a patent for a kinetoscope – an apparatus for demonstrating sequential photographs of moving objects. Having bought the patent for the projector, invented by Armat, Edison performed the first public exhibition of the film in April 23, 1896, in New York, and in 1913 he showed a movie with synchronized sound. Edison’s invention was made timely because a kind of madness in the sphere of cinema swept the world (and especially America) in the first decade of the XX century. Thus, the film industry has developed at a frantic pace, while films were made in great scales and brought fabulous profits.
During the World War I, Edison led advisory board of U.S. Navy. He participated in the creation of drugs, dyes, and other materials that were originally imported from Germany, and he also has developed a process to produce synthetic phenol and liquid products of distillation of coal needed to produce explosives. As a result, Edison’s mind and his works helped America to develop its power in the war time.
It is a fact that Edison was always inspired by his inventions, and in order to achieve such a result, Thomas Edison invested all his money, time and energy in the business. All Edison’s enterprises had long working hours; while the inventor also worked for 16-19 hours a day. He owns a famous saying that “genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”
Exploring Edison’s place in the world’s history in general, and in American history in particular, it is good to state that Edison’s entrepreneurial spirit and commercial vein, combined with a brilliant inventive gift, enabled Edison to make a fortune and fame throughout the world. Thanks to him, we talk on the phone “hello”, and it became the basis for the invention of electrical engineering for decades to come. Into the acknowledgement of this fact, Dyer and Martin stated that “the activities of Edison have been of such great range, and his conquests in the domains of practical arts so extensive and varied, that it is somewhat difficult to estimate with any satisfactory degree of accuracy the money value of his inventions to the world of to-day, even after making due allowance for the work of other great inventors and the propulsive effect of large amounts of capital thrown into the enterprises which took root, wholly or in part, through the productions of his genius and energies” (Dyer and Martin, 1910).
There are no doubts that Edison’s way of inventor was full of different events and hardships, but everything that happened during the great inventor’s life, persuaded him that every wrong attempt is a great experience of how is not necessary to do. It is possible to note that many of Edison’s inventions are not so much fundamental inventions or discoveries; rather, they are inventions bringing to the commercial sample which can be used by the public. Anderson said that “while he was certainly an ingenious scientist, Edison had a grander entrepreneurial vision than other solo inventors of his time. His manufacturing and business endeavors led to enormous success and were the driving forces behind much of his scientific decision-making” (Anderson, 2009).
In most inventions made by Edison, the priority does not belong to him in the sense that they were designed and made by others previously, but, nevertheless, they are quite independent inventions because only Edison is credited with bringing the concept to the amazing invention of practical perfection. Edison achieved this by long, laborious and hard scientific research. So, sometimes Thomas Edison took the finished raw invention and perfected it. In such a way, it can be said that Edison was a transitional figure from homegrown inventors of his century to qualified new time creators, who based their invention on thorough and systematic experiments. In 1876, Edison founded the world’s first industrial research laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, and the laboratory allowed the world to know many devices which made our life so comfortable today.
According to many statements in Edison’s honor, it is possible to write that Thomas Edison was more responsible than anyone else for creating the modern world. Moreover, no one has done more for the formation of physical and cultural borders of modern civilization than he did, while he was the most influential figure of the millennium.
In conclusion, we have discussed Edison’s personality, his the most famous inventions and the place which he occupies in American history, and have proved that tireless energy in scientific research and hard work in order to achieve a practical implementation of the invention were the most famous research methods of Thomas Alva Edison.
