Thomas Edison

By Tom Kirvan

One of the most prolific inventors in American history, Thomas Edison amassed an astonishing 1,093 patents during his 84-year life, including 389 for electric light and power, 195 for the phonograph, 150 for the telegraph, and 34 for the telephone.

In other words, not bad for someone without much in the way of formal education who left school in 1859 to begin peddling food and newspapers to rail passengers traveling between Detroit and Port Huron, Mich., where his family then lived.

Born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio, Edison was the youngest of seven children and suffered hearing loss at age 12, rendering him deaf in one ear and nearly deaf in the other. Despite his hearing limitations, Edison turned out to be an inventor like no other, developing such innovations as the phonograph, the incandescent light bulb, the alkaline battery, and one of the earliest motion picture cameras.

Thomas Edison

He did most of his inventive work in a special laboratory and machine shop that he built in Menlo Park, N.J., a place where he earned the label the “Wizard of Menlo Park.” It was there that he developed a carbon transmitter, which improved the audibility of telephone communications, and a safe, long-lasting, and affordable light bulb.

His pioneering work with batteries caught the eye of automobile icon Henry Ford, who in 1912 asked Edison to design a self-starter product for the Model T, the mass-produced vehicle that put Ford Motor Co. on the road to success. The close business relationship between the two entrepreneurs is immortalized at Greenfield Village, the sprawling open-air museum in Dearborn, Mich., where Ford paid lasting tribute to some of America’s greatest inventors. In particular, Ford recreated the Menlo Park lab in exacting detail as a way to forever honor the genius of Edison.

Fittingly, the real lab may have spawned one of Edison’s most notable quotes: “Genius is one percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration.”

Other gems of Edison’s:

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
“Many of life’s failures are people who don’t realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
“The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; and third, common sense.”
“What you are will show in what you do.”
“The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.”