Biography of Thomas Alva Edison (Part-2)
Becoming an Entrepreneur:
In 189, 22-year-old Thomas Alva Edison moved to New York City and made his first successful discovery. It was a stock ticker printer, which he named “Universal Stock Printer.” A stock ticker signals that the price of shares or stocks of various companies in the stock market fluctuates. As a result of Thomas’s discovery, it was easy to see when prices were going up or down, and at the same time, Thomas’s printers could show many stocks at once. The Gold and Stock Telegraph Company, impressed by his work, bought him the rights to the device for 40,000. In the 180’s, 40,000 dollars was a huge amount.
After this success, Thomas decided to quit his job as a telegraph operator and become a full-fledged investor. In 180, he set up his first lab in New Jersey, USA. He also hired some machine operators there.
His lab was his business factory. There he made new instruments and sold them to those who could afford them. He also improved the instrument with which the telegraph began his career. He invented the “Quader Plex” telegraph from the first lab, which could send signals to two different places through a single wire. It was a landmark discovery at the time.
In 18, Thomas moved to Menlo Park, New Jersey. There he built an industrial research facility with advanced laboratories and machine workshops.
That same year, the Western Union Company asked him to create a device that could compete with Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone. He did not, of course. The following year he invented the phonograph, which was the first effective audio recording device. Although it took another ten years for this phonograph to reach the general public, it was through this device that Edison became famous worldwide for the first time.
Usable Electric Bulbs:
Many believe that Thomas Edison invented the first electric bulb. It’s not quite right. Many have previously studied alternatives to gas and fire lamps. From the Italian scientist Alessandro Volta in 1800 to the British scientists Humphrey Davy, Henry Woodward, and Matthew Evans, many have tried to make electric lamps. Although they were successful in some cases, no one has made these lamps for human consumption and commercially viable. It is said that Thomas Alva Edison also had to make electric lamps successfully and failed 10,000 times. “I haven’t failed 10,000 times, I’ve come up with 10,000 reasons why it didn’t work,” he said later.
He bought the copyright of Woodward and Evans’s research and continued research on their project, and in 189, he was able to design a modern light bulb successfully. Like everyone else, Thomas has repeatedly failed to do so. But others failed, and Thomas stopped researching, but Thomas continued and eventually succeeded. He later patented the modern light bulb in his name.
In January 180, he started building his electric company. His dream was to bring electricity and light to all the cities of the world. That same year, he founded the Edison Illuminating Company. Which later came to be known as the “General Electric Corporation.” General Electric is still one of the best electric companies in the world.
In 181, Thomas’s company began setting up power plants in several cities. In 182, his company began providing electricity and lighting services to 59 homes in Manhattan.
Other discoveries and initiatives by Thomas Edison:
In 18, Thomas Giant set up an industrial research lab in West Orange, New Jersey, USA. There he advanced the technology of light and electricity and created effective models of phonographs and motion picture cameras. He also made modern batteries, which could easily hold much more electricity.
Over the next few decades, Edison continued to become an inventor and a skilled industrialist and business manager, an important step in the modernization of the American economy. Although he could not adapt to the corporate environment at first, he gradually learned to do so.
On April 23, 1897, Edison became the first person to screen a film at the Coaster and Bial’s Music Hall in New York City.
In the early 20th century (1901-2000), when the use of motor vehicles began, Edison began research on electric cars. He wanted to build a battery that could hold enough energy to run a car for a long time. However, in the end, it is the oil-powered car that gets the better of the electric car. One of the main reasons for this is that electricity was not as readily available as today. Thomas later made car parts for his friend Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motors. The technology created by Thomas Alver has been used in cars for decades. Today’s popular car brand Elon Musk’s “Tesla Motors” cars are inspired by Thomas Alva Edison’s electric car idea.
During World War I, the US government asked him to head the Naval Consulting Board. This board tested and developed weapons for the army and navy. He agreed to do the work out of patriotism. Still, because of his opposition to killing and destruction from a policy point of view, he worked on missile detectors, weapons location detection techniques, etc. Still, he did not work on any weapons manufacturing projects. The government’s agreement with him stipulated that he would only work on defensive and technical matters. He later said: “I am proud that I have never discovered anything that can kill.”
Tesla and Edison:
However, his rivalry with another famous scientist Nikola Tesla is still popular in the scientific community. This French scientist came to work for some time in Edison’s company. Although both were exceptionally talented, their work style and philosophy were different. Tesla has never favored Edison’s business outlook. There was also disagreement between the two on how electricity should be used. In 175, the conflict between these two great scientists became the headline of a newspaper.
Tesla later partnered with “George Westinghouse,” George was one of Edison’s business rivals. This made their dispute worse. Many claims that Tesla made many of Tesla’s inventions in his name and that it was because of Edison that Tesla was unable to develop his talents fully. Even today, scientists and science enthusiasts are divided into Tesla and Edison.
Family life of Thomas Alva Edison:
In 181, Thomas married a 17-year-old woman named Mary Stillwell. Mary worked for one of his companies. Mary and Edison had three children. Marion, the daughter of Thomas’ first child, was nicknamed “Dot”; Born after Marion, Thomas Alva Edison Jr. was nicknamed “Dash”; William Edison, the third child of the Thomas-Mary couple, was himself a successful scientist and inventor.
Mary died of a brain tumor in 184, and in 18, Thomas married Mina Miller, 19 years his junior.
In the womb of his second wife, Minar also gave birth to two sons and a daughter. Two sons Theodore and Charles, and daughter Madeleine Edison.
Death:
In the late 1920s, when Thomas was in his eighties, he spent most of his time in Florida. It was there that his friendship with Henry Ford, the father of the modern car, deepened. Even at that age, he worked on projects like electric trains.