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Meet
Thomas Edison,
the greatest inventor of all time,
with 1,093 U.S. patents
By Paul Niemann
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"To invent, you need a good
imagination and a pile of junk." -- Thomas Alva Edison |
[JUNE 19,
2003]
The greatest American
inventor of all time was born in 1847 in Milan, Ohio. Thomas Edison
was issued more than 1,000 patents during his lifetime. Some of his
inventions -- such as the incandescent light bulb and the phonograph
-- even led to the creation of brand-new industries.
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"Genius is 99 percent
perspiration and
1 percent inspiration." |
Of all of Edison's important
inventions, he is best known for the incandescent light bulb, which
he created in 1878. Edison wasn't the only inventor to invent a
light bulb, though; a British inventor named Joseph Swan developed a
different version a year earlier. Trying to find the right filament
to make the bulb work was the biggest obstacle Edison faced. His
idea for the light bulb was the 1 percent inspiration part of the
equation, while the thousands of experiments and the marketing of
the light bulb made up the 99 percent perspiration. The main
difference between Edison and Swan was that Edison was able to
create an entire industry around his light bulb, which replaced
candles and gas lamps as the primary sources of light.
There are several interesting facts
about Thomas Edison that many people do not know. For example:
--Edison went to school only until the
third grade; then his mother taught him at home. One of Edison's
teachers showed how badly she had misunderstood the 6-year-old
Edison when she sent a note home with him stating, "He is too stupid
to learn."
--Edison suffered from a hearing loss.
This may have helped his career, though, because it allowed him to
concentrate better and avoid many of the distractions in his lab.
--Edison once worked 60 hours straight,
stopping only for 15-minute catnaps and snacks.
In 1869, Edison was approached by a
wealthy businessman about selling one of his products, an improved
stock ticker tape machine. Rather than stating an asking price,
Edison asked the man to make him an offer. The man offered him
$40,000 for it (which was equivalent to about $700,000 in today's
dollars). This turned out to be a lot more than Edison thought it
was worth, and the money helped finance future inventions.
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"If we could do all the things we
are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves." |
[to top of
second column in this article]
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The incandescent light bulb was
Edison's greatest invention. In addition to the light bulb, his
1,093 patents included:
- Vote recorder (1868)
- Printing telegraph (1869)
- Stock ticker (1869)
- Automatic telegraph (1872)
- Electric pen (1876)
- Carbon telephone transmitter
(1877)
- Phonograph (1877)
- Dynamo (1879)
- Incandescent electric lamp (1879)
- Electric motor (1881)
- Talking doll (1886)
- Projecting kinetoscope film
projector (1897)
-
Storage
battery (1900)
Source: Smithsonian Institution
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"I have not failed. I have merely
found 10,000 ways that won't work." |
Even the greatest inventor of all time
had a few failures. According to the
Inventors.about.com
website, Edison's failures included motion pictures with sound, his
inability to create a practical way to mine iron ore, and an
electric vote recorder. Even though the electric vote recorder
worked, it was a commercial failure and led Edison to remark, "I
only want to invent things that will sell."
The electric industry that Edison
formed led to the creation of what is known today as General
Electric, and his Menlo Park invention lab became the model that the
labs of many innovative companies were patterned after. While
Edison's greatest invention was the incandescent light bulb, his
greatest contribution is probably the fact that nearly every
civilized society on earth has benefited positively from one or more
of his inventions.
Next week:
Meet Jerome Lemelson, the
most prolific inventor of the modern era, with 583 U.S. patents
[Paul
Niemann]
To test your "invention IQ," visit
www.InventionMysteries.com. Paul Niemann can be reached at
niemann7@aol.com.
- - -
Last week's
column in LDN:
Necessity is the mother of invention, so celebrate Father's Day with
these 'fathers of invention'
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