Thomas Edison

• youngest of seven children of Samuel and Nancy Edison
• scarlet fever as well as ear infections left Edison with hearing difficulties in both ears as a child and nearly deaf as an adult
• At age 12, Thomas began publishing his own small newspaper, called the Grand Trunk Herald
• In 1868, Edison returned home to find his beloved mother was falling into mental illness and his father was out of work. The family was almost destitute. Edison realized he needed to take control of his future.
• In 1869, at 22 years old, Edison moved to New York City and developed his first invention, an improved stock ticker called the Universal Stock Printer, which synchronized several stock tickers' transactions.
• The Gold and Stock Telegraph Company was so impressed, they paid him $40,000 for the rights.
• In 1870, he set up his first small laboratory and manufacturing facility in Newark, New Jersey, and employed several machinists.
• In 1876, Edison moved his expanding operations to Menlo Park, New Jersey, and built an independent industrial research facility incorporating machine shops and laboratories.
• In 1880, Edison founded the Edison Illuminating Company, the first investor-owned electric utility—which later became the General Electric Corporation.
• On April 23, 1896, Edison became the first person to project a motion picture, holding the world's first motion picture screening at Koster & Bial's Music Hall in New York City.
• Edison designed a battery for the self-starter on the Model T for friend and admirer Henry Ford in 1912.
• During World War I, the U.S. government asked Thomas Edison to head the Naval Consulting Board, which examined inventions submitted for military use. Edison worked on several projects, including submarine detectors and gun-location techniques.
• However, due to his moral indignation toward violence, he specified that he would work only on defensive weapons, later noting, "I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill."
• By the end of the 1920s, Thomas Edison was in his 80s. He and his second wife, Mina, spent part of their time at their winter retreat in Fort Myers, Florida, where his friendship with automobile tycoon Henry Ford flourished and he continued to work on several projects, ranging from electric trains to finding a domestic source for natural rubber.
• Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla: The two parted ways in 1885 and would publicly clash about the use of direct current electricity, which Edison favored, vs. alternating currents, which Tesla championed.
• Sidenote: War of Currents

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• Edison's career was the quintessential rags-to-riches success story that made him a folk hero in America.