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Thomas Edison The Man Who Changed the Night Forever
When Thomas Edison died in 1931, the President asked America to dim its lights for one minute.
His teacher had called him "addled." He went to school for only a few months, lost most of his hearing, sold newspapers on trains, and learned the telegraph after saving a little boy from an oncoming train. At Menlo Park he built an "invention factory," recorded "Mary had a little lamb" on the first phonograph, and after testing thousands of materials made a light bulb that burned for more than 13 hours.
Then he lost the War of the Currents to Tesla and Westinghouse, lost his name on his own company, lost a fortune in mining, and watched his factory burn in 1914. "I'll start all over again tomorrow," he reportedly said. He ended his life with 1,093 patents.
The facts behind this file
What the record shows
- Edison had only a few months of school, was hard of hearing from childhood, and sold newspapers on trains as a 'news butcher'.
- At 15 he pulled a small child out of the path of a train car.
- His later bamboo filaments burned for more than 1,200 hours.
- In 1892 Edison's company merged into General Electric. He later lost a fortune on an ore-milling venture.
- A fire destroyed much of his West Orange plant in December 1914.
- He held 1,093 US patents. On 21 October 1931, at President Hoover's request, Americans dimmed their lights in his honour.
Legends, disputes & careful wording
- That a teacher called him 'addled', how long his very first bulb burned, and what exactly he said at the 1914 fire are told in many versions. We could not confirm them in the main biographies.
Main sources
- Paul Israel, Edison: A Life of Invention (1998)
- Neil Baldwin, Edison: Inventing the Century (1995)
Spotted a mistake or know a better source? Tell us.
Further reading
- Edison A big modern biography by a Pulitzer Prize winner. View on Amazon →
- Edison: A Life of Invention By the director of the Thomas A. Edison Papers. View on Amazon →
As an Amazon Associate, Inventor Files earns from qualifying purchases. It costs you nothing extra.
Image & film credits
- Edison's "last breath" test tube, Henry Ford Museum: Jeanne from Cincinnati, OH, CC BY 2.0.
- Other archival photos are public domain or CC0 (Library of Congress, Thomas Edison National Historical Park, Smithsonian, Henry Ford collections); video clips from Pexels.
- Music and sound made for this video.
