Edison's Life

Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in the small town of Milan, Ohio, in the Midwestern United States. His father was of Dutch descent and his mother, a former elementary school teacher, was of Scottish descent. When Edison was seven years old, his father lost money in the shingle business and moved the family to Fort Gratiot, a northern suburb of Huron, Michigan. Soon after moving here, Edison contracted scarlet fever and was ill for a long time. Edison attended school at the age of eight, but after only three months of schooling, he was dismissed by his teachers as "an imbecile" and "dull and stupid". From then on, his mother was his tutor, teaching her son to read and write. Edison had a keen interest in reading, and at the age of 8 he read the writings of Shakespeare, the most important playwright of the English Renaissance, Dickens, and many important history books, and by the age of 9 he was able to read and understand difficult books quickly, such as Parker's Natural and Experimental Philosophy.

Edison's earliest interest in the natural sciences was in chemistry, which he loved at age 10. He collected two hundred or so bottles and saved every penny to buy chemicals to fill them. at age 11, he experimented with his first telegraph. To earn money to buy chemicals and equipment, he began working, and at age 12, he got a job selling newspapers on trains, traveling between Port Huron and Detroit, Michigan. He sold newspapers while doing fruit and vegetable business, as long as he had time he went to the library to read. 1861 the United States broke out in the Civil War, just turned 14 years old Edison bought an old printing press, the use of the train's convenience, set up a small newspaper (weekly) - "Herald", to pass the war and news along the way, the first issue of the weekly was printed on the train, the first issue was printed on the train. The first issue was printed on the train. He was the reporter, editor, typesetter, proofreader, printer and distributor. The tabloid was well received, and he grew in talent, knowledge and experience from the intense work, and earned enough money to continue his chemical experiments. With the money he earned he set up a chemical laboratory in the baggage car. Unfortunately, however, once when he was doing his experiments on the train, the train suddenly lurched, causing a piece of phosphorus to fall on a wooden board and cause it to burn. The conductor rushed to extinguish the flames, but also gave him a hard slap on the face, deafened both his ears, he was thrown off the train, when Edison was only 15 years old. (Another story is that on one unfortunate occasion a chemical caught fire and he was thrown out of the car with his equipment. Another time, when Edison was trying to board a freight train, a conductor grabbed him by both ears and helped him on board. (This resulted in Edison becoming deaf for life.) The setback did not discourage Edison; he became fascinated with the telegraph again, and after much deliberation, in 1868 he invented an automatic electric recorder, his first invention. Later he invented two new types of telegraphs, and in 1877 he invented the carbon-based telephone transmitter, which made the original telephone sound clearer; in addition, he also invented the phonograph. In September 1878, when Edison was 31 years old, he began to study the electric light. At that time, gas lamps have replaced kerosene lamps, but the flame flickers, and in the extinguishing of harmful gases; arc lamps have been invented, and in the public **** place to use, but due to the burning hissing sound and the light is too bright, not suitable for indoor. At that time, many European and American scientists have been exploring the manufacture of a new stable luminous body. Edison studied the arc lamp and announced that he could invent a satisfactory light, but needed money. By then he was a man who had patented 170 inventions, and his inventions were so profitable to capitalists that a consortium was willing to provide him with funding. After thousands of failures, in April, 1879, he improved on the rod and tube lamps of his predecessors, and made a glass globe; and on October 21, 1879, he fastened a carbon-treated cotton thread inside a glass bulb, drew out the air, sealed the mouth, and applied the electric current, and it glowed, and a new kind of illuminating object appeared. Between 1880 and 1882, Edison designed electric light sockets, electric knobs, fuses, current cutoffs, meters, hanging lamps, but also designed the main line and branch system, and made the world's largest capacity at the time of the generator, and the establishment of the first power plant in New York, opened up the first civilian lighting system. Later he invented the movie camera with George Eastman. Edison's three major inventions: the phonograph, the electric light and power system, and the motion picture camera, enriched and improved the civilized life of mankind. Edison died on October 18, 1931, at the age of 84 in West Orange, U.S.A. He was buried in the same city. No one has yet been able to break his record of holding 1,093 invention patents, and people call him the King of Inventions. Edison died of uremia. On August 1, 1931, Edison felt ill and was diagnosed by doctors as suffering from a variety of conditions including chronic nephritis, uremia and diabetes. October 13 Edison hit the "reef" and fell into a coma. 1931 October 18, Edison died at the age of 84 years.