Thomas Edison said: "Discontent is the first condition of progress." The degree of "dissatisfaction" of the great inventor is indicated by 1,093 patents for inventions, which were issued to him by the Patent Office. This amount has never been received by any person in the United States. To make the world more convenient, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, built the world's first public power station, improved the telegraph and telephone, the incandescent lamp … Thanks to his discontent, the world became more comfortable.
Thomas Edison was born on February 11, 1847, the son of a joinery shop owner. However, when Thomas was 7 years old, his father went bankrupt, and the future inventor tasted all the inconveniences of the world of poverty. But from an early age, Edison proved to be an irrepressible fighter with circumstances, not wanting to come to terms with the fall of his family. Edison plunged into his studies. True, he had to say goodbye to school at the age of 8 - the school environment turned out to be too limited for him. His mother, a former school teacher, continued his homeschooling. At the age of 10, Thomas immersed himself in chemical experiments and created his first laboratory in the basement of his house.
At 12, Edison went to make money. He sold newspapers, fruits and candy on trains. In order not to waste time, he transferred the chemical laboratory to the baggage car provided at his disposal and conducted experiments on the train. At the age of 15, Thomas bought a printing press with the money he saved and began to publish his own newspaper right in the luggage car of the train in which he worked, and sell it to passengers.
However, Edison was attracted by everything innovative, so in 1861 he changed the railway to a more progressive telegraph. From the very first days of his work as a telegraph operator, he thought about how to improve the telegraph apparatus. In 1868, Edison's inventive genius gave birth to an electric recorder of the number of votes. True, there were no buyers for the invention patent, and then Thomas decided for himself that he would work only on inventions with guaranteed demand.
The next invention gave Edison a welcome boost. Thomas expanded the boundaries of the telegraph's capabilities: now he could transmit not only SOS signals, but also information about stock prices. On this invention, Edison earned 40 thousand dollars and soon organized a workshop where he made automatic telegraphs and other electrical equipment.
In 1877 Thomas Edison patented his new invention - the phonograph. Until the end of his life, he will consider it his favorite invention and the main rise in his own inventive career. The idea of a phonograph was suggested to him by sounds similar to unintelligible speech once emanating from a telegraph repeater. The press called the phonograph “the greatest discovery of the century,” and Edison himself suggested many ways to use it: dictation of letters and documents without the help of a stenographer, music playback, recording of conversations (in combination with a telephone), etc.
In 1891, Edison shocked the world with a new breakthrough invention, without which modern civilization cannot be imagined. He created an apparatus for showing sequential photographs of moving objects - a kinescope. On April 23, 1896, Edison held the first public screening of a motion picture in New York, and in 1913 he demonstrated a motion picture with synchronized soundtrack.
Until the end of his life, Thomas Edison was engaged in the improvement of this world. At the age of 85, dying, he said to his wife: “If there is anything after death, it is good. If not, that's fine too. I lived my life and did the best I could …”.
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