Interesting and Fun Thomas Edison Facts
Thomas Edison was born on 11th February 1847 and is one of the most popular inventors in the world that helped in inventing most of the essential things we use today such as the light bulb. Do you know that Thomas Edison made an electric vote recorder to record votes in Boston? Keep reading to explore more fascinating facts about Edison’s life, inventions, and more.
Thomas Edison Facts About His Life
1. Thomas Edison was one of the key figures that helped America’s economy during the period of the industrial revolution.
2. Because he invented the electric light system, Thomas Edison was awarded the French legion of honor.
3. Nikola Tesla once worked for Edison, but the two never hit together and they became rivals.
4. Edison in 1912 worked on building automobile batteries for Henry Ford, an automobile maker.
5. It was at the age of 22 that Thomas Edison moved to New York and birthed the idea of the Universal Stock Printer.
6. Thomas Edison was usually called “the wizard of Menlo” because that was where he first established his factory.
7. Thomas worked for about 5 years on products relating to the telegraph for companies like Western Union Telegraph.
8. The Edison Illuminating Company was founded in the first month of 1880 to light up the cities.
9. Thomas Edison found himself in many legal battles with motion picture companies and in 1918, he stopped working in that industry.
Thomas Edison Facts About His Inventions
10. Thomas Edison created the incandescent light bulb in the 1870s by heating a metal filament.
11. In December 1877, Thomas Edison produced the first phonograph, and the first words he spoke to the phonograph(record player) was “Mary has a little lamb”
12. He also invented the first alkaline battery in 1910 and began massive production after it proved to be successful.
13. The first movie camera in the world which was known as Kinetoscope was first developed by Thomas Edison and one of his workers.
14. To improve telephones’ audibility, Thomas Edison invented the carbon transmitter.
15. Thomas Edison also made an electric vote recorder to record votes in Boston.
16. Thomas Edison was the one that invented the electric power meter.
Thomas Edison Facts About His Early Life
17. Thomas Edison was close to losing his hearing when he was at the age of 12.
18. The teacher that taught him termed him “difficult” because he was easily distracted in class.
19. It was in 1854 when his parents moved to Michigan that Thomas Edison attended public school for about three months.
20. Because of his near deafness, Thomas Edison became shy and solitary.
21. It was from his mother that Thomas Edison learned a lot of things, as she had a huge impact on his life.
22. It was in Milan, Ohio, on the 11th of February, 1947, that Thomas Edison was born.
23. Thomas Edison was very interested in learning and would often read outside his school subjects.
24. In the late 1860s, a crisis broke out in his family as his mother became mentally ill and the father wasn’t employed.
25. The career of Thomas Edison started as a newsboy, where he printed and sold newspapers on trains.
Thomas Edison Facts About His Family
26. Thomas Edison’s father was a politician in Canada who was in exile.
27. The Mother of Thomas Edison, Nancy Elliott, and the father, Samuel Edison had seven children of which Edison was the last.
28. It was in the year 1871 that the mother of Edison died, and Edison also married his first wife that year.
29. The first wife that Thomas Edison married was suspected to die of a brain tumor.
30. Thomas Edison had 3 children with his first wife Mary.
31. Thomas Edison nicknamed two of his children dot and dash.
32. The duration of his first marriage was thirteen years.
33. Marion Edison, who was one of Edison’s children, was born in 1873 and lived until 1965 before she died.
34. It was Charles Edison, one of his children that succeeded his father in his company.
35. Thomas Edison had a child who he named after himself and he had about 80 patents to his name.
36. Thomas Edison married his second wife at the age of 39 years while the new wife was 20.
Thomas Edison Facts About His Childhood
37. Right from his childhood, Thomas Edison was a workaholic, selling fruits and newspapers.
38. It was in Michigan that Thomas Edison spent the rest of his childhood.
39. His deafness was said to come from scarlet fever he contracted as a child.
40. After he quit school, Thomas Edison became an independent learner due to his voracious reading.
41. The first newspaper that Thomas Edison produced was called the Grand Trunk Herald.
42. Right from his childhood, Thomas Edison was fascinated by mechanical and chemical experiments.
43. After an accidental fire accident, Thomas Edison was stopped from producing any of his newspapers on the train.
44. Edison’s laboratory and his mini printing press were inside a luggage car.
Thomas Edison Facts About The Light Bulb
45. Even after Thomas Edison produced his light bulb, it still didn’t last long.
46. To ascertain what will be used as the filament, Thomas Edison tested thousands and thousands of materials.
47. Thomas Edison’s light bulb was made up of filament, surrounded by a vacuum bulb.
48. The tungsten was supposed to be used in making the light bulb, but it wasn’t because the tools to be used were not available at that time.
49. It was in January 1879 that Thomas Edison built his first incandescent light bulb.
50. From the day that Thomas Edison first thought about producing the first incandescent light bulb to the day it was produced, he produced more than 3,000 theories.
51. The idea of Thomas Edison, while he was producing the incandescent light bulb, was for it to use less electrical power and give out more input.
52. The patent number of the light bulb Edison produced was 223,898.
53. The first commercially used power station for the light bulbs was supervised by Thomas Edison.
Thomas Edison Facts About Electricity
54. Thomas Edison was the one that invented the first electric railroad.
55. Thomas Edison worked very hard in developing a centralized power system that is of practical use.
56. It was in New York City that he set up the first electricity generation plant.
57. Thomas Edison invented the first alkaline battery which was a huge success.
58. Thomas Edison merged his electrical company with another company in 1892.
59. Thomas Edison also worked very hard in developing the first carbon transmitter.
60. The first vitascope was invented by Thomas Edison in 1890.
61. Thomas Edison was very disappointed that his rival Bell Graham beat him in the race to build the first telephone.
Do you know that Albert Einstein carried out visual experiments in his mind rather than going to the Lab to test his theories? Check out 61 Fun and Surprising Albert Einstein Facts.