thomas edison

Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices
21. Electricity in a box
In 1899, Edison began working on a better storage battery for electric vehicles. He thought that electric cars were better than gasoline or steam powered vehicles, but realized that the storage batteries in existence limited the practicality of electric cars. With typical optimism, he announced to the press in 1902 that his batteries would run for 100 miles or more without recharging, and he proclaimed, I do not know how long it would take to wear out one of the batteries, for we have not yet been able to exhaust the possibilities of one of them.Despite those claims, the battery still required a lot of workabout a decade of research went into it. And by that time, cars with gasoline engines were clearly the market leader. Edisons batteries, however, found many other uses in things like railroad signals, miners head lamps, and marine buoys. The storage battery was his most profitable invention.
22. Leisure time
Edison was the most famous inventor of his time. Never shy around reporters, Edison spent more time in the spotlight as he grew older, serving on boards, attending public ceremonies, receiving awards, and more.In his leisure time, he became good friends with other famous people, like automobile maker Henry Ford, tire manufacturer Harvey Firestone, and naturalist Luther Burbank. He began taking annual camping trips with them in 1916.Henry Ford was a special admirer of Edisons and recreated the Menlo Park lab at his new museum (now the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village) in Dearborn, Michigan. Edison and Menlo Park experimenter Francis Jehl reenacted the crucial light bulb experiments as part of the dedication ceremony in 1929.
23. Serving the nation
In 1915, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels asked Edison to head the newly created Naval Consulting Board. The United States was on the brink of entering World War I and the Board was tasked with reviewing inventions of military promise submitted to the government. Though more than 100,000 invention ideas came to the Board, only one of them was ever built. Still, the Naval Consulting Board marked the beginning of increased collaboration between the military and industry.Edisons place as Americas premier inventor was secured in 1928 when he received the Congressional Gold Medal. The Medal noted, He illuminated the path of progress by his inventions.
24. One last grand experiment
In 1886, the Edisons built a winter home in Fort Myers, Florida. Edison also established a laboratory on the estate and carried out his last grand experiment there in the late 1920s. To lessen U.S. dependence on foreign sources of natural rubber, Edisons friends Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone encouraged him to find a domestic substitute for rubber.In a search reminiscent of his hunt for the light bulb filament, Edison tested thousands of plant samples. By 1930, he had decided that goldenrod held the most potential as a rubber producer. But Edison was 80 years old by then and in poor health. He never completed his rubber experiments.
25. Legacy
Troubled by diabetes and stomach ailments for many years, Edisons health declined and he died at West Orange, N.J. on October 18, 1931. Crowds lined up for blocks to pass by his coffin in the labs library. President Herbert Hoover requested a minute of silenceand darknessto honor the great inventor and at 10 p.m. on October 22, 1931, people around the United States turned off their electric lights.Thomas Alva Edison, the Wizard of Menlo Park, never stopped inventing. At the end of his life, he had 1,093 patents to his name. To this day, no one has topped his record.
26. Death
Thomas Edison died of coplications of diabetes on October 18, 1931, in his home, Glenmont in Llewellyn Park in West Orange, New Jersey, which he had purchased in 1886 as a wedding gift for Mina. He is buried behind the home.Mina died in 1947. Edisons last breath is reportedly contained in a test tube at the Henry Ford Museum. Ford reportedly convinced Charles Edison to seal a test tube of air in the inventors room shortly after his death, as a memento. A plaster death mask was also made.