Thomas Edison - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Thomas Alva Edison (February 1.
Southern California Edison won approval from state regulators Thursday to develop a $22 million pilot program that will increase the number of electric vehicle charging stations by as many as 1,500.
He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long- lasting, practical electric light bulb. More significant than the number of Edison's patents was the widespread impact of his inventions: electric light and power utilities, sound recording, and motion pictures all established major new industries worldwide. Edison's inventions contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications. These included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures. His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his early career as a telegraph operator. Edison developed a system of electric- power generation and distribution.
His first power station was on Pearl Street in Manhattan, New York. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. By contrast, Samuel Jr.'s struggle found him on the losing side, and he crossed into the United States at Sarnia- Port Huron.
Once across the border, he found his way to Milan, Ohio. His patrilineal family line was Dutch by way of New Jersey; the surname had originally been . Parker's School of Natural Philosophy and The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. The cause of his deafness has been attributed to a bout of scarlet fever during childhood and recurring untreated middle- ear infections. Around the middle of his career, Edison attributed the hearing impairment to being struck on the ears by a train conductor when his chemical laboratory in a boxcar caught fire and he was thrown off the train in Smiths Creek, Michigan, along with his apparatus and chemicals. In his later years, he modified the story to say the injury occurred when the conductor, in helping him onto a moving train, lifted him by the ears.
Energy and energy technology provider for residential and commercial electric and natural gas. Back to topic A descendant of the distinguished Elliot family of New England, New York born Nancy Edison was the devout and attractive daughter of a highly respected Presbyterian minister and an accomplished educator. Edison Electric Institute; Formation: 1933: Headquarters: 701 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. 20004-2696: Location.
He also studied qualitative analysis, and conducted chemical experiments on the train until an accident prohibited further work of the kind. These talents eventually led him to found 1. General Electric, which is still one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world. Jimmie's father, station agent J. U. Mac. Kenzie of Mount Clemens, Michigan, was so grateful that he trained Edison as a telegraph operator. Edison's first telegraphy job away from Port Huron was at Stratford Junction, Ontario, on the Grand Trunk Railway.
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Edison requested the night shift, which allowed him plenty of time to spend at his two favorite pastimes. Eventually, the latter pre- occupation cost him his job. One night in 1. 86.
It ran between the floorboards and onto his boss's desk below. The next morning Edison was fired. Some of Edison's earliest inventions were related to telegraphy, including a stock ticker. His first patent was for the electric vote recorder, (U. S. They had three children: Marion Estelle Edison (1. Doctors frequently prescribed morphine to women in those years to treat a variety of causes, and researchers believe that some of her symptoms sounded as if they were associated with morphine poisoning.
They also had three children together: Mina outlived Thomas Edison, dying on August 2. Edison became known as .
Despite its limited sound quality and that the recordings could be played only a few times, the phonograph made Edison a celebrity. Joseph Henry, president of the National Academy of Sciences and one of the most renowned electrical scientists in the US, described Edison as . It was built with the funds from the sale of Edison's quadruplex telegraph. After his demonstration of the telegraph, Edison was not sure that his original plan to sell it for $4,0. Western Union to make a bid. He was surprised to hear them offer $1.
Edison was legally attributed with most of the inventions produced there, though many employees carried out research and development under his direction. His staff was generally told to carry out his directions in conducting research, and he drove them hard to produce results. William Joseph Hammer, a consulting electrical engineer, began his duties as a laboratory assistant to Edison in December 1. He assisted in experiments on the telephone, phonograph, electric railway, iron ore separator, electric lighting, and other developing inventions.
However, Hammer worked primarily on the incandescent electric lamp and was put in charge of tests and records on that device (see Hammer Historical Collection of Incandescent Electric Lamps). In 1. 88. 0, he was appointed chief engineer of the Edison Lamp Works.
In his first year, the plant under General Manager Francis Robbins Upton turned out 5. According to Edison, Hammer was . Sprague, a competent mathematician and former naval officer, was recruited by Edward H. Johnson and joined the Edison organization in 1. One of Sprague's contributions to the Edison Laboratory at Menlo Park was to expand Edison's mathematical methods. Despite the common belief that Edison did not use mathematics, analysis of his notebooks reveal that he was an astute user of mathematical analysis conducted by his assistants such as Francis Robbins Upton, for example, determining the critical parameters of his electric lighting system including lamp resistance by an analysis of Ohm's Law, Joule's Law and economics.
About a dozen were design patents, which protect an ornamental design for up to a 1. As in most patents, the inventions he described were improvements over prior art. The phonograph patent, in contrast, was unprecedented as describing the first device to record and reproduce sounds.
Edison said he wanted the lab to have . After protracted patent litigation, in 1. Edison and not Emile Berliner was the inventor of the carbon microphone. The carbon microphone was also used in radio broadcasting and public address work through the 1. Many earlier inventors had previously devised incandescent lamps, including Alessandro Volta's demonstration of a glowing wire in 1. Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans. Others who developed early and commercially impractical incandescent electric lamps included Humphry Davy, James Bowman Lindsay, Moses G.
Sawyer, Joseph Swan and Heinrich G. Some of these early bulbs had such flaws as an extremely short life, high expense to produce, and high electric current drawn, making them difficult to apply on a large scale commercially.
This meant the lamp would have to have a high resistance and run at a relatively low voltage (around 1. The idea of using this particular raw material originated from Edison's recalling his examination of a few threads from a bamboo fishing pole while relaxing on the shore of Battle Lake in the present- day state of Wyoming, where he and other members of a scientific team had traveled so that they could clearly observe a total eclipse of the sun on July 2.
Continental Divide. Patent#2. 23. 89. Electric- Lamp. Issued January 2. In 1. 87. 8, Edison formed the Edison Electric Light Company in New York City with several financiers, including J.
Morgan, Spencer Trask. Edison made the first public demonstration of his incandescent light bulb on December 3. Menlo Park. It was during this time that he said: . Villard quickly became impressed and requested Edison install his electric lighting system aboard his company's new steamer, the Columbia. Although hesitant at first, Edison relented and agreed to Villard's request.
Following most of its completion in May 1. Columbia was sent to New York City, where Edison and his personnel installed Columbia's new lighting system. Due to this, the Columbia became Edison's first commercial application for his incandescent light bulb.
The Edison equipment was eventually removed from Columbia in 1. Latimer had received a patent in January 1.
Latimer worked as an engineer, a draftsman and an expert witness in patent litigation on electric lights. Sawyer and was therefore invalid.
Litigation continued for nearly six years, until October 6, 1. Edison's electric- light improvement claim for . The company established the first investor- owned electric utility in 1. Pearl Street Station, New York City. It was on September 4, 1. Edison switched on his Pearl Street generating station's electrical power distribution system, which provided 1. DC) to 5. 9 customers in lower Manhattan.
The DC supply system provided electricity supplies to street lamps and several private dwellings within a short distance of the station. On January 1. 9, 1. Roselle, New Jersey.
War of currents. As Edison was expanding his direct current (DC) power delivery system he began receiving stiff competition from companies installing alternating current (AC) systems. From the early 1. AC arc lighting systems for streets and large spaces had been an expanding business in the US. With the development of transformers in Europe and by Westinghouse Electric in the US in 1. AC very long distances over thinner and cheaper wires, and . This allowed AC to be used not only in street lighting but also in lighting for small business and domestic customers, the market Edison's patented low voltage DC incandescent lamp system had been designed to supply.
Edison's DC plants could not deliver electricity to customers who were more than one mile from the plant and the short range left a patchwork of un- supplied customers in- between plants. Small cities and rural areas could not afford an Edison style system at all. This left a large part of market without electrical service and AC companies were expanding into this gap. Edison expressed views that AC was unworkable and the high voltages used were dangerous. As George Westinghouse was installing his first AC systems in 1. Thomas Edison began a pattern of striking out personally against his chief rival stating, . He has got a new thing and it will require a great deal of experimenting to get it working practically.
Con Edison Smart AC Program.