Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison (1847–1931) was an American inventor and businessman whose work helped bring electric light, recorded sound and motion pictures into everyday life. With little formal schooling, he was largely self-taught and began his career as a telegraph operator, an experience that led to his early improvements to the telegraph and the stock ticker. His turning point came in 1876, when he opened his laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey, one of the first organized industrial research laboratories. There he invented the phonograph in 1877 and developed a long-lasting incandescent light bulb in 1879, followed by a complete system for generating and distributing electricity, launched at New York's Pearl Street Station in 1882. His teams later developed the Kinetograph motion-picture camera. Holding more than 1,000 United States patents, he remains an enduring example of persistence, hard work and practical invention.