THOMAS EDISON
by John H
Education
Thomas Edison was very curious, as he only attended school 3 months. And what's that have to do with his curiosity? You might wonder. Well, let me explain. Thomas Edison had a very bad school teacher who hated Tom's questions, and Tom had a lot of questions. One day the teacher said Tom was addled. Now Tom had another question, "What is addled?"
"Addled means confused, why do you ask Tom?" said his loving mother.
"Because that's what my school teacher called me," said Tom. That was the end of school for Tom. Now Tom was a fast-learning good- reading homeschooler!
Thomas got a chemistry book at nine years old that changed his life. He wanted to do all the experiments in the book, but couldn't afford to do them all. So he got a job on the railroad. That's how he met the telegraph.
Edison loved the telegraph. He was soon taught Morse Code. And at 16 he became a telegrapher.
His Brain and Personality
To make his chemistry bottles left alone Tom labeled them poison. (Good idea.)
For some strange reason he worked best on inventions when he was married. (When his wife died he stopped working, and when he got a new wife he went back to working.)
Tom loved practical jokes. (He once electrocuted some people trying to get water, after that he couldn't make friends easily.) He played by himself (because of his bad hearing), and he was mischievous.
Edison was arrogant. He thought the world revolved around him. He thought that if he wanted a machine to work then it would work. That's one of the reasons he had so many inventions, not that the world really did revolve around him, but he kept trying because he thought it had to work. Because of his arrogance and pushiness he didn't have many friends. But the friends he did have were good, like Henry Ford. Yes, you read correctly Henry Ford, you know the guy who re-invented the car. Yeah, him.
Do you know that Edison took ten minute naps all the time? He did it even while inventing the light bulb! Was he a sickly man, you might wonder? No, he never slept long. To help with his ten minute naps, though, he had a bed in the middle of his library!
Tom was not wise with money. He once received $32,000, for an invention and spent it all in one week! How? And $32,000, is was like a million dollars back then. Amazing!
Career
Edison loved learning. His parents said "no" about him selling things on the train. They said he was too young, he was only 12 years old, not near old enough to have a full time job. He wouldn't have time to read or study. Tom complained that he would have plenty of time to study at the library over at the other city, while he waited for the return train. And he did just that, he attempted to read each book in the entire library! He read a lot, but he found many books were boring. Afterwards he only read the books he liked.
Along with studying in the library he built a lab in an empty box car. One day a bottle of chemicals, that required water, caught fire. The water had dried up! It ignited the box car and almost burned it up! That was the end of Thomas's lab on wheels.
Edison is remembered for his inventions, not his improvement. Though the earth would be much worse without his improvements, like the telephone. The telephone was hard to use because you had to yell to get the person to hear you. Edison perfected that.
And in fact he didn't build the inventions. He hired people to build the things, while he thought them up. And Edison never gave up on inventions. He invented the light bulb, but he kept on using different materials for the filament until it worked well.
Links
- Virtual Tours of Edison NHS
- Edison; the Wizard of Menlo Park
- Edison Kids: Energy Heroes
- Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time: Edison
- The Energy Planet : Thomas Alva Edison
- The American Experience: Edison's Miracle of LIght
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