Thomas Alva Edison is known as a famous American invertor and entrepreneur. He was born in Milan, Ohio, on February 11th, 1847. Al, as he was known, was the last of seven children and he did not learn to speak until was 4 years old. Growing up, after he learned to speak, Al would ask every adult he could to explain how things worked. His favorite question was “why” and he was a very curious boy. Though he had no formal education, his curiosity helped to educate himself and become one of the greatest inventor this world has seen. Al believed that …show more content…
He gave a demonstration before the United States Congress and then to the president of the United States, who at the time was Rutherford B. Hayes. It was around this time that people began to call him "the Wizard of Menlo Park." The phonograph would, of course become the foundation of the multi-billion-dollar musical recording industry."(Adair 63)
Everything the Edison invented he did so because it was practical at that time. He tried to only create things that were in demand. For instance, he invented the telegraph answering machine, which was very necessary for him because, at the time, Edison worked at the telegraph and by working on this it helped him to sleep at night. Edison’s inventions were popular all over the world many decades ago and are still popular today. Thomas Edison received a total of 1,093 patents on different inventions in the United States during his life, however, he had around 3,000 patents worldwide. Adair mentioned that the cost of all his companies at the time was estimated at around $15 billion and the company “General Electric” created by Edison, is one of the largest companies in the world even now (Adair, …show more content…
He used them to try and find the key to solving problems. He was very interested in the concept of things happening by chance. He was so enthusiastic and curious about the experiments he conducted the man had no boundaries. Edison was a multitasker when it came to his experiments, working on a number of solutions because you never know if you can solve more than one problem at a time. Yet, he could almost always create something to order if it was in an area he was familiar with or could learn about by reading books on the subject. His photographic memory and ability to read quickly made things come easy to him. Edison may not have had any formal scientific education, but he was extremely versed in chemistry, electrical engineering and mechanics. He was a very smart