Scientists That Changed the World

Scientists That Changed The World

Thomas Alva Edison is one of the greatest inventors in history and was responsible for more inventions than any other inventor. He was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio, the seventh and last child of Samuel and Nancy Edison. Edison patented 1,093 inventions in his lifetime including the Kinetoscope, the Phonograph, and his most famous - the incandescent light bulb. At a young age Edison and his family moved to Port Huron in Michigan. He had a very poor education as a child, only learning the basics like reading, writing and maths. Thomas was a very curious child learning a lot of things by himself like reading and at the age of 16 he moved out to live and independent life.

Thomas Edison's first major invention was the phonograph in 1877. This amazing invention allowed people to record and play back sound. He came about inventing this while working on a way to record telephone communication at his lab in New Jersey. This led him on to several experiments with a tinfoil cylinder, which played back the song he had recorded previously. The song he recorded was Mary Had A Little Lamb. "As the phonograph became more heard of, it made Edison dubbed the wizard of Menlo Park." (Biography of Thomas Edison, 2013)

One year later most inventors strived to improve Edison's Phonograph, but he had new ideas and goals for it. Although the phonograph was meant to be used as a recording and playing back devise, it was proved to be a popular tool for entertainment and in 1912 Thomas Edison unveiled the Edison Disc Phonograph. The Edison Disc Phonograph was a popular new way to play music and as the discs offered quality sounds. Thomas Edison's phonograph was a major hit and it was the building blocks for later generations to modify to suit their era.

Just over a decade later, Thomas Edison's newest invention was a film making device he called the Kinetoscope. The Kinetoscope was officially built in 1891 and was inspired by a colleague that specialised in photos that he worked with named Eadweard Muybridge. Muybridge was the inventor of the Zoopraxiscope, which was a device that could show pictures. Edison was inspired by this and they merged ideas: Edison's phonograph with Muybridge's Zoopraxiscope to form the Kinetoscope. The Kinetoscope was named from two Greek words Kineto and Scopos. Kineto meaning movement and Scopos meaning to view. Thomas Edison's new idea was to create a device that you could watch and listen at the same time.¬¬ Edison's Kinetoscope has dramatically influenced later scientists that have then modified it to what it has become today: a TV.

:In 1879, after 1,200 experiments, Edison made a light bulb using carbonized filaments from cotton that burned for