Thomas Alva Edison is arguably the most famous inventor in American history. From his invention of the phonograph he became a legendary genius while still in his thirties. Edison single handedly designed, built, and delivered the electric age. His actions in the study of and the creation of the electric age imbued his thoughts and ideas firmly into our nation's economical, anthropological and historical developments.
The tantamount ramifications of Thomas Edison's accomplishments as a leader upon the United States and the world's economy are profuse. When Thomas was a budding inventor, he worked for a telegraph company. While there, Edison took a keen interest into the telegraph itself and how it worked. After just a few months, he invented the duplex telegraph. This allowed companies to send and receive messages at the same time. But because of Edison's cognitive mind and his restless spirit, he altered his duplex telegraph and invented the Quadraplex. This was a four-way telegraph that allowed for multiple lines of conversation to be taking place at once (Aldair 39). His invention of the telegraph changed our economics in three ways. One, it allowed for businesses to make more orders and place orders quicker. Two, it eventually led toward the entire monopoly of the telegraph industry. Three, it eventually led to the development and perfection of the telephone. As well, in 1878 when Edison received a patent a new invention, he didn't know it would create a new industry that is still around toady. His invention was the phonograph and its effect was the creation of the multi-billion dollar music industry (Aldair 43). Clearly, this invention affected his economy when every 1 in 4 households had a phonograph (Anderson 27). Similarly, another of Edison's invention could be found in a large quantity of houses by the turn of the century. His invention of the electric light bulb and discovery of the usefulness of electricity created numerous new industries and jobs that still fuel our economy today.