I have chosen Thomas Alva Edison for this report. I selected Thomas Edison because he is the reason for many of life's conveniences today. Thomas Edison was born in 1847 in Milan, Ohio. He grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. .
There are many stories about what Edison was like as a child. They all show that from an early age, Edison was curious about the world around him and always tried to teach himself through reading and experiments. As a boy, Edison worked as a gatekeeper at his father's observatory for tourists, and worked on a railway selling newspapers and candy to passengers. In 1869, when Edison was twenty-two years old, he patented his first invention and advertised that he "would hereafter devote his full time to bringing out his inventions." .
Thomas Edison would see tremendous change take place in his lifetime. He was also to be responsible for making many of those changes occur. When Edison was born, society still thought of electricity as a novelty, a fad. By the time he died, entire cities were lit by electricity. Much of the credit for that progress goes to Edison. .
In his lifetime, Edison patented 1,093 inventions, earning him the nickname "The Wizard of Menlo Park." During his most inventive years, Edison conducted experiments .
at his Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory. He did not work alone. A team of talented workers assisted him all hours of the day and night. These men had the skills to make Edison's ideas and sketches into real devices of wood, wire, glass, and metal. Edison's workers came from all over the world. The group included: Charles Batchelor, Edison's chief mechanical assistant from England; Ludwig Boehm, a German glassblower; John Kruesi, a Swiss clockmaker; Francis Upton, a mathematician, as well as carpenters, machinists, and general laboratory helpers. The laboratory at Menlo Park was an "invention factory" and a business. Bookkeepers and secretaries kept track of the money needed to run the business.
