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Thomas Alva Edison was an inventor born in Ohio in 1847. Then his family moved to Port Huron, Michigan. His parents worked hard. They taught him to do the same.

Thomas’s parents, Nancy and Samuel Edison, had seven children. Thomas was the youngest. His mother had been a school teacher. Thomas was easily distracted in school. He was curious about too many things. His curiosity got him into trouble at school. His mother began to teach him at home. Mrs. Edison used his curiosity to help him learn. She taught him about the subjects that interested him. When Thomas was interested in something, he was not easily distracted. He loved reading, sketching and experimenting. These skills are needed by scientists and inventors.

As a child, he turned the basement into a science lab. He experimented with chemicals. He tinkered with mechanical devices. At age 12, he needed money for things in his lab. His family raised vegetables. So he began to sell them. Then he sold newspapers and candy to the passengers on the trains. He was very successful. So he began to write and print his own newspaper. The passengers loved his paper. These were his first successful businesses.

Most of the train stations had a telegraph office. Sending a telegram was the fastest way to send a message. A telegraph machine uses a special code called Morse Code. Morse Code is a system of dots (short taps) and dashes (longer tap sounds) to spell a message. Thomas quickly learned this code. At age 15 he began a job as a telegraph operator. This job made him curious about electricity. He began experiments to improve the telegraph.

After lots of experiments, he made his first invention. It was a machine that improved the stock ticker. The stock ticker was used by Wall Street investors. He made money on this invention. With the money, he set up a laboratory in New Jersey.

Mr. Edison’s best inventions were the phonograph and the electric light bulb. His phonograph could play and record sound. His electric light bulb was a big improvement over gas or candle lighting.

When Thomas Edison died in 1931, he had over 1,000 patents from the things he had invented.

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