Thomas Edison Biography: 1847-1882:  Birth to Pearl Street

Thomas Edison with Tinfoil Phonograph-1878 (Taken at Mathew Brady's Studio, Washington D.C.)

NPS photo

Quick Facts

Significance:

Prolific 19 and 20th Century American Inventor

Place of Birth:

Milan, Ohio

Date of Birth:

February 11, 1847

Place of Death:

West Orange, New Jersey

Date of Death:

October 18, 1931

Place of Burial:

West Orange, New Jersey

Thomas Edison Biography: 1847-1882:  Birth to Pearl Street 

Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio on February 11, 1847, and moved to Port Huron, Michigan when he was seven.  He attended school only briefly and was taught reading and math by his mother.  Edison began working at the age of twelve on the local railroad.  During this time he learned how to work a telegraph, which allowed Edison to leave home and travel the United States as a telegraph operator.  The telegraph was what led Edison to become an inventor.  His early inventions were all improvements to the telegraph, or based on telegraph technology.  Edison was working in New York City in 1870 when he invented an improved stock ticker, which continuously printed stock price updates.  This first successful invention gave him the money necessary to set up a laboratory in Newark, New Jersey. 

In 1876 Edison moved to Menlo Park, New Jersey.  Here he achieved international fame with the invention of the first machine that could record and play back sound in 1877—the phonograph.  Two years later Edison invented the first practical incandescent light.  Over the next three year, Edison developed all the equipment necessary to create a complete, practical, electric power system.  This electric lighting and power system was first used to electrify a portion of New York City in 1882, thus beginning the age of electricity.