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Thomas Edison

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Thomas Edison
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Thomas Alva Edison was born at Milan Ohio, February 11, 1947 (Coller & Chamberlain, 2012). His reputation is well known, starting inventions from the tender age of four. His success in the field of invention saw him become a very great figure in the field of invention. Many facilities and institutions have been named after him. Thomas Edison rose from humble beginnings to work as an inventor of major technology.
In his early life, Edison supposedly had a troubled childhood due to an assumed delicacy that he might have had brain trouble. This led to him being homeschooled due to his poor academic performance. A hyperactive child, prone to distraction, he was deemed difficult by his teacher. No one ever expected Thomas Edison to make such a far-reaching impact then. The mother, who was an experienced teacher herself did all in her power to ensure the rapid development of Edison’s intellect. The latter evolved to be an avid reader of literature, eventually revealing his gift as a youthful genius. For a child, it was found that his retentive capability was way beyond average (Greene, 2010).
In his early life, Thomas developed a hearing impairment. However, the origin of this condition is not well known. According to specialists, the condition was as a result of scarlet fever as well as a wave of recurring ear infections. He however gave totally different explanations altered in the course of his life. His business prowess began in his early childhood, at a time serving as a newspaper vendor. This is the time that he reportedly discovered his entrepreneurial capabilities.
Edison, was and still is, the inventor with the most patents. He reportedly slept a mere three to four hours at night, “regarding sleep as a waste of time”. His inventions are all of significant value, presenting a hard time ranking them in the order of importance. Among them include the electric light bulb, the phonograph, kinescope, storage battery, sound microphone, electric generator and the movie camera. He was also the first person to have a laboratory dedicated to invention.
During his life, Thomas Edison managed to have a total of 1093 patents (Coller & Chamberlain, 2012). What made Edison stand out among other inventors is that he was business oriented and ended up developing his own company in which the items patented were mass produced. Thomas was generally known as an industrious man, taking attention to even the slightest details. His determination in his work is a main contributing factor to his success. Edison’s developments are considered to be the founding factors of the field of mass communication. The telecommunication technology such as a recorded music, stock tickers , batteries for electrical equipment developed and mechanical vote recorders were all purported to be developed due to his experience as a telegrapher in his early life. He was generally perceived as a freethinker; what he called the theory of supreme intelligence. Before the invention of AC electricity, Thomas was well known to uphold a non-violent moral view. He refused to participate in the development of weapons, a venture which was quite common in the years.
However, Edison’s business minded approach sometimes drove him to perform inconsiderate actions. First of all, he was not the one that came up with the idea of the light bulb (Coller & Chamberlain, 2012). Joseph Wilson Swan was the one who came up with the idea and had already started his light bulb company in the 1900’s. The movie camera is also said to be a stolen idea. William Friese-Greene gave copies of his research during his duration of work at Edison’s company only for Edison to take it and develop it. The first practical electric chair was invented by Harold P. Brown. Brown was an employee of Thomas Edison, hired for the purpose of researching electrocution and for the development of the electric chair. Since Brown worked for Edison, and Edison promoted Brown’s work, the development of the electric chair is often erroneously credited to Edison himself (Greene, 2010).
One cannot fail to mention the name Nikola Tesla when speaking about Edison. Tesla was a brilliant engineer hired by Edison and is responsible for many of the patents that he was able to get; especially in the field of electricity and magnetism (Coller & Chamberlain, 2012). Edison had scores more assistants helping him devise inventions, and also bought some of his patents. Tesla on the other hand had an eidetic memory; which enabled him to invent technologies with less planning and drawing. Tesla's ideas were often more disruptive technologies that didn't have a built-in market demand.
Tesla and Edison had a long standing feud over the DC generator and many other inventions. With the invention of power transmission through alternating current, the Direct current methods that Edison was at the time using in power distribution were on the brink of being out phased. Thomas’s character of always making profits was always dominant. He knew that his DC invention had the chances that could only be described as those of a snowball in hell. This disagreement led to one of the most inhumane acts of Edison. When Tesla patented the AC generator, he tried to lure public opinion saying that AC power was harmful to the society. Edison launched a propaganda campaign to convince people that AC was far too dangerous to use. To prove his point, he saw the electrocution of several innocent animals including puppies and most famous of all an elephant. He also convinced the government to adopt death by electrocution as opposed to hanging. This he did by developing and promoting the use of the electric chair. This various moves came to be known as the war of currents. (Greene, 2010).
I admire the aggressive part of Thomas Edison up to a certain point. His openness to ideas and generally innovative nature was simply outstanding. Unfortunately, the modern world we are living in presents a much harder environment severely limiting opportunities to innovate and invent. His urge to work was simply magnificent and attaining such a level of discipline in the modern world is very hard. Unfortunately, he let his ego take over him and ended up breaking bad in some aspects. I do not support the fact of stealing of ideas and animal cruelty in order to attain a personal goal. This goes against the ethics of business and science as well. An honest inventor is what he could have been; after all he had all the necessary resources and motivation.

References
Coller, J., & Chamberlain, C. (2012). The lives, loves and deaths of splendidly unreasonable inventors. Oxford: Infinite Ideas.
Greene, R. (2010). The 48 Laws Of Power. London: Profile Books.

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