“Lives of all great men remind us that we can make our lives sublime and leave footprints in the sands of time.”-Anon. Science and Technology have played a major role in our lives. The advancements in this field have made our lives simpler, manageable, entertaining, and above all, “advanced.” All this advancement didn’t come by in the period of a few years or so but rather is the outcome of the struggle of millions of countless people striving for the betterment of this planet ever since its inception.
The part played by scientists and inventors cannot be overruled. These are the people who have made this possible. Without them, the concept of life at hand is unimaginable. People often argue that science has made our lives easier and comfortable, but on the other hand, the inventions of bombs and ballistics have increased the threat of total annihilation of this planet. This can be explained by the fact that one needs to harness the resources at hand in the best possible manner for the interests of mankind.
Of the many inventors and scientists, the name of Thomas Alva Edison needs no introduction. He was an institution in his own right. His life is the stuff that the American Dream is made of. From humble beginnings to the giant that he was, Edison’s life is a source of inspiration to the thousands of young people trying to make their mark in the world. The Wizard of Menlo Park, Thomas Alva Edison, was born in Milan[1], Ohio, in the year 1847. Having only three months of formal education and being regarded as retarded by his schoolmaster, Edison ventured out to give more than a thousand inventions to this world, many of which are still there and providing solace to millions around the globe.
To go through the inventions of Edison is no walk in the park. I wish to take you through Edison’s achievements in chronological order so as to have a feel for the immense work he has done in the field of science and Technology. When Edison was 12 years old, he started selling newspapers on the Grand trunk railway, and in one of the carriages later, he developed the world’s first newspaper to be published from a carriage. Grand Trunk Herald, published in 1862, was a weekly newsletter published from a freight car.
The same place also served as Edison’s “laboratory. He once saved the life of a child of a railway officer, who had connections in the telegraph office, and he posted him there. Edison learned telegraphy, and along with that, he also invented the automatic telegraphing machine, which could send messages without the presence of an operator.
In 1868 when he was 21 years old, Edison invented an electrical vote recorder. Being an invention ahead of its time, the electronic vote recorder didn’t sell, and thereafter Edison concentrated on inventing objects that he expected were readily marketable. Sometime after, in 1869, Edison went to New York.
By chance, he came to Gold and Stock Telegraph Company. Keeping in mind the fact that he had some training as a telegraph operator and had the mind of a genius, he was able to repair a broken down ticker apparatus, which nobody could repair and was given a job at three hundred dollars a month, a huge sum in those days.
After that, he also started selling telegraphic devices and made around 40 000 dollars, through which he established his laboratory at Menlo Park in 1876. This laboratory served as the base or the impetus of his further research activities. Afterward, when he became popular, the local press started referring to him as the “Wizard” OF Menlo Park. The notion alternately amused and angered him. “Wizard, Phew, It’s plain hard work that does it.” Was all that he said? The phonograph was invented by Edison in the year 1877, and by this device, one was able to record sound mechanically on a tinfoil cylinder. This phonograph made it possible for recordings to be made of sound, and then these recordings could be played on the record. A modern tape recorder is a loose form of the original phonograph, which was invented by Edison.
The discovery or the invention which made Edison gain worldwide fame and popularity was the invention of the incandescent light bulb[3]. It was not that it was one of its kind. Because electric arc lamps were present and being utilized in France, it was his improvement of a 50-year-old concept that Edison was able to utilize the bulb for ordinary home use.
The light bulbs which he invented at first didn’t last long, but he kept on experimenting. What he thought that if the vacuum is replaced by inert gas and the filament is made of a stronger material, maybe that would answer the question. Edison kept on experimenting with different materials until. Finally, he came up with Argon[4], which he used to fill in his bulbs, and the result was a more durable and long-lasting light source. In 1879 using low electricity, carbon filament, and vacuum inside a tube, he was able to devise a practical lighting system.
Now that he had made the bulb, the next problem was providing electricity to an ordinary house. This started the development of an electrical distribution system. Utilizing his previous knowledge gained at the telegraph office, where he had mastered the concepts from early innovators such as Franklin, he applied the principles to electricity and came up with a manageable, cheap electrical distribution system to be used for the mass provision of electricity for common use.
What Edison did was that his bulb, together with the system of distribution of electric power that he developed, made electric lighting practical for home use. His company by 1882 was manufacturing bulbs, and electricity distribution systems were being devised to help in the distribution of electricity and thus, providing light through a bulb was made possible through the electric distribution system.
On September 4, 1882, the first commercial power station located on Pearl Street went into operation, providing electricity to a population within a one-mile radius. This was the start of the electric age. After this, Edison spent many years perfecting and improving his electric distribution system and the light bulb.
In 1887 Edison moved his laboratory from Menlo Park, New Jersey, to West Orange, New Jersey, where a large laboratory complex was constructed for research and experimentation. Now this laboratory complex which employed quite a workforce, served as a prototype of the large research laboratories that so many industrial firms later established. Edison’s origination of the modern, well-equipped research laboratory, where many people work together as a team, was the concept which the large industrial complexes are utilizing and can be considered his most important invention.
The success of the electric bulb resulted in Edison being projected to new heights of fame and fortune. The various electric companies continue to grow until eventually, in 1889, they were merged together to form Edison General Electric. When it dawned upon Edison that such a venture would require a lot of capital, he turned to investors, and JP Morgan was among the first ones to participate and help Edison in his endeavors. Due to this, Edison had to drop the prefix “Edison” and named the company “General Electric.”
The Kinetoscope was invented by Edison in 1888, which was the first machine ever to produce motion pictures through a series of stills. Sometime after that, he was also able to produce storage batteries. It was in 1891 that he patented the motion picture camera, which made it possible to take, reproduce and project motion pictures, and this concept is being used today in the film industry as well.
Another of Edison’s discovery was made in 1882 when he discovered that in vacuum or near-vacuum electric current can be made to flow between two wires which do not even touch each other. At that time, Edison couldn’t think of a manner that might employ this principle or make this principle practical. This was called the Edison effect and was later utilized in the development of the transistor. Thus this invention revolutionized the electronics industry long after Edison ever thought of it.
During the First World War, there was a severe lack of carbolic acid, and since Edison was using lots of it due to its use in the photographic industry at the time, he started to manufacture it on his own and within four weeks was making more than a ton of it. He also developed plants for the manufacture of benzene, carbolic acid, and aniline derivatives.
The department of the United States Navy appointed him as president of their consulting board, and he perfected and designed several types of equipment for used onboard the vessels as well as for ordinary use. In the year 1914, he devised the “Telescribe,” which permitted to record both sides of a telephonic conversation.
From 1917 – 1918 Edison worked with the department of defense and helped in formulating methods to locate the position of guns by sound ranging, the invention of sonar waves, detection of torpedoes by ships, developed collision masts for ships and submarines. This and several other inventions and discoveries for the United States Military helped the Military in gaining a tactical and strategic edge over the enemy.
A total of more than a thousand inventions were patented by Edison. He had seriously impaired hearing, but he made up for it through his hard work and persistent efforts. The last experimental work of his life was carried out on the requests of his friends Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone. They asked him to manufacture synthetic rubber as the natural rubber couldn’t be sought in America. He was working on this project till the very last days of his life.
He was married twice and had three children by each marriage. Edison spent the last days of his life away from his laboratory. He went to Glenmont for vacations. It was in Glenmont in August that he collapsed; he was subsequently taken to New Jersey, where his condition continued to deteriorate. On October 18, 1931, he died in West Orange, New Jersey.
Giving a cursory look over the plethora of devices that Thomas Edison invented, one cannot help but marvel at the very essence of the kind of person he was. There has been some criticism related to Edison over the fact that the light bulb was already there and he did no wonder in reinventing it, but what people fail to comprehend is the fact that inspires of it being there the light bulb couldn’t be used in a practical manner. It was only Edison who managed to curtail the problems associated with it and brought it out as a practical device.
Through the invention of the light bulb, as has been explained previously, he also laid down the foundations of the electrical distribution system, which was unheard of in those days. This laid the foundation of the modern electrical distribution system. This is the very system which makes it possible for electricity to reach our homes from the power stations.
At the time of the development of the electric distribution system, a kind of rivalry developed between Edison and George Westinghouse. Edison was of the view that distribution systems should carry DC or direct current because his company was providing DC, so he tried his best to win public favor in this regard, while Westinghouse was a strong advocate of AC or Alternating current to be carried through the electric distribution systems.
Edison and his company workers even held demonstrations in this regard and protested that Alternating current could be used in electrocuting a person. After a lot of deliberations, it finally came out that the main power distribution lines carry DC while the current is changed to AC and supplied for home use.
The discovery of the “Edison effect” made modern inventions in electronics possible, as without the transistor, there might have been no future of electronics. The tremendous advancements in the field of electronics couldn’t have been made without the transistor, and as such transistor served a very practical purpose of Edison’s concept termed as the Edison effect.
Edison used to say, “For most of my life, I refused to work at any problem unless its solution seemed to be capable of putting into commercial use.” It is this thought that made him go through all those years and made him the person that he was. It wasn’t that he didn’t have failures; he had them but always used to take failures as a step towards success. When he failed, he used to comment, “We haven’t failed, and we now know a thousand things that won’t work. So we’re that much closer to finding what will.” This kind of attitude is what is required in modern-day society to succeed.
The way that Edison’s inventions have changed the way we live is of magnanimous proportion. These are the people to whom we are proud and owe our convenient lives.
This age of technological advancement has affected almost all the fields of society, and science is no exception. The modern sciences have undergone a complete metamorphosis ever since the turn of the century. The future lies in expanding the horizons of our intellect and looking beyond what we term as possible, but we need to bear in mind the ethical issues, the broadening gap between the developed and the underprivileged.
The scope of modern technological advancements is quite broad, and every day new technologies are emerging which offer hope to the millions of people around the globe. Being able to comprehend the true potential of these advancements and being able to use them for the betterment of mankind is what can be considered the ultimate reward.
References
- Gerald Beal’s (2005) Thomas Alva Edison.
- Michael H Hart (1987) the 100-A ranking of the most influential people in history (pg 222-225) Citadel press 1987
- The Edison Papers (2000) Web.
- The Life Of Thomas Edison (2007) Web.
- Thomas S Vernon (1999) The Life of Thomas an Edison
- WikepediaTheFreeEncyclopedia (2007) ThomasEdison. Web.