Thomas Edison facts

While investigating facts about Thomas Edison Inventions and Thomas Edison State University, I found out little known, but curios details like:

When Thomas Edison was confined to a wheelchair in the last years of his life, his friend Henry Ford bought one too, so that they could have wheelchair races

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The word Hello became popular after Thomas Edison suggested its use when answering the phone. Alexander Graham Bell, his competitor, preferred Ahoy.

What did thomas edison invent?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what did thomas edison die from. Here are 50 of the best facts about Thomas Edison High School and Thomas Edison Light Bulb I managed to collect.

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Thomas Alva Edison did not invent the light bulb; electric light sources were being experimented since early 1800s and an English Physicist Sir Joseph Swan had a working prototype of electric incandescent light bulb more than a decade earlier than Edison.
Thomas Edison would give potential employees a bowl of soup during the interview, if they salted or peppered the soup before tasting it they wouldn't get the job. This was to test whether the employees had analytical minds and didn't make assumptions.
Thomas Edison offered Nikola Tesla $50,000 to improve his DC motor. Upon completion, Edison failed to pay and scoffed, "You don't understand American humor."
Louis Le Prince, who filmed the first ever motion pictures, disappeared without a trace in 1890. Thomas Edison soon took credit as the first and sole inventor of cinema, and even took Le Prince's son to court to dispute it. Few years later, the son also died under mysterious circumstances.
When Henry Ford explained his idea of a gasoline powered car to Thomas Edison, Edison encouraged Ford that he "had it". Ford claimed later that "No man up to then had given me any encouragement".
Thomas Edison invented the Electric Pen to copy office documents, which was a commercial Flop. 15 years later Samuel O'Reilly discovered that Edison's machine could be modified and used to introduce ink into the skin, and later patented a tube and needle system to provide an ink reservoir.
Thomas Edison taught his second wife Morse code to tap out messages on his arm so they could communicate in secret in front of her parents.
Inventor Lewis Latimer, not only made Thomas Edison's Light Bulb more efficient & practical, he invented an Apparatus for Cooling & Disinfecting, making rooms more sanitary & climate-controlled. He also improved the design of elevators & co-invented (1874) a toilet for train cars.
One major reason that Hollywood emerged as the center of filmmaking is that early on, most moviemaking patents were held by Thomas Edison's company in New Jersey, and filmmakers were sued to stop their productions. To escape this, they began moving out west, where enforcement was difficult.
Thomas Edison didn’t invent the lightbulb. He merely improved Joseph Swan’s design which had been patented 10 years before Edison. Swan sued Edison for patent infringement, and won.

thomas edison facts — What lightbulb did thomas edison invent?

Why thomas edison is important?

You can easily fact check why did thomas edison die by examining the linked well-known sources.

Thomas Edison paid his son Thomas Edison Jr. an allowance of $35.00 a week ($925.25 in 2017) to not use his own name.

The word Hello only began being used as a greeting when the telephone was invented, credited as a suggestion by Thomas Edison to be used when answering the phone. Alexander Graham Bell, his competitor, preferred Ahoy. - source

Thomas Edison abandoned his research into x-rays when he damaged his eyesight, and his assistant had his arms amputated from repeated exposure. “Don’t talk to me about X-rays,” he said. “I am afraid of them.” - source

When Thomas Edison installed the modern electric lighting in the Ponce De Leon Hotel in St Augustine, FL they had to hire extra staff to turn lights on and off for guests that were scared of being shocked.

Thomas Edison considered sleep a waste of time and got 3-4 hours per night. In contrast, Albert Einstein claimed to need 10 hours and Calvin Coolidge, while president, demanded 11! - source

When thomas edison died?

The story of Thomas Edison electrocuting an elephant as part of the War of Currents is a myth. The elephant was killed as part of an unrelated Coney Island stunt, and Edison's name is only associated because Edison-brand film was used to record the elephant's death.

How did thomas edison die?

Thomas Edison's best ideas came to him before he fell asleep, so he would hold metal balls over buckets as he fell asleep so that when he dropped them, they would make a loud sound which would wake him up so the idea was fresh.

About Clarence Dally, perhaps the first person to die of man-made radiation in 1904. He was an assistant to Thomas Edison on a new x-ray machine. He had to have both of his hands amputated but eventually died from cancer. Edison refused to work with x-rays ever again.

Thomas Edison invented a motorized "stencil-pen" which was directly adapted into the very first tattoo gun.

Thomas Edison is the only person in the US to ever have a patent granted every year for 65 consecutive years.

After Thomas Edison ripped off the first film camera from France, he used copyright laws to restrict imports of other cameras to the US. Sometimes he would use hired thugs (the Edison mafia) to violently stop people from using other cameras.

When thomas edison was born?

The reason the movie industry is largely based in Hollywood, California was to evade the monopoly that Thomas Edison had at the time. Anyone not following his rules in his domain would be sued out of business.

Thomas Edison did not invent the lightbulb and that electric lights had already existed for more than 70 years before he filed his patent in 1878

"Louis Le Prince" was actually the first person to invent a motion picture camera, 3 years before Thomas Edison, but was not able to publicly showcase the device as when he was going to retrieve it, he entered a train and was never seen again.

President Hoover asked every American to turn off their lights for 1 minute in October 1931, as a tribute to Thomas Edison and his recent death.

One of the first films ever recorded on Thomas Edison's Kinetograph was a shot of two cats wearing boxing gloves and fighting each other in a boxing ring. It is titled "Prof. Welton's Boxing Cats." Very likely the first cat video ever recorded.

How old was thomas edison when he died?

When Thomas Edison made one of the first movie cameras in 1891, he then filmed the first cat video in 1894.

The film industry relocated from New York to LA to escape from Thomas Edison's patents.

Carl Laemmle, who migrated to the US in 1884. He started one of the first movie theaters in Chicago, challenged Thomas Edison's monopoly on films, began advertising stars to increase their earnings, founded Universal and sponsored hundreds of Jews to emigrate from Nazi Germany to the US.

Vin Mariani, a 19th century alcoholic drink that also contained cocaine. Queen Victoria, Thomas Edison, and Ulysses S. Grant all indulged in it, as well as two popes, one of whom appeared on a poster endorsing it.

Thomas Edison gave a sketch of his phonograph invention to his mechanic, who was able to make it fully functional within 30 hours. He was amazed when it played back his spoken words the first time.

Goldenrod flowers were considered a weed in the United States until the 1980s. They're made of as much as 12% rubber. Thomas Edison experimented to grow a 12 foot Goldenrod. His friend Henry Ford gifted him a model T made with Goldenrod tires.

That, during the War of the Currents, Thomas Edison became so desperate to convince people that Tesla's current was more harmful than his own, that he began paying young boys 25 cents per stray dog they brought him, so he could publicly electrocute them with Tesla's current to prove his point.

I learned that Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, originally wanted the standard phone greeting to be, "ahoy hoy." it was Thomas Edison who suggested we say "hello."

Thomas Edison had a son in 1898 at the age of 51 who didn't die until 1992, 145 years after Edison's birth

Thomas Edison rejected the idea of projected motion pictures, because he wanted to keep selling films in dedicated machines for a single person to view.

Early filmmakers in the 1900s, filmed movies in Hollywood because patents held by Thomas Edison couldn't be enforced there.

Thomas Edison filmed one of the first cat videos, in 1894, making them fight in a little boxing ring.

Thomas Edison tried to create a filmmaking monopoly by hiring gangsters to beat up rival directors and set fire to city blocks where his rival's movies were playing

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