The Inventions of Thomas Edison
Grace Elizabeth Denson
5th Grade Composition – Unit 2
Research Paper
September 10, 2011
Do you know who would have said this, “Genius is only one percent inspiration, and ninety-nine percent perspiration?” The first thing to come to your mind might be an inventor; you’re right because it was Thomas Edison! Thomas Edison, known as the Wizard of Menlo Park, was one of the most industrious inventors known to the world. He invented the light bulb, the phonograph, and the kinetoscope (an early form of a movie projector), and many other things. This ingenious inventor had lots of inspiration and put in plenty of perspiration to make so many wonderful inventions.
Thomas Edison is best known for inventing the world’s first electric light bulb. Inventing the light bulb was a hard task. Edison made it even harder when he boasted to reporters his invention was complete when it wasn’t. Edison had created the glass bulb, but he needed to find the right filament (material) to make the bulb light up. Edison tried everything from human hair to wood. Finally he found the perfect material: copper wire. Edison couldn’t wait to share his invention with the world.
Edison’s new electric lights were much safer than gas lights, kerosene lanterns, or arch lights. The new electric light bulbs wouldn’t start fires, blacken walls, or give people headaches from the fumes and they lasted much longer. Thomas Edison put up lots of his new electric lights for the Christmas season in Menlo Park. Hundreds of people swarmed to Menlo Park to see the lights and were amazed. Thank-you Thomas Edison, for lighting up the world!
Another of Edison's inventions was the phonograph. There was a large demand for music, but there was no way to record it. Thomas Edison created the answer, the phonograph. He began to experiment with the idea while working with telegraph transmitters by trying to record messages. Once he figured out how to record words, he tried recording music. Edison’s first song to be recorded was “Mary Had A Little Lamb.” Soon Edison made a recording machine that worked like this: when you spoke into a mouthpiece it would scratch the vibrations into a tin foil cylinder. Then the phonograph could play back the message or music many times. Edison also experimented with putting a smaller version to make talking dolls, but it was too fragile.
Thomas Edison got good results for his hard work on the phonograph. The public loved the phonograph because it meant you didn’t have to go to a concert to hear music. In fact, in some public places, there would be a phonograph that would play music in headphones for twenty-five cents. Lots of people loved the phonograph so much, they wanted them for home. People enjoyed music so much in their own homes, and eventually the phonograph was improved and it became the inspiration for the radio.
Finally, Thomas Edison was inspired to make pictures into movies. He found that if he put picture film onto a reel and moved it quickly in front of a light, the pictures would seem to be moving. Thomas Edison invented the machine, called the kinetoscope to show the film reel up on a large screen, making a movie. Now that Edison had made the kinetoscope machine, he built a studio room to make movies. It even had adjustable windows.
It sounds like a successful invention, but it actually didn’t go over well because there was a problem. The film reel was a curved surface, but the movie screen was a flat surface, so the images that showed through the kinetoscope onto the screen were blurry. Also, this invention wasn’t as popular because the average man could not afford to buy a kinetoscope and also because it was too big to fit in most homes. There weren’t too many commercial uses for the invention yet either, people just really weren’t ready for movies. Another inventor, Mr. Kodak, was already working on inventing film that wasn’t as blurry, and other inventors used Edison’s kinetoscope as the inspiration to improve movie cameras and projectors.
The lightbulb, the phonograph, and the kinetoscope were three of many inventions that Thomas Edison made during his lifetime. He made more things than any inventor in history. Thomas Edison used inspiration and a lot of hard work to improve the lives of people everywhere.
Bibliography
Adair, Gene. Thomas Alva Edison, Inventing The Electric Age. Oxford University Press, USA, 1996. Print.
Bellis, Mary. "The Inventions of Thomas Edison." About.com Inventors. Web. 24 Aug 2011. .
Frith, Margaret. Who Was Thomas Alva Edison? Putnam Juvenile, 2006. Print.
Tames, Richard. Thomas Edison. Franklin Watts, 1990. Print.
Woodside, Martin. Thomas A. Edison, The Man Who Lit Up The World. Sterling Pub Co Inc, 2007. Print.
