Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison saw every obstacle as an opportunity. “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration,” he said. He had little schooling, and was deaf from a young age, but he pursued his interests with passion. He loved science and mechanics. He was driven to invent.

By 1868, Edison had improved the telegraph and the typewriter. He made an electric vote recorder and a stock ticker. Two years later, he had enough money to open his first “invention factory.” He was only twenty-three. He and the talented team of engineers and scientists he hired would change the world.

Within five years, they had perfected the telephone and created the phonograph. Next, they became famous for the incandescent light bulb. Later they worked on the motion picture camera, talking movies, a car battery, and an x-ray machine. In his lifetime, Edison registered 1,093 patents.

“The three essentials to achieve anything worth while are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itive-ness; third, common sense,” Edison said. With a booming business and boundless enthusiasm, Edison brought America into the modern age.