Edison, Thomas Alva (1847-1931)

Thomas Alva Edison was responsible for over 1000 inventions. He was born in Milan, Ohio, in the United States.
When he was only ten years old, he setup his own chemistry laboratory in his basement.
In the 1860s he worked as a Telegraph operator in the united States and Canada.
In 1876, the profits he made from selling telegraphic printers he had invented, enabled him to set up a laboratory.
A year later, he invented the phonograph, a type of record player that used wax cylinders instead of discs.
He first recording was of himself saying the rhyme 'mary had a little lamb'.
In 1879, he demonstrated the first successful electric Light Bulb.
He discovered that electricity would flow from the bulb's glowing filament onto a metal plate inside the bulb.
This is known as the 'Edison Effect'. It later led to the invention by other people of the radio tube, or valve.

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