Thomas Edison, Graphic Biography

THOMAS

Thomas Edison

Saddleback’s Graphic Biographies Copyright © 2008 by Saddleback Educational Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher. ISBN-10: 1-59905-228-8 ISBN-13: 978-1-59905-228-1 eBook: 978-1-60291-591-6

Thomas Edison  They called him the Wizard of Menlo Park. He turned darkness into light; made a machine talk; brought pictures to life—through the magic of electricity and hard work.

I’ve been declared a traitor. The King’s soldiers are after me! Tom Edison’s family didn’t Oh, Sam! What do things like will you do? everybody else. In 1837 his father revolted against the Canadian government. Run for the He ran for two days, chased by soldiers border. I can and dogs. outrun anybody! Then he skated across a frozen river and was safe in the United States.

Thomas Edison  He settled in What a pretty I’ve opened a Milan, Ohio, house! lumberyard and and sent for his business is good. family. Thomas Alva Your wife’s fine, Thank God! We Edison was and you have a lost our three born there on new son! youngest. Nancy February 11, has longed for a 1847. baby. He has an awfully big head! Later the family moved to Port Huron, Will he grow into it? Michigan. Nonsense! He’s perfect! You’re eight I think I’ll Give him to me. years old, Tom. like that. It’s time you started school. And his mother would always stand up for him.

Why did he I think it’s say such a because I ask why But he didn’t. One morning, three thing? and want to know months later, he rushed home. instead of just I’m never going back to that memorizing. school! I heard the teacher say I’m addle-headed and can’t learn anything. Tom’s mother I’ve been a teacher. I know Tom is a bright boy. If you went to see the can’t teach him, I don’t think much of your methods. teacher. But Mrs. Edison … Tom never went back to school. His mother That’s right, son. Always taught him every day. ask “why” when you don’t understand. That’s Today we are going to read The the best way to learn. Merchant of Venice, a play by William Shakespeare. What’s a merchant, Mother? And where is Venice?

Thomas Edison  I have a new And one day … He liked I like science. I want book for you. the new to have a laboratory Can you read the book. and mix things title? D-I-C-T-I-O-N- together to see A-R-Y Dictionary! what happens. Dictionary of Science! That is the science of chemistr y. This is THh2Ois. That means water! is sulphur. And Saturday I am He set up his going to buy some laboratory in mercury to make a a corner of thermometer. the cellar. He collected old bottles. He saved all his pennies to buy supplies. The We could send telegraph messages is a great from your new house to my invention house! for sending messages. This book tells how to make one.

How about old And electromagnets bottles to use and batteries for our We’ll need for insulators? telegraph sets. a long, long wire. We’ll string it through this culvert to get across the street. The boys learned Morse code, and tapped out messages from one house to the other.

Thomas Edison  Soon there was great Maybe I can get a The railway news. job! wanted a The Grand Trunk boy to sell Railway has been newspapers, finished. You can candy, and ride from Port sandwiches Huron all the way on the train. to Detroit. Tom got the job. Every morning at 7 a.m. he got on He went Newspapers, the train. through the sandwiches, cars with his candy. Here you Hello, Tom. Hi-ya, Mr. wares. are, sir. Stevenson. Later … There’s a lot of So Tom moved his laboratory on board. room here. Could I I’ll have lots use it for some of of time to do my things? experiments here! I don’t see why not.

I’ll print a little paper with local news. The Grand Trunk Herald, Then Tom I’ll call it. bought a small hand He soon had about four hundred printing readers at eight cents a copy. press. There’s fifteen Each day the feet of books train stayed in between A and Detroit from Z. I’ll read a 10:30 a.m. till foot of books a 4:30 p.m. Tom week. went to the Detroit library. One day while Tom worked in his It burst into lab, the train hit a rough stretch of flames! track. Oh, gosh! The What’ll I do? phosphorus! Water!

Thomas Edison  The conductor So am I, that I ever let you came in. experiment on this train! I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Tom kept his job, but that was the end of his train laboratory. Later … There’s time to walk around A runaway car here while they switch and a baby! cars. It’s all right. I’ve got you!

10 Tom fell out of the way. You saved my I don’t want Jimmie’s life! How to be paid, Mr. Tom! Are you I’m all right, can I ever thank Mackenzie. all right? What Mr. Mackenzie. you or pay you happened? So is Jimmie. enough? Would you like to learn Four nights a week, Tom worked with telegraphy? I’d be Mackenzie. It was a turning point in his pleased and happy to life. teach you. In five months you’ve learned everything I I’d like that know. You’re an expert the best in now. You can get a job the world! anywhere. For several years, Tom worked as a tramp telegrapher, moving from job to job, seeing the country.

Wherever he Why don’t you buy yourself Thomas Edison 11 went, he carried some new clothes, Tom? his electrical Why spend good equipment money on clothes? and set up a I use it for lab laboratory in equipment and books! his room. One night after working late, The first thing Tom heard was a shot he started home. whistling past his ear. Stop! Stop or Stop, thief. But it’s only I’ll shoot! Drop that books, my package! books! Tom opened I’m nearly deaf. the package. Have been since I Why didn’t you stop was a child. when I yelled? If I’d been a better shot, you’d be dead!

12 Oh, that’s all right. It In 1869 Tom went to New York. helps me concentrate. They use Well, sir. Think of all the telegraph I’m sorry. nonsense I don’t have machines. I’ll try to listen to because I here for a job. can’t hear it! Inside, Tom The ticker’s* broken I don’t found things in down! We’ll be know what’s a mess. wrong! ruined! I think I see Fix it! Fix In two hours, Tom had everything what the it! Only be working again. trouble is. quick. Hurry! Young man, you saved the day! I want you to work for me. * telegraphic receiving equipment that automatically prints off information on a paper ribbon

Tom had a good job and a high Thomas Edison 13 salary. But he stayed only two months. First, he made an improved stock I’m sorry, but I have ticker. so many ideas. I want to work on my I’m going to show it inventions. to the Gold and Stock Telegraphy Company. I’ll ask $5,000 for it, but I’ll take $3,000. Tom demonstrated his Well, young Uh, make me device. man, what will an offer. you take for it? How does forty Uh, forty thou … I’ll Tom agreed to thousand dollars take it! manufacture the strike you? new stock tickers. In thirty days, he had spent the $40,000 renting space and setting up a machine shop and laboratory in Newark, New Jersey.

14 He also had to What are the Hours? Why, we But Tom hire workmen. hours, Mr. Edison? work until the always work is done! worked with the men and longer hours than anybody else. Many of the names on his staff were to become famous in electrical engineering. One rainy night, Oh, excuse us; Yes, of course! Tom came out of we were trying Come inside. the building. to keep dry. I’m Tom I’m Alice I hire a few young ladies here. Edison. This is Stillwell, and Would you want to work for me? my plant. this is my sister, Mary. I’d like a job, Mr. Edison.

So Mary went to work. And Tom Thomas Edison 15 couldn’t keep from staring at her. Oh, Mr. Edison. You Do you like me? Could you make me so nervous marry me? Think it over, talk I can’t work. to your mother. Tell me next week. Next week, Do you, Thomas Alva Mary gave Tom Edison, take this woman … permission to call on her. On I do. Christmas Day, 1871, they were married. After the I’m worried about some work. I But Tom … wedding have to run down to the factory breakfast, Tom for a little while. took Mary to the new house he had bought in Newark.

16 That What are you Why? It’s I guess I’d night … doing here, Tom? What midnight! better go time is it? home. I got married today. Tom invented I’m not a good manufacturer, and I don’t You know improvements like it! I’m going to sell the factory and do best, Tom. on the nothing but invent new things. telegraph and the telephone. He made money. He had to take part in lawsuits. So Tom moved to Menlo Park, I have an office and a library on New Jersey. the first floor. The second floor is a big laboratory room. And I’ve bought a farmhouse close by, where we can live.

One day, Edison talked to a fellow A talking Thomas Edison 17 worker. machine. Ha-ha! Some Can you make Sure. It looks joke! Don’t tell this thing up simple enough. me if you don’t for me, John? What’s it want to. supposed to be? Later, John brought back the model. Then Tom made some adjustments and stepped back. Mary had a little Has the Mary had a little It, it lamb; its fleece boss lamb; its fleece was does was white as lost his white as snow … talk! snow … mind? The phonograph was a totally new idea. Nobody had thought of such a thing before.

18 Overnight, Tom Edison became famous. The railroad ran special excursion trains to carry the thousands of people who rushed to Menlo Park. Where’s the talking This way for machine? Where do Menlo Park. we find Tom Edison’s laborator y? A telegram came from But the Edisons had a four-year-old Washington. daughter. And Mary was angry when she found Tom about to pinch the They want me to bring the child. phonograph to Washington to show to Congress, and to Thomas Well, I want President Hayes and his wife at Edison! What to make a the White House. are you recording trying to do of a child’s Oh, Tom. I’m to Marion? cry, and she so proud of won’t cry. you.

Thomas Edison 19 At that time, The only form of electric light was the arc light. city homes The arc light is too were lighted blinding, too hot, and by gas lights. too expensive to use Country in homes. homes used kerosene lamps and candles. Gas gives a nice I am going to develop an electric light, but it’s lamp for home use and a way smelly, unpleasant, to convert steam power into and expensive. electricity to light the lamp. Most people said it could not Even some of his coworkers grew be done. discouraged. You’ve tried out over 3,000 theories, That crazy Tom worked nearly two years, and still the Edison says that bulb burns out in five hours! he can make an electric lamp.

20 It’s a carbonized And it’s thread filament been Then came a in a vacuum bulb. burning for night in 10 hours. October 1879. If it burned for 45 hours, I Nobody went home. The bulb kept can make it burn for 100! And burning. It burned for 45 hours. cheap enough to sell for forty cents a piece! In December he showed his light to a New York Herald reporter. Nonsense! Impossible! He invited the It’s a miracle! It’s Edison’s a public to a magic! wizard! demonstration on New Year’s Eve. More than 3,000 came to Menlo Park.

But my light Thomas Edison 21 bulb does nobody any To do that we’ll have to develop good until we everything from scratch. Power can get electric systems, cables, wire, switches, power into fuses. Whatever it takes! homes. He went to New York and rented a mansion on Fifth Avenue. Never before have people seen a house lighted by electric power! Now they see what it can do. This was the birthplace of what was to become the Consolidated Edison Company. The Edisons also had two But Tom, we You’ll see even less sons now. Tom moved the never see you! for a while. I am family to a New York home. starting factories, building a power plant, laying underground cable, designing everything. He patented 360 ideas concerned with generating and distributing electricity.

22 Or laying underground cable. As he always had, he worked with his men building a giant dynamo. At last the job We are seeing a city was done. On lighted by electric power the night of for the first time in history. September 4, 1882, Edison signaled and the main switch was pulled. It was a success, so Tom moved on to other things—like the electric railroad he built at Menlo Park. Cities need something like this. Horse-cars are out of date.

The family still I’m sorry, very No, no! Thomas Edison 23 spent the summers sorry. She’s gone. at Menlo Park. Tom’s love for There, in 1884, Mary Menlo Park Edison became ill turned to hate. with typhoid fever. He returned to New York alone, and let his laboratory at Menlo Park fall into ruins. Tom had always Who is Miss Mina Miller. avoided parties. that piano Her father Now his loneliness player? is an Ohio drove him to get manufacturer. dressed and go out. Tom was in love again. On February 24, 1886, they were married at the Miller home in Akron.

24 I’m going to build better batteries for Tom built a new this electric car. laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey and bought a home nearby for his family. In 1889 … The French This would be a good time for a government has vacation. I’ve just sold most of my asked me to be factories and companies to Henry a guest at the Villard and some friends. Paris International Exposition. From this sale came the Edison General Oh, Tom! Electric Company— Let’s go. We today’s General can take Electric. Marion too. Governments Mr. Edison, I Thank you. The all over Europe decorate you honor is not mine, presented Edison with the ribbons but America’s. with honors. To of the French the French and Legion of Honor. to the others he made the same reply.

Thomas Edison 25 At home again, Oh, Dad! It’s the Tom worked on This is great! best thing a new idea. He Moving you’ve showed the results pictures! ever to his family. invented! October 21, 1929, When anybody throughout the world turns on was the 50th a light, he should be grateful to the genius of anniversary of the Thomas Alva Edison. electric light. Tom Edison was 82 What people choose years old. There was to call genius is a great celebration. simply hard work. Tom Edison never stopped working. He died after a short illness in 1931. In his lifetime he was granted 1,093 patents, the largest number ever given to one man.