Did you know that Thomas Edison once built a Chemistry lab on a train? Thomas Edison is without a doubt one of the greatest inventors in history. It is believed that when he passed away in the year 1847, he had about 1093 patents in his name. Many of his major inventions are still used today. Apart from being a prolific inventor, he was also a successful business entrepreneur. His inventions were used to form one of the major corporations in the world, General Electric. But there are many things we still know about the inventor, businessman and manufacturer, Thomas Alva Edison. Before Thomas was born, his father was a part of a failed revolution Pro-democracy rebels in Canada started protesting against the British administration in the North American territory. Amongst the rebel was Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr, a Scotia native. He, too, marched on Toronto with the rebels but, after the failure of revolution, fled to the United States. It was here that Thomas Edison was born. Thomas Edison built a Chemistry lab on a train At the age of 12, Edison was selling newspapers and candies on the Grand Trunk Railroad, which commuted people from Detroit and back. It was this train that he set up a chemistry lab. Not only that,he also built a printing press for a new and original newspaper named “The Grand Trunk Herald”. Edison believed that his poor hearing had been a boon to him Edison suffered from scarlet fever in his childhood, and it is why he was deaf in one ear, and as time passed, his other ear also lost hearing power making him partially deaf. But he always considered this lack of hearing as a boon to him as it helped him to progress in his career. He could concentrate better without any disturbances. He named his kids after telegraph Edison started in the telegraph industry, and to commemorate the technology using morse code; he nicknamed his eldest children Marion Edison and Thomas Edison Jr, Dot and Dash. His first patented invention was the vote-counting machine Edison felt a need for a device that could simplify the voting process, and that is the reason he invented and later patented his “Electrographic Vote-Recorder” machine in the year 1869. With this machine, voters could flip the switch, and the votes get tallied electronically. Unfortunately, politicians didn’t like the idea, and the device remained unused. Edison’s life and inventions would continue to inspire generations to come.
