Index : T : Thomas Edison

Structure Sub-topic of: Scientists & Inventors Interesting Questions, Facts and Information There are a total of 25 general entries. Frequently Asked Questions & Answers There are 30 user-asked question matches ( goto )

Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information

Thomas Edison

When was Thomas Edison born?

Thomas Edison (heintz57)


Feb. 11, 1847. Thomas was born on Feb. 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio. He was the youngest of seven children. Samuel and Nancy Edison were Thomas' parents.



When did Thomas Edison die?

Thomas Edison (heintz57)


Oct. 18, 1931. He died in bed from a severe illness. Edison was honored throughout the world for his invention and for his impact on the world.



When did Edison marry his first wife Mary Stilwell?

Thomas Edison (heintz57)


Dec. 25, 1871. Mary and Edison had three children: Marion Estelle, Thomas Alva Jr., and William Leslie. Edison nicknamed Marion and Tom "Dot" and "Dash" after the telegraph code. In 1884 Mary died. A year later Edison got remarried Mina Miller.



What is Thomas Edison's middle name?

Thomas Edison (heintz57)


Alva. Al was his nickname within the family.



What is the name of Edison's motion picture invention?

Thomas Edison (heintz57)


kinetoscope. The kinetoscope was a machine where you put in a coin, look through a peephole in a cabinet, and watch a short motion picture.



Thomas' first financial success came a year later. Traveling from Boston to New York, he found himself in dire financial straits. Hoping to strike it rich in the Big Apple, he found odd jobs here and there. It was in Gotham that serendipity first smiled at Edison, when he created which device, his first major moneymaker?

Thomas Edison - Inventor Extraordinaire (thejazzkickazz)


Stock Ticker System. Thomas found a small apartment which happened to exist below a New York brokerage. Hearing of trouble within the brokerage regarding the stock ticker equipment, Edison made his way upstairs and helped to fix the stock ticker system. This led to his first major patent and a whopping $40,000! Edison was so stunned by this exorbitant sum that he wandered for a few days with the check in his pocket, marveling at it from time to time.



Thomas Edison was involved in the creation of a number of major U.S. companies in various industries. The greatest example of his corporate initiative was the development of the Edison Electric Company in 1889, which eventually merged with another Company and became which major corporate juggernaut of the 20th century?

Thomas Edison - Inventor Extraordinaire (thejazzkickazz)


General Electric . Edison was involved in the incorporation of General Electric in 1892. It would soon go toe-to-toe with its major early rival, Westinghouse, who employed Nikola Tesla, the developer of alternating current.



Thomas and his wife soon had three children. What were the fitting nicknames of the first two children, a daughter and a son?

Thomas Edison - Inventor Extraordinaire (thejazzkickazz)


Dot and Dash. Given Thomas's connection with the telegraph, it being the partial inspiration for his future works, it makes sense that his first two kids would be named for the two symbols of Morse code!



The prolific American inventor Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in a small Ohio town. After which Italian city was his town of birth called?

Thomas Edison - Inventor Extraordinaire (thejazzkickazz)


Milan. Nancy Elliot Edison gave birth to her seventh child Thomas on that fateful February day of 1847, with father Samuel Edison, Jr. close at hand. Thomas was preceded in birth by his six siblings, Marion, William, Callie, Harriet, Samuel and Eliza. The family was not poor, as the myths would have it, but at the same time they were not bathing in wealth.



The following year, 1877, Edison patented his personal favorite invention. What was this remarkable device?

Thomas Edison - Inventor Extraordinaire (thejazzkickazz)


Phonograph. Edison invented the phonograph (aka record player) in 1877, the year after opening his Menlo Park laboratory. He called the phonograph his 'baby'. Thomas believed that the phonograph would bring him the most fortune, but this was not so. All told, Edison was involved in the patent of over 1,093 inventions (singly or jointly), the most ever for an individual in U.S. history.



Let's jump to 1879 now, and another important Edison invention, the incandescent light bulb. Is it true or false that Edison's light bulb was the very first to be patented?

Thomas Edison - Inventor Extraordinaire (thejazzkickazz)


f. In actuality, a number of light bulbs came before Edison's, but they were relatively unsuccessful prototypes, burning out in a much shorter time and with lower quality lighting effects. It is safe to say that Edison's light bulbs, financed by Morgan and Vanderbilt, revolutionized the lighting industry, however.



In the 1890s, after his invention of the motion picture camera and the projector, Edison became involved in movie making. He opened his Black Maria Motion Picture Company in 1893 and set out to make films. What was the name of the 10 minute film released by his company in 1903 that took the film world by storm?

Thomas Edison - Inventor Extraordinaire (thejazzkickazz)


The Great Train Robbery. Edison's very first copyrighted film was a recording of a sneeze. 'The Great Train Robbery' was created in 1903, produced by Edison and directed by Edwin S. Porter. The short film, based on an actual train robbery pulled off by Butch Cassidy and his gang, became the inspiration for an entire industry, though Edison himself never had much financial success from it. Following his great inventions of the late 19th century, Edison would continue to work on various useful gadgets for a number of years, finally passing away in West Orange, New Jersey, in 1931. Though he has long since been dead, his name will forever be etched in the annals of history as one of the world's greatest inventors! Thank you for having a go at this quiz...I hope you enjoyed it and learned a thing or two.



In 1879, Edison successfully tested the incandescent light. What did he use for a filament?

Thomas Edison (heintz57)


burned sewing thread. Edison made the filament for the light bulb from burned sewing thread, which produced a light that wasn't as bight as the carbon arc light. Later Edison began to use bamboo filaments.



In 1876, Thomas, with the support of several financiers, including J. P. Morgan, set up a laboratory for inventing purposes in which small New Jersey town?

Thomas Edison - Inventor Extraordinaire (thejazzkickazz)


Menlo Park. It was at this site that Edison and his assistants would create the many memorable inventions for which Thomas is now famous. It's no wonder that he was called the 'Wizard of Menlo Park'.



In 1876, Edison built his famous laboratory in Menlo Park. In which U.S. state is Menlo Park?

Thomas Edison (heintz57)


New Jersey. This was the first ladoratory built for Edison. This is where he did his research on the telephone, phonograph and other great inventions.



From 1862 to 1868 Edison worked in the telegraphy industry, where he learned much about mechanical devices. During this time, he also came into contact with a number of important individuals, including the current king of inventors, Alexander Graham Bell himself! Inspired by the atmosphere of innovation he found during these years, and especially in Boston, where he lived during the latter part of this period, he came up with his first invention. What was this first invention, developed in 1868, for which he received his first patent?

Thomas Edison - Inventor Extraordinaire (thejazzkickazz)


Vote Recorder. Edison's vote recorder seemed like the logical solution to what he saw as a very slow-moving voting process amongst members of the Massachusetts legislature. Little did Thomas realize, the members of that legislature didn't want to be hurried along in their voting process; they needed more time to satisfy their urge to be verbose! Sadly, his vote recorder was a financial failure...but Thomas would not be deterred!



Edison's first marriage began in 1871, when he decided to hitch up with a laboratory assistant nine years his younger. Who was this lovely girl with whom Thomas became betrothed?

Thomas Edison - Inventor Extraordinaire (thejazzkickazz)


Mary Stilwell. With Thomas, Mary would have three children, Marion Estelle, Thomas Alva Jr. and William Leslie. Sadly, Mary would die in 1884, at only 29 years of age. His second wife was called Mina Miller and she bore Thomas three children, Madeleine, Charles and Theodore Miller. Mina outlived Thomas by 16 years.



At what age did Edison become a telegraph operator?

Thomas Edison (heintz57)


15. Edison become a telegraph operator because he saved a telegraph operator's son from the path of a railroad car. As a reward, the operator gave him free telegraph lessons - which started Edison on his way of becoming one of the greatest men in history.



At the age of seven, Thomas and his family moved to Port Huron, Michigan. He set up his first laboratory in the basement of his family's house at 10 years of age. At 12 years old, he found his first job working in a position attached to which field?

Thomas Edison - Inventor Extraordinaire (thejazzkickazz)


Railroad. Thomas accepted a position working for the Grand Trunk Railway operating out of Michigan, selling knickknacks and performing other odd tasks. During his work with the railway he began printing his own newspaper, the first regular daily newspaper delivered on trains in the country. Thomas also moved some of his lab items onto an abandoned railway car where he continued to experiment. His experience on the rails included his first taste of telegraphy, an occupation with which he would soon become intimately involved.



1882 was also the year of Edison's only significant scientific discovery. This discovery, that an electric current could be induced to flow between two unconnected wires in a vacuum, is called the Edison _______? (Fill in the blank)

Thomas Edison - Inventor Extraordinaire (thejazzkickazz)


Effect. His discovery and documentation of the Edison Effect eventually helped lead to the development of the vacuum tube, a key component for early radios, televisions and computers.

• What was Thomas Edison's first patent for? ( goto )



• Why did Thomas Edison invent the light bulb? ( goto )



• What of Thomas Edison is perserved in a tube at Greenfield Billage in Dearborn, Michigan? ( goto )



• What formal education did the brilliant American inventor Thomas Alva Edison have? ( goto )



• What multi-billion dollar international company was founded by Thomas Edison, and in what year? ( goto )



• What American inventor is second only to Thomas Edison in the number of U.S. patents held? ( goto )



• What source of technical insight did both Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla consult? ( goto )



• What was Thomas Alva Edison's favourite among his 1000-plus inventions: Edison storage battery, kinetoscope, phonograph, or incandescent light bulb? ( goto )



• Before Thomas Edison suggested using "Hello" how did most people answer the telephone? ( goto )



• Why did Thomas Edison tattoo on his right forearm five dots like those on dice? ( goto )



• Who in 1892 developed the master disc from which severalcopies of a record could be made on vulcanised rubber (thomas edison, emile berlinger, charles goodyear, thomas hancock) ? ( goto )



• Who said, "Keep a good head, and always carry a light bulb"? Was it Thomas Edison, Bob Dylan or James Watt? ( goto )



• Which movie pioneer lived a life with a 'vanishing point' (Jules Marey, Thomas Edison, Louis le Prince, Athanasius Kircher)? ( goto )



• What device did Thomas Edison secretly help develop in a scheme to have it named after his arch-rival, George Westinghouse? ( goto )



• Starting in the late 1880s, European representatives of Thomas Edison recorded the voices of famous people to publicize the newly-invented phonograph. Not long after, one of the people recorded on Edison’s machine became the first person ever whose voice was heard after his death. Who was he and what did he do? ( goto )



• Where are the bones of Thomas A'Beckett? ( goto )



• Where was Thomas a Becket murdered? ( goto )



• Where was Thomas Hardy christened? ( goto )



• What was R.S. Thomas famous for? ( goto )



• What is Thomas Crapper best known for? ( goto )



• What was the claim to fame of Thomas Biddulph? ( goto )



• In which state was Thomas Jefferson born? ( goto )



• How many elements did Edison try before inventing the light bulb? ( goto )



• During the War of the Currents which current did Edison use to kill Topsy the elephant? ( goto )



• Thomas Jefferson was the first president to wear this. What was it? ( goto )



• For what sort of paintings is Thomas Girtin remembered? ( goto )



• What do the names Thomas and Preston mean? ( goto )



• Rob Thomas was born in what city in Germany? ( goto )



• What happened on April 19, 2004 involving Thomas Woods? ( goto )



• What was Thomas Bowdler famous for and where is he buried? ( goto )