Improving the Light Bulb
Though he received little formal education, Edison became one of history’s most well-known and successful inventors, patenting a record-setting 1,093 inventions throughout his life. (This is approximately equivalent to one patent every 11 days.) One day in 1888, he wrote down 112 ideas!
What is a patent?
Why do you think Thomas Edison wrote down his ideas?
Thomas Edison was born in 1847 and had a sense of curiosity from a young age. When he was 13, he began selling snacks to railroad passengers, selling copies of the Detroit Free Press, and printing his newspaper while on the moving train! His paper grew and sold 400 copies per week.
As a young boy, Edison was both an inventor and an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is someone who decides to create or run a business. But what set him apart was his approach to invention. He didn’t try to find a new problem to solve. Instead, he looked at what solutions had already been created and found ways to improve them. Edison referred to this as ‘perfecting’ rather than inventing. He took things that were already made and worked to make them better or less expensive.
What is ‘perfecting?’
What was Thomas Edison’s goal as he ‘perfected’ things?
What does incandescent mean?
Who are the Muckers?
How was Thomas Edison resourceful?
