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ANNCR:
Welcome to the VOA Special English program, People in America.Today, Sarah Long and Bob Doughty tell about the inventor ThomasAlva Edison. He had a major effect on the lives of people around theworld. Thomas Edison is remembered most for the electric light, hisphonograph and his work with motion pictures.
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VOICE ONE:
Thomas Edison’s major inventions were designed and built in thelast years of the Eighteen-Hundreds. However, most of them had theirgreatest effect in the Twentieth Century. His inventions madepossible the progress of technology.
It is extremely difficult to find anyone living today who has notbeen affected in some way by Thomas Edison. Most people on Earthhave seen some kind of motion picture or heard some kind of soundrecording. And almost everyone has at least seen an electric light.
These are only three of the many devices Thomas Edison inventedor helped to improve. People living in this century have had easierand more enjoyable lives because of his inventions.
VOICE TWO:
Thomas Alva Edison was born on February eleventh,eighteen-forty-seven in the small town of Milan, Ohio. He was theyoungest of seven children.
Thomas Edison was self-taught. He went to school for only threemonths. His teacher thought he could not learn because he had amental problem. But young Tom Edison could learn. He learned frombooks and he experimented.
At the age of ten, he built his own chemical laboratory. Heexperimented with chemicals and electricity. He built a telegraphmachine and quickly learned to send and receive telegraph messages.At the time, sending electric signals over wires was the fastestmethod of sending information long distances. At the age of sixteen,he went to work as a telegraph operator.
He later worked in many different places. He continued toexperiment with electricity. When he was twenty-one, he sent theUnited States government the documents needed to request the legalprotection for his first invention. The government gave him hisfirst patent on an electric device he called an Electrographic VoteRecorder. It used electricity to count votes in an election.
VOICE ONE:
In the summer months of eighteen-sixty-nine, the Western UnionTelegraph Company asked Thomas Edison to improve a device that wasused to send financial information. It was called a stock printer.Mister Edison very quickly made great improvements in the device.The company paid him forty-thousand dollars for his effort. That wasa lot of money for the time.
This large amount of money permitted Mister Edison to start hisown company. He announced that the company would improve existingtelegraph devices and work on new inventions.
Mister Edison told friends that his new company would invent aminor device every ten days and produce what he called a “big trick”about every six months. He also proposed that his company would makeinventions to order. He said that if someone needed a device to dosome kind of work, just ask and it would be invented.
VOICE TWO:
Within a few weeks Thomas Edison and his employees were workingon more than forty different projects. They were either newinventions or would lead to improvements in other devices. Veryquickly he was asking the United States government for patents toprotect more than one hundred devices or inventions each year. Hewas an extremely busy man. But then Thomas Edison was always verybusy.
He almost never slept more than four or five hours a night. Heusually worked eighteen hours each day because he enjoyed what hewas doing. He believed no one really needed much sleep. He once saidthat anyone could learn to go without sleep.
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VOICE ONE:
Thomas Edison did not enjoy taking to reporters. He thought itwas a waste of time. However, he did talk to a reporter inNineteen-Seventeen. He was seventy years old at the time and stillworking on new devices and inventions.
The reporter asked Mister Edison which of his many inventions heenjoyed the most. He answered quickly, the phonograph. He said thephonograph was really the most interesting. He also said it tooklonger to develop a machine to reproduce sound than any other of hisinventions.
Thomas Edison told the reporter that he had listened to manythousands of recordings. He especially liked music by Brahms, Verdiand Beethoven. He also liked popular music.
Many of the recordings that Thomas Edison listened to innineteen-seventeen can still be enjoyed today. His invention makesit possible for people around the world to enjoy the same recordedsound.
VOICE TWO:
The reporter also asked Thomas Edison what was the hardestinvention to develop. He answered quickly again…the electric light.He said that it was the most difficult and the most important.
Before the electric light was invented, light was provided inmost homes and buildings by oil or natural gas. Both caused manyfires each year. Neither one produced much light.
Mister Edison had seen a huge and powerful electric light. Hebelieved that a smaller electric light would be extremely useful.Heand his employees began work on the electric light.
VOICE ONE:
An electric light passes electricity through material called afilament or wire. The electricity makes the filament burn andproduce light. Thomas Edison and his employees worked for manymonths to find the right material to act as the filament.
Time after time a new filament would produce light for a fewmoments and then burn up. At last Mister Edison found that a carbonfiber produced light and lasted a long time without burning up. Theelectric light worked.
At first, people thought the electric light was extremelyinteresting but had no value. Homes and businesses did not haveelectricity. There was no need for it.
Mister Edison started a company that provided electricity forelectric lights for a small price each month. The small company grewslowly at first. Then it expanded rapidly. His company was thebeginning of the electric power industry.
VOICE TWO:
Thomas Edison also was responsible for the very beginnings of themovie industry. While he did not invent the idea of the motionpicture, he greatly improved the process. He also invented themodern motion picture film.
When motion pictures first were shown in the late eighteen-hundreds, people came to see movies of almost anything…a ship,people walking on the street, new automobiles. But in time, thesemoving pictures were no longer interesting. In nineteen-oh-three, anemployee of Thomas Edison’s motion picture company produced a moviewith a story. It was called “The Great Train Robbery.” It told asimple story of a group of western criminals who steal money from atrain. Later they are killed by a group of police in a gun fight.The movie was extremely popular. “The Great Train Robbery” startedthe huge, motion picture industry.
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VOICE ONE:
Thomas Alva Edison is remembered most for the electric light, hisphonograph and his work with motion pictures. However, he alsoinvented several devices that greatly improved the telephone. Heimproved several kinds of machines called generators that producedelectricity. He improved batteries that hold electricity. He workedon many different kinds of electric motors including those forelectric trains.
Mister Edison also is remembered for making changes in theinvention process. He moved from the Nineteenth Century method of anindividual doing the inventing to the Twentieth Century method usinga team of researchers.
VOICE TWO:
In nineteen-thirteen, a popular magazine at the time calledThomas Edison the most useful man in America. Innineteen-twenty-eight, he received a special medal of honor from theCongress of the United States.
Thomas Edison died on January sixth, nineteen-thirty-one. In themonths before his death he was still working very hard. He had askedthe government for legal protection for his last invention. It waspatent number one-thousand-ninety-three.
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ANNCR:
This Special English program was written and produced by PaulThompson. The announcers were Sarah Long and Bob Doughty. I’m MaryTillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICAprogram on the Voice of America.