Hi. As we are all at the end of 2022, I would like to look back on things I went through this year. Though we used to start our new year with many hopes and resolutions to follow, we somehow ended up with different things, memories, places, and lots of unplanned happenings.
I would like to tell the story of Thomas Alva Edison, who has always been an inspiration to overcome failures, cherish moments, and learn from experiences. We have seen different situations that brought us happiness, which we value for a while until we get stuck with indirect worries.
Whenever we come across failures in our lives, the first thought that rises in our minds is, "Why me?" I haven't done anything wrong to deserve this pain. Thoughts run through our minds: "I’m not going to start from square one," which is when we are about to taste the fruit of success. But actually, that should be the moment we should hold our horses and look back on the path we've crossed so far. We knew we had given our full effort to reach this far, but somehow, we missed the mark of success. So, instead of complaining, we can begin more effectively because this time we might succeed. Who knows what the future holds?
According to me, I used to recall the "Thomas Alva Edison" story to bounce back from rock bottom and to gain self-confidence. His story doesn’t fail to motivate me; it makes me understand what continuous effort is. I would like to bring up some interesting facts and his life story, which will definitely be inspiring to all of us.
THOMAS ALVA EDISON:)
Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan. He was Samuel and Nancy's last child. He is the seventh child in the family. He started taking up jobs when he was 13 years old. He worked as a newsboy, selling newspapers on the side of the road, and selling candies near railroad stations. His life was kind of stuck until he turned 16 years old.
Edison was expelled from school after his teacher accused him of being mentally ill and unable to continue his academic career. His teacher wrote a letter to his mother and sent him off campus. Nancy hasn’t revealed the truth about the letter to her son. Instead, she changed the context in a positive way, as he is more capable, and this school fails to reach his standard. This increased Edison's confidence, and he decided to work on his skills.
From that point on, Nancy took full control of Edison’s studies, and she made him learn things gradually. Edison was fond of reading scientific and technological books during most of his free time. At this stage, he also got an opportunity to gather knowledge about telegraph operations and their functions. He gained practical experience as a full-time telegrapher when he was only 16 years old. He continuously believed in self-improvement and worked towards it on his own.
Because of his never-give-up attitude, he became a famous American physicist, inventor, and businessman in the early 20th century. His most remarkable inventions were the electric bulb and the phonograph. He also owns 1,000 patents for all his inventions. Despite the fact that he invented many things, not all of them were successful. Scroll down to read some of the interesting facts about Edison's inventions.
CREATED BATTERY FOR ELECTRIC CARS!
In 1901, Edison created the nickel-alkaline battery under the brand name "Exile." This battery was originally developed to use in electrical vehicles. But after launching into the market, most of the manufacturers stopped the production of electrical vehicles.
But Edison, in the meantime, established a small factory for producing electric cars and used his invented battery in it. Around 1912, there were approximately 33,000 electric cars in real-time use on American roads. Most of the cars were highly equipped, which is comparable to today’s quality and margins. However, even in the early 20s, the speed of electric cars was slow because they could only travel 30 kilometers before the battery ran out.
VOTE RECORDER!
In June 1869, Edison got his first patent for "Vote Recorder." During that time, the telegraph played an important role in transferring information and receiving responses from different people without any barriers. As Edison already had expertise in that technology, he was able to work as a telegraph operator, and he even got the opportunity to travel around different cities in the US before he arrived in Boston. While residing in Boston, he decided to be an inventor instead of an operator.
He designed a device called the "Electrographic Vote Recorder and Register." This device was invented to speed up the total number of vote counts during the Congress period. But this invention hasn’t met the expectations of Congress members and has ended in failure. Following this failure, Edison made a vow to himself that he would only invent things that were more useful to the public in the future.
SAVED A THREE-YEAR-OLD BOY (JIMMIE MACKENZIE)!
When Edison was 13 to 15 years old, he begin to compile newspaper on his own and sell them. In August 1862, when he was on the way to sell his paper, he got to see a 3-year-old boy about to get hurt in a train accident. Luckily, Edison noticed it and saved the kid from an accident with minimal injury to himself. To repay Edison for saving his son Jimmie from an accident, James U. Mackenzie (the station master), the father of that kid, helped Edison learn about the telegraph, which was a turning point in his life.
CREEPY THREATENING DOLL!
Edison not only spent his knowledge on creating bigger projects but also worked on smaller ones too. He also spent his time creating a talking phonograph doll, which was released by the Edison phonograph toy manufacturing company in 1890. This doll is capable of singing nursery rhymes. But this creation was an utter failure, and sales of the doll were below 500 in total. The majority of the children found this doll threatening and disliked it. The cost of the doll is quite expensive (a doll wrapped in cloth is $20, and one without cloth is $10). In later years, Edison himself claimed the dolls were "Little Monsters."
FIRST VIDEO!
Edison is not only specialized in the inventory and manufacturing industries; in addition to that, he produced the first motion pictures in history. An earlier existing "old cat" video was actually produced by Edison in July 1894. The video was filmed by Henry Welton and William Heise at Edison’s production studio (the Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey), and shows two cats boxing with gloves on in a boxing ring.
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k52pLvVmmkU
LAST UTTERED WORDS!
Edison suffered a lot with poor health during his last few days. He died due to diabetes and complications at the age of 84 on October 18, 1931, at his hometown West Orange, New Jersey. Before his death, he was in and out of coma. He woke up from coma few hours before his death, looked up and uttered these final words “it is very beautiful over there.”
One of the most inspiring fact about Edison is, he was deaf. He lost his hearing due to fever at the age of 12 or as per study, he lost it while saving the boy from train accident. Actual root cause is still a misery.
I conclude here, thanks for all my friends who supported me in sharing my blogs and guided me with feedbacks to improvise myself. I expect the same support in forthcoming years too.
Wish you all HAPPY NEW YEAR 2023😊
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