Thomas Edison
Phonograph's prolific creator
Thomas Edison was an American inventor and businessman whose developments—including practical incandescent lighting, recorded sound, and motion pictures—shaped modern life.
His Menlo Park laboratory pioneered industrial research.
Edison's name evokes prolific invention: He's no Thomas Edison, but he's clever with gadgets.
The "Wizard of Menlo Park" held over a thousand patents.
Exclusive rights to inventions
- laboratoryFacility for scientific investigation
- workshopPlace for making or learning
- tinkererHobbyist who adjusts mechanisms
- prototypeFirst functional specimen
experimentation · blueprints · Menlo Park · research · engineering · creator · designer · technologist
Glowing from heat
- filamentVery thin thread
- tungstenElement seventy-four
- illuminationProvision of light
- glowSteady, soft light
lamp · brightness · wattage · electric light · carbonized · socket · screw base · lumens
Person of rare brilliance
- visionaryImaginative planner of futures
- pioneerEarly explorer or settler
- innovatorCreator of new methods
- prolificProducing abundantly and often
American · self-taught · entrepreneurship · influence · icon · trademark · fame · mythology
Unidirectional electrical flow
- power stationFacility producing electrical energy
- generatorElectricity-producing machine
- electrificationConversion to powered systems
- dynamoMotion-to-electricity converter
distribution · grid · utility · wiring · voltage · current · kilowatt-hour · electric meter
Industrial production facility
- mass productionLarge-scale standardized fabrication
- manufacturingIndustrial product creation
- machineryCollective mechanical equipment
- automationSelf-operating system design
labor · workforce · enterprise · corporation · industrialist · production · economy · assembly
patents
Exclusive rights to inventions
- laboratoryFacility for scientific investigation
- workshopPlace for making or learning
- tinkererHobbyist who adjusts mechanisms
prototype · experimentation · blueprints · Menlo Park · research · engineering · creator · designer · technologist · mechanic
incandescent
Glowing from heat
- filamentVery thin thread
- tungstenElement seventy-four
- illuminationProvision of light
glow · lamp · brightness · wattage · electric light · carbonized · socket · screw base · lumens · commercial lighting
genius
Person of rare brilliance
- visionaryImaginative planner of futures
- pioneerEarly explorer or settler
- innovatorCreator of new methods
prolific · American · self-taught · entrepreneurship · influence · icon · trademark · fame · mythology · perseverance
direct current
Unidirectional electrical flow
- power stationFacility producing electrical energy
- generatorElectricity-producing machine
- electrificationConversion to powered systems
dynamo · distribution · grid · utility · wiring · voltage · current · kilowatt-hour · electric meter · central station
factory
Industrial production facility
- mass productionLarge-scale standardized fabrication
- manufacturingIndustrial product creation
- machineryCollective mechanical equipment
automation · labor · workforce · enterprise · corporation · industrialist · production · economy · assembly · commercialization
cylinder
Circular-based solid form
audio · sound · diaphragm · stylus · acoustic · gramophone · wax cylinder · dictation · voice · reproducer
- historical figureshistorical figures, leaders, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Joan of Arc
- American ScientistsBenjamin Franklin, Richard Feynman, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Carl Sagan, Jonas Salk
- Famous AmericansAbraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington Carver, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr.
- InventorsNikola Tesla, Alexander Graham Bell, Benjamin Franklin, Eli Whitney, Wright Brothers
- ThomasThomas Aquinas, Thomas Becket, Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Hardy, Thomas Hobbes
- Electricity HistoryMichael Faraday, Faraday, Benjamin Franklin, Franklin, Nikola Tesla
Thomas EdisonAlbert Einstein
Renowned twentieth-century physicist
Nikola Tesla · theoretical physicist · Jonas Salk · Isaac Newton · Stephen Hawking
Thomas EdisonLuddite
One opposing technological progress
Henry David Thoreau · Ted Kaczynski · technophobe · primitivist · Amish