爱迪生(Thomas Edison)的简介
2009-03-18 07:51阅读:
Thomas Edison was born on February 11,
1847 in Milan, Ohio. He was the seventh and the youngest son in his
family. At his young age, Edison was told by his teacher that he
was not smart enough to be in school, so his mother, a former
teacher, pulled him out of school, and guided his learning herself.
Unlike other children, Edison received limited formal education.
Reading soon became a big hobby of young Edison’s. He loved to read
books, especially ones about science. His reading eventually led
him to experiment with chemicals and to construct elaborate model.
A shattered piece of glass had accidentally flied into Edison’s ear
as he was experimenting when he was 13, and his hearing condition
worsened ever since.
Edison’s family was not rich; while other
kids were playing, little Edison would be trying to make some money
for his family. Even as a child,
Edison was venturesome in business. He grew vegetables in the
garden and sold them at the town’s market. Edison began to sell
newspapers, candy, and sandwiches on passenger trains and at stops
at the age 12. At age 15, he published and sold a newspaper named
Weekly Herald.
When Edison was seven, his mother nearly
died from appendicitis, because Edison’s house was too dim to have
a surgery. Candles were only the light sources back then, and they
were only for the rich to buy. Edison came up with an idea of
putting several mirrors beside his mother’s bed, therefore, as
light been reflected off each mirror, the room would become bright
enough to have the surgery. This incident inspired young Edison to
invent something brighter and cheaper than candles, which was later
to become the electric light
bulb.
In 1863, Edison started working as a
telegraph operator, because he rescued the son of a worker in the
Western Union Telegraph Company. The work experience had proved to
be most helpful in his later
inventions.
Thomas Edison had invented two most
important inventions in his life, the phonograph (1876-1877) and
the practical electric lighting (1879). After many experiments with
platinum and other metal filaments, Edison returned to a carbon
filament. In October, 1879, he successfully tested a carbon
filament made from burned sewing thread, which would produce the
best light and it could last for 40 hours. This was the very first
practical incandescent light bulb ever appeared. Further study was continued on, and after
few months the patent was granted, Edison and his team discovered a
carbonized bamboo filament that could last over 1200
hours.
The electric light bulb had been a great
success to Edison. Edison became known as the “Father of Electric
Light Bulbs” to the rest of the world. After the practical electric
light bulb was invented, not only the rich could have enough light
in the night anymore. Edison had brought a brighter world to
us.
Edison died on October 21, 1931 in bed at
his home in Llewellyn Park of several illnesses. At the request of
President Hoover, lights in people’s houses were all dimmed on the
date Edison past away, including the White House, as the
remembrance of the great
inventor.