(C) U.S. State Dept
This story was originally published by U.S. State Dept and is unaltered.
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An inventor who electrified the world [1]
['Lauren Monsen']
Date: 2025-05-19 19:01:51+00:00
The United States is building a sculpture garden, the National Garden of American Heroes, to commemorate men and women who embody the American spirit. Meet Thomas Edison, one of the 250 heroes whose likenesses will be featured in the garden, a place where, as President Trump says, “citizens, young and old, can renew their vision of greatness.”
Many technologies we use each day began as ideas in the mind of Thomas Edison.
Edison invented the incandescent light bulb in 1879, leading to the illumination of homes and skylines. His contributions to electric power systems, motion pictures and telecommunications laid a foundation for modern life.
Born in Ohio in 1847, America’s most prolific inventor preached persistence throughout his life. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up,” Edison famously said.
“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk,” he said. But he had more than that to work with. After establishing the world’s first industrial research laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, in 1876, Edison led a team of researchers who refined numerous inventions simultaneously.
In 1877, Edison’s idea to record sound as indentations on a fast-moving paper led him to invent the phonograph. Into that machine, devised from a tin foil–coated cylinder, a diaphragm and a needle, Edison spoke the first recorded words: “Mary had a little lamb.”
Edison improved the telegraph and telephone, invented the motion picture camera and devised the world’s first commercial electric light system, which led to the illumination of New York City and eventually other cities around the world.
By the time he died in 1931, at 84, Edison held a record 1,093 U.S. patents, as well as patents from other countries.
Edison’s inventions remain guideposts to innovators everywhere today, and so do some of his observations on innovation, including, “Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.”
Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere and General George C. Marshall are also among the heroes whose likenesses will be featured in the garden.
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[1] Url:
https://share.america.gov/an-inventor-who-electrified-the-world/
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