Thomas Edison's Inventions

Thomas Edison had over 1800 patents. Most people think he only invented the light bulb.  As you saw from the other posts on Thomas Edison, he was most prolific when it came to inventions. His  mind was ever working on creating newer and better ways to do something.

Thomas Edison once said "There's a way to do it . . . find it!"

He never sat on his laurels.  Even though he invented one way to do something, he never said "fine, it is done!" On the contrary, instead he would always seek ways to improve upon it. He would work in his laboratory every day to make things better.  When you look upon the pictures below, you will see many objects that look similar.  Over the course of several years, Edison would tinker on his inventions or even inventions others had made, and he would improve upon them.  He was a strong believer in making life more livable.  That meant making things work better.

Thomas Edison was fascinated with moving pictures. So fascinated that he made his own version of a movie camera. 

Thomas Edison made several different generators during his lifetime. He continued to revise and revamp them, certain he could make them better and more efficient.  The ones you see here are the different models he invented.

One of his first inventions was a phonograph.  He recorded "Mary had a little lamb" on the tin foil phonograph.

This is a dictaphone machine - to record the voice and play it back.

Edison had his own cement company.  He had a dream to make an entire house out of cement and even made a design where the cement would be poured into a mold and the house would be set.  Surprisingly there actually are a few homes made from Edison's cement.

One of the reasons, Edison had so many different types of plants on his estate was because he was looking for a plant to make the best tire.  He was certain a plant existed that could make a resilient tire that would not be harmful to the environment and would also last a long time.  For a while he worked with goldenrod, certain the plant held the secret to his discovery.  Unfortunately, his dream never materialized.  The government purchased all the goldenrod acres from him, hoping to make something of his idea but it never reached fruition.

Timeline of his inventions:

1868 - the electrical vote recorder
1869 - universal stock ticker and unison stop
1872 - motograph, the automatic telegraph system, duplex, quadruplex, sextuplex, and multiplex telegraph systems, paraffin paper, carbon rheostat
1875 - etheric force - (has to do with wireless telegraphy)
1876 - electric pen for mimeographs
1877 - carbon telephone transmitter and the phonograph
1879 - incandescent light, dynamos and generators, electric current-switches, fuses, sockets, and meters
1880 - magnetic ore separator
1885 - system of wireless induction telegraph
1891 - motion picture camera
1896 - fluoroscope, fluorescent electric lamp
1900 - nickel-iron-alkaline storage battery
1914 - electric safety miner's lamp, process for manufacturing synthetic carbolic acid
1915 - experiments for the war department
1927-1931 - tested 17,000 plants for rubber - vulcanized rubber from a goldenrod plant he developed.