52 Thomas Edison Facts: Interesting Facts About Thomas Edison

Last updated on March 25th, 2023

35. After his second marriage, Edison moved to West Orange. There, he built another laboratory for his experiments. This was a laboratory complex consisting of five buildings. Later, some factories were developed around the complex for production purposes. The total area covered by the laboratory and the factories around it was more than 25 acres, and it employed no less than 10,000 people when it was functioning at its peak during World War I.

36. Edison had a distinct advantage compared to some other inventors. He had many young people fresh out of college or technical training work for him. Edison called them “muckers.” These people helped Edison test and build upon his ideas. And he paid them not much more than “only workmen’s wages.” People assisting him worked for an average of 55 hours a week; however, this would extend if Edison were working on something promising. People often enjoyed their work with Edison because they were not coming there for money, but for a chance to fulfill their ambitions.

About Edison’s work, laboratories, factories, patents, General Electric Corporation, rivalry with Nikola Tesla and more…

37. Did you know that Edison filed the first of his 1,093 successful U.S. Patent applications on October 13, 1868, at the age of 21?

38. During 1882, Edison filed 106 successful U.S. patent applications. This was the maximum number of successful U.S. patent applications filed by Edison in any year.

39. According to a biographer, Frank Lewis Dyer, Edison had 1,239 non-U.S. patents awarded in 34 countries.

Here is a list of his patents and their details: http://edison.rutgers.edu/patents.htm.

40. Thomas Edison does not just hold 1093 US patents to his name. He holds many more in other countries, including France, Germany, and the U.K.

41. Edison, in context of his hearing loss in 1885, wrote, “I haven’t heard a bird sing since I was twelve years old.”

42. It was during the lifetime of Thomas Edison that President Abraham Lincoln (Edison’s hero) was assassinated on 14^th April 1865. The president’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was tracked down with the help of 10,000 federal troops, police and detectives, making it one of the largest manhunts in history.

43. During his most productive years, Edison worked more than 18 hours each day.

44. Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the wireless telegraph, was Edison’s friend. He used the patents made available by Edison for his invention of the wireless telegraph.

45. In 1914, on December 9, there was a massive fire that swept most of Edison’s factories. However, Edison was determined to make another fresh start. With the aid of his team, he started working once again.

46. Edison recounted the efforts of his mother saying, “My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me, and I felt I had someone to live for, someone I must not disappoint.”

47. Edison recorded the progress of thousands of his experiments in more than 2500 books.

48. The General Electric Corporation as we all know today was started by Edison under the name Edison Illuminating Company in 1880.

49. Edison did not find as much success working with fellow scientists as he found working in intimate, unstructured environments.

50. Thomas Edison had a long-lasting rivalry with Nikola Tesla, another visionary and prolific inventor of his time. The duo conflicted over the use of direct current and alternating current. Nikola Tesla advocated the use of alternating current as opposed to direct current. Edison fired back by conducting demonstrations that showed the hazards of alternating current. In one such demonstration, he electrocuted a circus elephant in New York’s Coney Island.

51. At the time of his death, Edison was regarded as America’s most well-known and respected person.

52. Edison practiced a theory throughout his life – that there are no substitutes for hard work and sound thinking.

Inventions by Thomas Alva Edison

The Phonograph, light bulb, motion picture, the electrographic vote recorder, magnetic iron ore separator, quadruplex telegraph, storage battery, electric pen, electric generator, stock ticker and more…

Some inspirational quotes by Thomas Alva Edison

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

“What you are will show in what you do.”

“Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”

“Discontent is the first necessity of progress.”

“Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.”

“To have a great idea, have a lot of them.”

“Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.”

“Great ideas originate in the muscles.”

“Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.”

“It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.”

“Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won’t work.”

“There is far more opportunity than there is ability.”

“If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.”

Thomas Edison – Quick facts