February 11, 1847, Milan (Ohio, United States) - October 18, 1931, West Orange (New Jersey, United States)
Nicknamed ‘The Wizard of Menlo Park’, he was a great scientist of his time with more than 1,000 inventions in his career, which would develop one every 15 days, that drastically transformed the culture, habits, and customs of the society of his time and the future of the following generations.
A restless, tireless researcher and entrepreneur, he worked in fields as diverse as optics, acoustics, and electricity. He had a natural ability to apply technical knowledge to everyday life, which enabled his discoveries to be of great importance in people's lives.
His first patent was in 1868, a very simple instrument for the mechanical counting of votes. It was a kind of box for each representative and consisted of two buttons, one for the vote for and one for the vote against.
Although he is credited with inventing the incandescent lamp, he only really perfected it after many attempts. His great achievement was a filament that achieved incandescence without melting. This was made of carbonised cotton. On 21 October 1879, he managed to make his first light bulb work for 40 hours at a time, and just two months later, on 31 December, the American newspaper New York Herald announced on its front page a discovery by the talented American inventor and scientist that was to revolutionise the world of electric lighting.
On 27 January 1880, Edison patented the incandescent lamp. Although he is credited with inventing the incandescent lamp, in reality, he only perfected it. After many attempts, he succeeded in making a filament, which was not made of metal but of carbonised bamboo, reach incandescence without melting.
Their mass production made it possible to make light considerably cheaper to obtain so that even people with limited financial resources could enjoy the possibility of lighting their homes.
Another of his great inventions was the phonograph, which made it possible to record and reproduce any type of sound. It represented a breakthrough and was the forerunner of the gramophone and the record player.
He also made major contributions to the world of cinema. In 1889, he commercialised 35 mm celluloid film, although he was unable to patent it because George Eastman had already done so. However, he was able to patent the lateral perforations that this type of film has. To do this, he replaced the rigid piece of classic Eastman glass film with a flexible film, on the edges of which he applied perforations that allowed several cogwheels to rotate it at sufficient speed to make the discontinuities between photographs imperceptible.
He also created an experimental sound film in which the image was coordinated with the sound of a phonograph record.
As important as his inventions was his attitude to the technological invention, which led him to create, in 1876, the first industrial research laboratory, the forerunner of modern technological experimentation centres, organised around teams of scientists, technicians, and specialists.
