Tomas Edison

Tomas Edison is a great American inventor. He had over 1300 inventions to his name. Many of them, like the light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera were brilliant creations that have a huge influence on our everyday life. But his favourite one was the phonograph.

While working on improvements to the telegraph and the telephone, Edison figured out a way to record sound on tinfoil-coated cylinders. In 1877, he created a machine with two needles: one for recording and one for playback. When Edison spoke into the mouthpiece, the sound vibrations of his voice would be indented onto the cylinder by the recording needle. "Mary had a little lamb" were the first words that Edison recorded on the phonograph. In 1878, Edison established the Edison Speaking Phonograph Company to sell the new machine. Edison suggested other uses for the phonograph, such as: letter writing and dictation, phonographic books for blind people, a family record (recording family members in their own voices), music boxes and toys, clocks that announce the time, and a connection with the telephone so communications could be recorded.

However, not everything he created was a success; he also had a few failures. One concept that never took off was Edison's interest in using cement to build things. He formed the Edison Portland Cement Co. in 1899, and made everything from cabinets (for phonographs) to pianos and houses. Unfortunately, at the time, concrete was too expensive and the idea was never accepted. Cement wasn't a total failure, though. His company was hired to build Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.