Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison was an American inventor and businessman responsible for numerous important inventions, including the first practical, long-running electric light bulb. Edison grew up in Port Huron, Michigan and had only three months of formal schooling. In his teens, Edison became a telegraph operator in New Jersey, and soon began working on telegraphy-related inventions, including a stock ticker. His inventions began gaining attention after his invention of the phonograph in 1877. He built an industrial research lab in Menlo Park, New Jersey, where he went on to invent the motion picture camera and the first successful light bulb. With 1,093 patents under his name, Edison is the fourth most-prolific inventor of all-time.