Jeff Scudder
World History Honors
Exploring Electricity and Thomas Edison
World History Day Essay

Thomas Alva Edison was born in Ohio in 1847. Not knowing that he would someday create one of the world's most prestigious inventions ever. Thomas Edison turned, electricity from an unnecessary luxury, to the most necessary utility we use today. Because of him, entire cities and countries are lit by electricity. Thomas has created and patented over 1000 inventions in his lifetime. There are several that stand out, including the fact that he created the first motion pictures. The most important of all his inventions would have to be the electric light.
	Mr. Edison began work and studies on electrical lighting in 1878. He saw demonstrations of electrical light, but he wanted to make one that normal people could use in their own homes. So he began. He decided to make an incandescent lamp. To make the first light bulb, Edison used electricity, which he passed through a filament (or thin wire.) to make the filament glow and give off light. He tested many substances for the filament. The one that worked best was a carbon filament. The light bulb was successful, but the lights burnt out quickly. In order to make the life of the bulb last longer, he started using bamboo for all his filaments instead of carbon.
	The light bulb did not get into homes very quickly. Remember, not many homes had electricity, for lights were not invented when the homes were built. The only places with electricity were factories, or certain homes or businesses that needed to operate electrical machinery. So at first, these were the only places to have the light bulb, and it was considered a novelty. Edison now needed a way to get more light bulbs into homes. So he started work on creating power plants. The first station Edison built was the Pearl Street Station, which was steam powered. This station opened in 1882 and provided electricity to its customers by sending the currents through wires and into the customer’s homes. Because of Edison, power was becoming more than a novelty not only did Edison help to work on electricity and lighting. He also worked on power cables, and fixtures, and generators and other electrical equipment to suit people's needs.
	Edison is also greatly known for his laboratories. He has created some of the most modern scientific work labs of his time, and many devices he used are still used today. He is the inventor of the phonograph that used a disc to play music, almost like an early record player. He made motion pictures, and is one of the people responsible for bringing movies into the theaters and into our homes.
	Thomas Edison is probably the most influential inventor in history. If it weren’t for him, we would still be using candles to light our homes. This paper could not be spell-checked, and communication through wires, and the Internet would never be possible. Edison was a great explorer who was not afraid to take the challenge of making electricity part of our everyday lives.