Dates

• Existence: 11 February 1847 - 18 October 1931

Biography

Thomas Alva Edison was born on 11 February 1847 in Ohio, USA. From an early age, he developed a strong business sense and an interest in science. Among other things, he spent his early career working as a vendor in trains, as a telegraph operator, newspaper seller and printer. During his lifetime, Edison set up fourteen companies and became one of the most prolific inventors of all times in the fields of electricity, mass communication, sound recording and motion pictures.

By 1876, he had established his first laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, where many of his early inventions were developed and he established the world's first film studio, the Black Maria, where over one thousand films were made.

In the early 1890s, Edison patented the Kinetograph filming camera and in 1891 he built a Kinetoscope or peep-hole viewer, where the paying public could watch his films, which he exported to Europe. This gave him total control over the making of motion pictures as well as their public showing. However, inventors and early film pioneers in Britain and elsewhere in Europe soon started to copy his machines and produce their own films, negating Edison the monopoly over the market by the mid 1800s. Still his work in motion pictures was very influential internationally.

Edison died on 18 October 1931.

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