History of Computers - Thomas Edison
By Alec Winograd
Thomas Edison (Thomas Alva Edison) was born on February 11, 1847. Edison was an American inventor; one of the most well known of all time. He died on October 18, 1931, but not before he published over 1,000 patents. [1]
Overview
Thomas Edison had very little formal teaching as a child. He was taught reading, writing and math by his mother, though he also taught himself.[2] Edison's first job was working on the Grand Trunk Railway. For saving a station official's son, (in the path of an oncoming train) Edison was taught how to use the telegraph. He then worked as a telegrapher in the Midwest. He invented an telegraph repeating instrument and after it became a huge success, he became a full time inventor. [3] He also discovered the Edison Effect. In addition, Thomas Edison created the incandescent light bulb. He did not invent the light bulb, but he did improve a model made 50 years prior. [4]
Significance
Edison's had a huge significance in the development of computers. The Edison Effect was discovered by Thomas Edison in 1883 when he added a third electrode to his bulbs. This invention leads to the development of vacuum tubes (History of Computers - Vacuum Tubes) and the transistor.[5] Thomas Edison increased the speed of the computers by discovering the Edison Effect, which showed future inventors how to get computers to use electrical signals to communicate instead of manual switches. If computers had not started using electical signals, the simple task of making a word document would take a long time. [6]
References
- ↑ http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bledisonpatents.htm
- ↑ http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventors/a/Edison_Bio.htm
- ↑ http://www.incwell.com/Biographies/Edison.html
- ↑ http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bledison.htm
- ↑ http://www.thomasedison.com/Inventions.htm
- ↑ http://arc.iki.rssi.ru/mirrors/stern/Education/welect.html
