Thomas Edison was one of history’s greatest inventors, who gave the world not only electric light but other landmark innovations in sound recording and moving pictures. He accumulated more patents in his lifetime than any other, and filled over 4000 notebooks with his work. So, how did this ordinary, home-schooled boy from the American mid-West overcome ill-health and hearing loss to change the world? To what extent was he a lone genius, and how much did he rely on the work of others?

This is A Short History of Thomas Edison.

Written by Dan Smith. With thanks to Paul Israel, director and general editor of the Thomas Edison Papers at Rutgers University and author of Edison: A Life of Invention.

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