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Thomas Edison Impact On Society

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Our fast-paced world has seen many inventions that has changed the shape of our society. Perhaps the most influential inventor who inspired many others to try their hand at changing the world, was Thomas Edison. Thomas Alva Edison is considered one of the greatest inventors of all time. He invented hundreds of items that we still use today in some form or another, including the electric lightbulb and the alkaline battery. His inventive mind started when he was just a little boy growing up in Michigan. Even going deaf when he was only twelve years old, and not having a formal education, did not stifle the determined inventor. As a young adult, he moved to New York City where he invented the stock market ticker. After that, he received a plethora …show more content…

At Edison's suggestion, it could aid in letter writing in helping with the dictation. It also meant that you could record books on tape, which could help the blind to read. The most influential legacy it made, was being able to record and play back music, which is what we now know as the modern record player. The phonograph was an instant success, but soon the excitement died down & Edison stopped trying to improve upon the device. Others, such as Alexander Graham Bell, tried to improve upon the phonograph and out of that he came to invent the telephone. Among the many changes and improvements to the phonograph that was made, the most notable was the transition from the tin foil around the cylinders changed to wax, specifically ceresin, beeswax and stearic wax, and then eventually a harder wax that was known as "Gold Moulded".

Some initial problems with the early development of the phonograph was that there was no way to mass produce the cylinders, anybody recording on them had to repeat their performances to accumulate cylinders. Also, the cylinders could only record two minutes of data, so that very much limited what could be recorded. After many other failed attempts to perfect the cylinders, Columbia, one of Edison's competitors, decided to forgo the cylinders altogether, and focus on the disc, which is what we now know as a …show more content…

He wanted to make something that "does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear". He wasn't the first to come up with the idea of moving pictures though. Photographer Edweard Muybridge experimented with moving photographs with animals as subject. Muybridge made a visit to Edison's lab in West Orange, New Jersey and suggested they collaborate, but Edison was not interested. In 1888, Edison assembled a team to help him, and they developed the Strip Kinetograph which was basically what we now know as a film strip. It was flexible and could be wound around a spool, which couldn't be done in older versions of film. Then, Edison and his team created the Kinetoscope, which was a machine that played the Strip Kinetograph, so people could watch the motion pictures. The first movie, was about 30 seconds long and was shown in kinetoscope parlor, or movie theater. In modern times, we've evolved to motion pictures being as long as 3

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