Thomas Edison Born: The Wizard of Menlo Park
Thomas Edison was deaf in one ear and hard of hearing in the other — probably from scarlet fever as a child, possibly from a conductor grabbing him by the ears and lifting him onto a moving train. He didn't consider it a disability. He said it helped him concentrate. He held 1,093 patents. The phonograph, the incandescent light bulb, the motion picture camera, the alkaline storage battery. He slept four hours a night and worked on cots in his lab. When a fire destroyed his entire New Jersey research complex in 1914, he watched it burn and told his son: 'Go get your mother and all her friends. They'll never see a fire like this again.' He was fully insured. He rebuilt within weeks.
February 11, 1847
179 years ago
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