He learned telegraphy on the railway, and his services as a telegrapher were in demand during the Civil War, when he traveled all over the country, incidentally studying electricity. In 1868 came his first invention: a machine to record votes in Congress. But Congress turned it down, because they were not interested in speeding up matters. Edison then resolved to work only on inventions that were commercially viable.

His first such invention was an improvement on the ticker machine which transmitted stock market prices. At this particular time in U.S. history, when Wall Street and big business were more powerful than the government and an enormous economic expansion was under way, this invention was so successful that Edison set up a small manufacturing plant to bui

"Electricity illuminates parts of New York beginning September 4, 1982, as Thomas Edison throws a switch in the offices of financier J. P. Morgan to light the offices and inaugurate commercial transmission of electric power from the Morgan-financed Edison Illuminating Co. power plant on Pearl Street. The company will soon supply current to all of Manhattan and it will develop into the Consolidated Edison Co., prototype of all central-station U.S. power companies. " This day marks one of the most gigantic leaps of technology as no longer would we have to depend on sunlight and or candles to work. This means our productivity time was doubled!

In 1887, Edison moved to a larger laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey. In 1889 he built a movie camera and later set up a small studio for making short movies for peep-show machines. "Once again, however, the entertainment aspects of his invention did not really appeal to him, and it was finally left to others to develop the movie industry."

In 1878 Edison, using his trial-and-error method, began research toward the development of an incandescent light bulb. He made thousands of experiments before achieving success with a charred cotton thread, sealed in a vacuum so that it would glow without being consumed. His team then worked out

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Approximate Word count = 867
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)