Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, and received most of his education at home from his mother. As a teenager, he conducted experiments in the baggage cars of trains. In 1863 Edison became a telegraph operator. Five years later he moved to Boston to work for the Western Union Telegraph Company. His first inventions improved telegraph equipment in 1869. He then moved to New York to work as a contract inventor for several companies. In 1876 he built an industrial research laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. Edison created the phonograph in 1877. Two years later he invented the light bulb. Edison soon became known as “The Wizard of Menlo Park” for his inventions. In 1887 Edison built a bigger laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, where he conducted most of his research into electric lighting until that part of his business merged with General Electric in 1892. By the time of his death, Edison held more than 1,000 patents, including patents for a movie camera, a storage battery, a dictaphone, and an electric locomotive.
