Thomas Alva Edison: Inventing the Electric Age

Thomas Alva Edison revolutionized daily life as few people before or after him have done. The light bulb, the phonograph, the motion picture--through these and countless other technological marvels Edison left his mark on the modern world.

Although he had little formal education, Edison showed a remarkable talent for practical science by the time he became a teenager. He was in his early twenties when he launched his inventing career in Boston (and later in New York City). In 1867, he established the world's first industrial research laboratory in Menlo Park, N.J., and within six years, he and his assistants had developed a light-and-power system that amazed the world.

Edison's inventions made him a millionaire, but money was always far less important to him than inventing itself. Even in his eighties, Edison stayed busy as he searched for a domestic source for rubber. When he died in 1931, the nation dimmed its lights in tribute.

Gene Adair, who has worked in publishing since 1981, is currently the marketing manager at the University of Tennessee Press. A former teacher and newspaper reporter, he is also the author of a biography of George Washington Carver. He lives in Knoxville, Tennessee.