Thomas Edison is often described as America's greatest inventor. The American inventor and businessman had 2,332 patents to his name at the time of his death, and is credited with inventing or developing many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. Many of his inventions, such as the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the electric light bulb may have undergone modifications since Edison’s time but are still in use today. That said, some of the stories from Edison’s early life are troubling, to say the least.
As a young boy Edison conducted his first experiment of sorts. Fascinated by the sight of a hen incubating her eggs until they hatched, Edison proceeded to take a handful of hen eggs and attempted to hatch them himself much like the hen did.
In another experiment Edison had convinced a young friend to consume a considerable quantity of a chemical compound that would produce a gas within the boy’s body. Edison thought it could make the boy fly, but instead it made him gravely ill.
Things became a little more serious when Edison set up a chemistry laboratory inside an unused boxcar during his brief time as a railway worker. The train in question had lurched forward, and the resulting spill caused a chemical fire that nearly burned down the entire boxcar.
An inventive genius without a doubt, but one who had a shaky start nonetheless.
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