Editing Thomas Edison (section)

==Other inventions and projects==

===Fluoroscopy===
Edison is credited with designing and producing the first commercially available [[fluoroscopy|fluoroscope]], a machine that uses [[X-rays]] to take [[radiographs]]. Until Edison discovered that [[Scheelite|calcium tungstate]] fluoroscopy screens produced brighter images than the barium [[platinocyanide]] screens originally used by [[Wilhelm Röntgen]], the technology was capable of producing only very faint images.

The fundamental design of Edison's fluoroscope is still in use today, although Edison abandoned the project after nearly losing his own eyesight and seriously injuring his assistant, [[Clarence Madison Dally|Clarence Dally]]. Dally made himself an enthusiastic human guinea pig for the fluoroscopy project and was exposed to a poisonous dose of radiation; he later died (at the age of 39) of injuries related to the exposure, including mediastinal cancer.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://radiopaedia.org/articles/thomas-edison |title=Thomas Edison |date=June 30, 2017 |publisher=Radiopaedia |access-date=February 1, 2020 |quote=He spent hours blowing glass tubes, which were laced with calcium tungstate, for an early model fluoroscope. |archive-date=September 23, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190923145728/https://radiopaedia.org/articles/thomas-edison |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1903, a shaken Edison said: "Don't talk to me about X-rays, I am afraid of them."<ref>Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library: "Edison fears the hidden perils of the x-rays". ''New York World'', August 3, 1903, Durham, NC.</ref> Nonetheless, his work was important in the development of a technology still used today.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://radiopaedia.org/articles/thomas-edison |title=Thomas Edison |date=June 30, 2017 |publisher=Radiopaedia |access-date=February 1, 2020 |quote=Radiology Legacy, invention of fluoroscopy |archive-date=September 23, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190923145728/https://radiopaedia.org/articles/thomas-edison |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Tasimeter===

Edison invented a highly sensitive device, that he named the [[tasimeter]], which measured [[infrared|infrared radiation]].  His impetus for its creation was the desire to measure the heat from the [[solar corona]] during the total [[Solar eclipse of July 29, 1878]]. The device was not patented since Edison could find no practical mass-market application for it.<ref>{{cite book |last=Baron |first=David |date=June 6, 2017 |title=American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kNpDDQAAQBAJ&q=american+eclipse+Tasimeter+not+patented&pg=PT218 |publisher=Liveright |page=223 |isbn=978-1631490163 |access-date=October 7, 2020 |archive-date=January 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126160307/https://books.google.com/books?id=kNpDDQAAQBAJ&q=american+eclipse+Tasimeter+not+patented&pg=PT218 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Telegraph improvements===

The key to Edison's initial reputation and success was his work in the field of telegraphy. With knowledge gained from years of working as a telegraph operator, he learned the basics of electricity. This, together with his studies in chemistry at the [[Cooper Union]], allowed him to make his early fortune with the [[ticker tape|stock ticker]], the first electricity-based broadcast system.<ref name="Thomas A. Edison: A Streak of Luck"/><ref name="faculty.cooper.edu"/> His innovations also included the development of the quadruplex, the first system which could simultaneously transmit four messages through a single wire.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Josephson |first1=Matthew |title=Thomas Edison: American Inventor |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Edison |website=Britannica |access-date=March 10, 2021 |archive-date=February 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213021318/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Edison |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Motion pictures===
[[File:Leonard-Cushing fight (1894).webm|thumb|The ''[[Leonard–Cushing Fight]]'' in June 1894; each of the six one-minute rounds recorded by the Kinetoscope was made available to exhibitors for $22.50.<ref>[http://rs6.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/papr:@filreq(@field(NUMBER+@band(edmp+4026))+@field(COLLID+edison)) Leonard–Cushing fight] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130904202914/http://rs6.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem%2Fpapr%3A%40filreq%28%40field%28NUMBER+%40band%28edmp+4026%29%29+%40field%28COLLID+edison%29%29 |date=September 4, 2013 }} Part of the Library of Congress/''Inventing Entertainment'' educational website. Retrieved December 14, 2006.</ref> Customers who watched the final round saw Leonard score a knockdown.]]
Edison was granted a patent for a motion picture camera, labeled the "Kinetograph". He did the electromechanical design while his employee [[William Kennedy Dickson]], a photographer, worked on the photographic and optical development. Much of the credit for the invention belongs to Dickson.<ref name=Israel /> In 1891, Thomas Edison built a [[Kinetoscope]] or peep-hole viewer. This device was installed in penny arcades, where people could watch short, simple films. The kinetograph and kinetoscope were both first publicly exhibited May 20, 1891.<ref>{{cite web|title=History of Edison Motion Pictures |url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edmvhist.html |access-date=October 14, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101208125727/http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edmvhist.html |archive-date=December 8, 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In April 1896, [[Thomas Armat]]'s [[Vitascope]], manufactured by the Edison factory and marketed in Edison's name, was used to project motion pictures in public screenings in New York City. Later, he exhibited motion pictures with voice soundtrack on cylinder recordings, mechanically synchronized with the film.

Officially the kinetoscope entered Europe when wealthy American businessman [[Irving T. Bush]] (1869–1948) bought a dozen machines from the Continental Commerce Company of Frank Z. Maguire and Joseph D. Baucus. Bush placed from October 17, 1894, the first kinetoscopes in London. At the same time, the French company Kinétoscope Edison Michel et Alexis Werner bought these machines for the market in France. In the last three months of 1894, the Continental Commerce Company sold hundreds of kinetoscopes in Europe (i.e. the Netherlands and Italy). In Germany and in [[Austria-Hungary]], the kinetoscope was introduced by the Deutsche-österreichische-Edison-Kinetoscop Gesellschaft, founded by the Ludwig Stollwerck<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.victorian-cinema.net/stollwerck.htm |title=Martin Loiperdinger. ''Film & Schokolade. Stollwercks Geschäfte mit lebenden Bildern''. KINtop Schriften Stroemfeld Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, Basel 1999 ISBN 3878777604 (Book and Videocassette) |publisher=Victorian-cinema.net |access-date=January 29, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101202000041/http://victorian-cinema.net/stollwerck.htm |archive-date=December 2, 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref> of the Schokoladen-Süsswarenfabrik Stollwerck & Co of Cologne.

The first kinetoscopes arrived in Belgium at the [[Fairs]] in early 1895. The Edison's Kinétoscope Français, a Belgian company, was founded in Brussels on January 15, 1895, with the rights to sell the kinetoscopes in Monaco, France and the French colonies. The main investors in this company were Belgian industrialists. On May 14, 1895, the Edison's Kinétoscope Belge was founded in Brussels. Businessman Ladislas-Victor Lewitzki, living in London but active in Belgium and France, took the initiative in starting this business. He had contacts with [[Leon Gaumont]] and the [[American Mutoscope and Biograph]] Co. In 1898, he also became a shareholder of the Biograph and Mutoscope Company for France.<ref>Guido Convents, ''Van Kinetoscoop tot Cafe-Cine de Eerste Jaren van de Film in Belgie, 1894–1908, pp. 33–69.'' Universitaire Pers Leuven. Leuven: 2000. Guido Convents, "Edison's Kinetscope in Belgium, or, Scientists, Admirers, Businessmen, Industrialists and Crooks", pp. 249–258. in C. Dupré la Tour, A. Gaudreault, R. Pearson (eds), ''Cinema at the Turn of the Century''. Québec, 1999.</ref>

[[Edison Studios|Edison's film studio]] made nearly 1,200 films. The majority of the productions were short films showing everything from acrobats to parades to fire calls including titles such as ''[[Fred Ott's Sneeze]]'' (1894), ''[[The Kiss (1896 film)|The Kiss]]'' (1896), ''[[The Great Train Robbery (1903 film)|The Great Train Robbery]]'' (1903), ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1910 film)|Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'' (1910), and the first ''[[Frankenstein (1910 film)|Frankenstein]]'' film in 1910. In 1903, when the owners of [[Luna Park (Coney Island, 1903)|Luna Park, Coney Island]] announced they would execute [[Topsy (elephant)|Topsy the elephant]] by strangulation, poisoning, and electrocution (with the electrocution part ultimately killing the elephant), Edison Manufacturing sent a crew to film it, releasing it that same year with the title ''[[Electrocuting an Elephant]]''.
[[File:A day with Thomas A. Edison.webm|thumb|left|thumbtime=1|upright=1.1| ''A Day with Thomas Edison'' (1922)]]
As the film business expanded, competing exhibitors routinely copied and exhibited each other's films.<ref>[http://www.victorian-cinema.net/lubin.htm Siegmund Lubin (1851–1923)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070826125737/http://victorian-cinema.net/lubin.htm |date=August 26, 2007 }}, Who's Who of Victorian Cinema. Retrieved August 20, 2007.</ref> To better protect the copyrights on his films, Edison deposited prints of them on long strips of [[photographic paper]] with the [[U.S. copyright office]]. Many of these paper prints survived longer and in better condition than the actual films of that era.<ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edmvhist1.html#EE "History of Edison Motion Pictures: Early Edison Motion Picture Production (1892–1895)"].  {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070825110254/http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edmvhist1.html#EE |date=August 25, 2007 }}, Memory.loc.gov, [[Library of Congress]]. Retrieved August 20, 2007.</ref>

In 1908, Edison started the [[Motion Picture Patents Company]], which was a conglomerate of nine major film studios (commonly known as the Edison Trust). Thomas Edison was the first honorary fellow of the [[Acoustical Society of America]], which was founded in 1929.

Edison said his favorite movie was ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]''. He thought that [[talkies]] had "spoiled everything" for him. "There isn't any good acting on the screen. They concentrate on the voice now and have forgotten how to act. I can sense it more than you because I am deaf."<ref name="condensed1042">''Reader's Digest'', March 1930, pp. 1042–1044, "Living With a Genius", condensed from ''The American Magazine'', February 1930.</ref> His favorite stars were [[Mary Pickford]] and [[Clara Bow]].<ref>"Edison Wears Silk Nightshirt, Hates Talkies, Writes Wife", Capital Times, October 30, 1930</ref>

===Mining===
Starting in the late 1870s, Edison became interested and involved with mining. High-grade iron ore was scarce on the east coast of the United States and Edison tried to mine low-grade ore. Edison developed a process using rollers and crushers that could pulverize rocks up to 10 tons. The dust was then sent between three giant magnets that would pull the iron ore from the dust. Despite the failure of his mining company, the [[Edison Ore-Milling Company|Edison Ore Milling Company]], Edison used some of the materials and equipment to produce cement.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://edison.rutgers.edu/list.htm#Cement|title=Edison's Companies – The Edison Papers|access-date=December 30, 2016|archive-date=October 8, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131008140933/http://edison.rutgers.edu/list.htm#Cement|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1901, Edison visited an industrial exhibition in the [[Greater Sudbury|Sudbury]] area in Ontario, Canada, and thought nickel and cobalt deposits there could be used in his production of electrical equipment. He returned as a mining prospector and is credited with the original discovery of the [[Falconbridge, Greater Sudbury, Ontario|Falconbridge]] ore body. His attempts to mine the ore body were not successful, and he abandoned his mining claim in 1903.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sudburymuseums.ca/index.cfm?app=w_vmuseum&lang=en&currID=2031&parID=2029 |title=Thomas Edison |access-date=December 30, 2007 |work=[[Greater Sudbury Heritage Museums]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100910012726/http://www.sudburymuseums.ca/index.cfm?app=w_vmuseum&lang=en&currID=2031&parID=2029 |archive-date=September 10, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> A street in Falconbridge, as well as the [[Edison Building (Falconbridge)|Edison Building]], which served as the head office of [[Falconbridge Ltd.|Falconbridge Mines]], are named for him.

===Rechargeable battery===
{{Further|Nickel–iron battery#History}}
[[File:Edison Storage Battery Company 1903.JPG|thumb|Share of the Edison Storage Battery Company, issued October 19, 1903]]
In the late 1890s, Edison worked on developing a lighter, more efficient [[rechargeable battery]] (at that time called an "accumulator"). He looked on them as something customers could use to power their phonographs but saw other uses for an improved battery, including [[electric car|electric automobiles]].<ref>David John Cole, Eve Browning, Eve Browning Cole, Fred E. H. Schroeder, Encyclopedia of Modern Everyday Inventions, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003, pages 45–46</ref> The then available [[Lead–acid battery|lead acid rechargeable batteries]] were not very efficient and that market was already tied up by other companies so Edison pursued using [[alkali]]ne instead of acid. He had his lab work on many types of materials (going through some 10,000 combinations), eventually settling on a nickel-iron combination. Besides his experimenting Edison also probably had access to the 1899 patents for a [[nickel–iron battery]] by the Swedish inventor [[Waldemar Jungner]].<ref name="Seth Fletcher 2011, pages 14-16">Seth Fletcher, Bottled Lightning: Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, May 10, 2011, pages 14–16</ref>

Edison obtained a US and European patent for his nickel–iron battery in 1901 and founded the Edison Storage Battery Company, and by 1904 it had 450 people working there. The first rechargeable batteries they produced were for electric cars, but there were many defects, with customers complaining about the product. When the capital of the company was exhausted, Edison paid for the company with his private money. Edison did not demonstrate a mature product until 1910: a very efficient and durable nickel-iron-battery with lye as the electrolyte. The nickel–iron battery was never very successful; by the time it was ready, electric cars were disappearing, and lead acid batteries had become the standard for turning over gas-powered car [[Starter (engine)|starter motors]].<ref name="Seth Fletcher 2011, pages 14-16"/>

===Chemicals===
{{further|Great Phenol Plot}}
At the start of World War I, the American chemical industry was primitive: most chemicals were imported from Europe.  The outbreak of war in August 1914 resulted in a shortage of imported chemicals.  One of particular importance to Edison was [[phenol]], which was used to make [[phonograph]] records—presumably as [[phenolic resins]] of the [[Bakelite]] type.<ref name="auto">{{Cite book | first1 = Charles C. | last1 = Mann | first2 = Mark L. | last2 = Plummer | name-list-style = vanc | title = The Aspirin Wars: Money, Medicine, and 100 Years of Rampant Competition | location = New York | publisher = Alfred A. Knopf | date = 1991 | isbn = 978-0-394-57894-1|pages=38–41 }}</ref>

At the time, phenol came from coal as a by-product of [[coke oven]] gases or [[manufactured gas]] for [[gas lighting]].  Phenol could be nitrated to [[picric acid]] and converted to [[ammonium picrate]], a shock resistant [[high explosive]] suitable for use in artillery shells.<ref name="auto"/> Most phenol had been imported from Britain, but with war, Parliament blocked exports and diverted most to production of ammonium picrate. Britain also blockaded supplies from Germany.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

Edison responded by undertaking production of phenol at his Silver Lake facility using processes developed by his chemists.<ref>Conot, Robert (1979), ''A Streak of Luck: The Life & Legend of Thomas Alva Edison'', Seaview Books, NY, pp. 413–414</ref> He built two plants with a capacity of six tons of phenol per day.  Production began the first week of September, one month after hostilities began in Europe.  He built two plants to produce raw material [[benzene]] at [[Johnstown, Pennsylvania]], and [[Bessemer, Alabama]], replacing supplies previously from Germany.  Edison manufactured [[aniline dyes]], which previously had been supplied by the German dye trust.  Other wartime products include [[xylene]], [[p-phenylenediamine]], [[shellac]], and pyrax.  Wartime shortages made these ventures profitable. In 1915, his production capacity was fully committed by midyear.<ref name="auto"/>

Phenol was a critical material because two derivatives were in high growth phases. Bakelite, the original [[thermoset]] plastic, had been invented in 1909. [[Aspirin]], too was a phenol derivative.  Invented in 1899, it had become a blockbuster drug. [[Bayer]] had acquired a plant to manufacture in the US in [[Rensselaer, New York]], but struggled to find phenol to keep their plant running during the war. Edison was able to oblige.<ref name="auto"/>

Bayer relied on Chemische Fabrik von Heyden, in [[Piscataway, New Jersey]], to convert phenol to salicylic acid, which they converted to aspirin. It is said that German companies bought up supplies of phenol to block production of ammonium picrate.  Edison preferred not to sell phenol for military uses.  He sold his surplus to Bayer, who had it converted to [[salicylic acid]] by Heyden, some of which was exported.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2019/03/aspirin-the-first-wonder-drug/|title=Aspirin: The First Wonder Drug|first=Jeff|last=Nilsson|date=March 6, 2019|website=The Saturday Evening Post}}</ref><ref name="auto"/>

===Spirit Phone===
In 1920, Edison spoke to ''[[American Magazine]]'', saying that he had been working on a device for some time to see if it was possible to communicate with the dead.<ref name="Atlas">{{cite web |last1=Zarrelli |first1=Natalie |title=Dial-a-Ghost on Thomas Edison's Least Successful Invention: the Spirit Phone |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/dial-a-ghost-on-thomas-edisons-least-successful-invention-the-spirit-phone |website=Atlas Obscura |access-date=December 10, 2021 |language=en |date=October 18, 2016 |archive-date=December 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211210033849/https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/dial-a-ghost-on-thomas-edisons-least-successful-invention-the-spirit-phone |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="forbes">{{cite web |last1=Tablang |first1=Kristin |title=Thomas Edison, B.C. Forbes And The Mystery Of The Spirit Phone |date=October 25, 2019 |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristintablang/2019/10/25/thomas-edison-bc-forbes-mystery-spirit-phone/ |website=Forbes |access-date=December 10, 2021 |archive-date=December 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211210033848/https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristintablang/2019/10/25/thomas-edison-bc-forbes-mystery-spirit-phone/?sh=7c9d3da729ad |url-status=live }}</ref> Edison said the device would work on scientific principles, not by occult means.<ref name="Atlas"/> The press had a field day over Edison's remarks.<ref name="forbes"/><ref name="Atlas"/> The actual nature of this invention remained a mystery; there were no details revealed to the public. In 2015, Philippe Baudouin, a French journalist, found a copy of Edison's diary in a thrift store with a chapter not found in the previously published editions. The new chapter details Edison's theories of the afterlife and the scientific basis by which communication with the dead might be achieved.<ref name="Atlas"/>