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Thomas Alva Edison, born February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio, was an inventor and a great entrepreneur. He influenced contemporary life through inventions such as the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera. During his existence, he attained 1,093 patents, and endorsed many of his inventions to the public.

Edison was the seventh and last child of Samuel Edison, Jr., and Nancy Elliot Edison. At an early age he developed hearing problems, which were most likely due to a familial tendency to mastoiditis. Moreover, Edison's deafness strongly influenced his behaviour, career, and inventions.

In 1854 Edison’s family moved to Michigan, where they lived in a sizeable home. There Edison entered school and attended infrequently for five years. He was imaginative and inquisitive, but due to his lack of hearing was labeled a misfit.

In 1859 Edison quit school and began working as a train boy on the railroad. Four years earlier, the train station had started the use of the telegraph by employing it to control the movement of its trains, and Edison took advantage of the opportunity to learn telegraphy. In 1863 became an apprentice telegrapher.
Afterward Edison devised an automatic telegraph system that made possible a better speed and range of transmission. Edison's success in telegraphy was his invention of machines that made possible instantaneous transmission of several messages on one line and thus very much increased the convenience of accessible telegraph lines.

In 1877, Edison announced his creation of a phonograph by which sound could be recorded mechanically on a tinfoil cylinder, he also announced that the phonograph was his favourite invention “Of all my inventions, I liked the phonograph best...." (Beals, 1996). While working on improvements to the telegraph, Edison figured out a way to record sound on tinfoil-coated cylinders. In 1877, he created a machine with...