Word of the Day
ALVA (AL-vuh)
Thomas Edison’s middle name
Common clues: TAE part; Thomas ____ Edison; Menlo Park name; Edison's middle name
Crossword puzzle frequency: 3 times a year
Frequency in English language: 65593 / 86800
News: EU bans Edison's light bulbs
Video: Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison’s middle name "Alva" was given in honor of Captain Alva Bradley who operated a fleet of ships on Lake Erie.
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 - October 18, 1931) was an inventor and businessman who developed many important devices. "The Wizard of Menlo Park" was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production to the process of invention.
Edison was considered one of the most prolific inventors of his time, holding a record 1,093 patents in his name. Most of these inventions were not completely original but improvements of earlier patents, and were actually made by his numerous employees - Edison was frequently criticized for not sharing the credits. Nevertheless, Edison received patents worldwide, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Edison started the Motion Picture Patents Company, which was a conglomerate of nine major film studios (commonly known as the Edison Trust).
In the early 1900's, Thomas Edison bought a house in Fort Myers, Florida (Seminole Lodge) as a winter retreat. Henry Ford, the automobile magnate lived across the street at his winter retreat (The Mangoes). They were friends until one of the men died.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Thomas Edison"
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