Thomas Edison

1847 – 1931

Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman whose Menlo Park laboratory produced more than a thousand patents, including a commercially viable incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion-picture camera. The collaborative nature of those inventions has long been understated in his favor, and he is widely cited for using his patent power to delay or suppress technologies developed by his employees and rivals. During the 1880s "War of the Currents" against George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla's alternating-current system, he publicly electrocuted animals—including the elephant Topsy in 1903—to argue that AC was uniquely dangerous, even as he covertly supported the development of the AC-powered electric chair to associate the technology with execution.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM