A Brief Chronology of Edison's Life

Chronology of Edison's Family

Clicking on a year will lead to the full chronology.

1847	11 February	Born at Milan, Ohio.
1847–1854		Lives in Milan.
1854–1863		Lives in Port Huron, Michigan.
1859–1862		Works as a newsboy and candy butcher on the trains of the Grand Trunk Railroad.
1863–1867		Works as an operator in telegraph offices in various Midwest cities and conducts experiments with telegraph apparatus.
1868		Works as an operator at the Western Union Telegraph Company's main office in Boston and receives support from local entrepreneurs for his electrical inventions.
	13 October	Executes the patent application for his electric vote recorder, for which he later is issued his first patent.
1869		Devotes himself full time to inventing and to pursuing various telegraph enterprises.
	Apr–May	Moves to New York City.
1870		Establishes two telegraph manufacturing shops in Newark, New Jersey, and works on inventions for printing and automatic telegraphy.
1871	9 April	Edison's mother, Nancy, dies in Port Huron.
	25 December	Marries Mary Stilwell.
1872	Fall	Begins intensive work on duplex telegraphy.
1873	18 February	Edison's first daughter, Marion Estelle ("Dot"), is born in Newark.
	May–June	Tests his automatic telegraph system in England.
1874	10 April	Discovers the electromotograph principle.
	Summer	Invents the quadruplex telegraph, ownership of which is disputed by Western Union and Jay Gould's Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company.
1875	30 June	Conceives electric pen and autographic press copying system.
	Summer	Ends his involvement in telegraph manufacturing to devote full time to inventing.
	Fall	Experiments with acoustic telegraphy and conducts "etheric force" experiments.
1876	10 January	Edison's first son, Thomas Alva, Jr. ("Dash"), is born in Newark.
	January–March	Has the Menlo Park laboratory constructed under the supervision of his father, Samuel.
1877	Winter	Begins experiments with carbon telephone transmitters, which he develops into a commercial device over the next year.
	18 July	Conceives phonograph.
	7 December	Demonstrates his cylinder phonograph at Scientific American office in New York.
1878	Winter–Spring	Gains international renown for inventing the phonograph.
	July	Accompanies a scientific expedition to Rawlins, Wyoming, in order to observe the eclipse of July 29 and measure the heat of the sun's corona with his recently invented tasimeter, and then takes a western vacation.
	27 August	Begins electric lighting experiments.
	26 October	Edison's second son, William Leslie, is born in Menlo Park.
	15 November	The Edison Electric Light Company is incorporated.
1879	2 January	Begins construction of his first generator.
	Spring	Develops his standard bipolar dynamo design.
		Begins a search for plentiful supplies of platinum in the mining regions of Canada and in the western and southern United States.
	22 October	Conducts the first successful experiment with a high-resistance carbon filament.
	1 November	Executes his first patent application for a high-resistance carbon filament (U.S. Pat. 223,898).
1880	25 March	Experiments with a process of magnetic ore separation.
	late April	Installs the first commercial marine incandescent electric lighting plant aboard Henry Villard's SS Columbia.
	Spring	Builds experimental electric railway at Menlo Park.
	1 October	Begins the commercial production of electric lamps at the Edison Lamp Works in Menlo Park.
1881	c. 10 March	Moves his business operations to 65 5th Avenue in New York City, where he daily advises the managers of the various Edison light companies.
	Winter	Organizes the Edison Electric Lamp Company, the Edison Machine Works, and other companies to manufacture lamps, generators, conductors, and other components for his electric lighting system.
	17 May–25 June	Executes twenty-three patent applications on electric lighting.
	September	Edison's ore separator is used by the Edison Ore Milling Company to separate iron ore from black sand at Quonocontaug, Rhode Island.
1882	12 January	Edison's central station on Holborn Viaduct in London begins operation.
	Spring–Summer	Executes fifty-three patent applications covering electric lighting, electric railways, and secondary batteries.
	4 September	Opens the Pearl Street central station in the Wall Street district of New York.
	4 October–28 November	Executes thirty-four patent applications covering electric lighting and electric railways.
	November	Closes his Menlo Park laboratory and establishes a laboratory on the top floor of the Bergmann and Company factory in New York City.
1883	c. 1 May	Forms the Thomas A. Edison Construction Department and spends the next year promoting and building central stations in the United States.
1884	14 May	Is elected a vice president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, an organization of which he is a founding member.
	9 August	Mary Stilwell Edison dies at Menlo Park.
	October	Reorganizes the Edison Electric Light Company.
1885	Winter–Spring	Executes seventeen patent applications covering telegraph and telephone inventions.
	June–July	Spends several weeks at Woodside, Ezra T. Gilliland's beach house near Boston, where he sees Mina Miller and keeps a personal diary.
1886	January	Purchases Glenmont, his home in Llewellyn Park, New Jersey.
	24 February	Marries Mina Miller at Akron, Ohio.
	23 June	Announces that the Edison Machine Works will relocate to the former site of the McQueen Locomotive Shop in Schenectady, New York.
	October	Begins experiments on an improved phonograph.
	November	Moves his laboratory to the Edison Lamp Works in East Newark (Harrison), New Jersey.
1887	Winter	Purchases fourteen acres of land in West Orange, New Jersey, near his home in Llewellyn Park; plans to construct a new laboratory.
	January–April	Conducts experiments on squirted cellulose filaments for incandescent lamps at the Edison Lamp Works; continues this work at the West Orange laboratory.
	February–April	Recuperates from pleurisy at his winter home in Fort Myers, Florida.
	3 May	Hires H. Hudson Holly as the architect for the West Orange laboratory; Holly is dismissed at the end of July and replaced by Joseph Taft.
	Summer	Rents a factory in Bloomfield, New Jersey, for phonograph manufacture.
	Summer–Fall	Charles Batchelor oversees construction and outfitting of the West Orange laboratory, which opens in early December.
	October	Organizes the Edison Phonograph Company, appoints Ezra T. Gilliland as general sales agent, and reaches agreement with George E. Gouraud for the international marketing of the phonograph.
		Reaches agreement with Lowell Briggs and William W. Jacques for the rights to manufacture and market dolls with Edison phonographs.
	15–20 November	Makes extensive notes on experiments to be conducted at his new laboratory in West Orange, mostly involving electric lighting research, which is the primary work of the laboratory in its first years.
1888	17 January	Executes a patent application (U.S. Pat. 484,582) for the electroplating process of duplicating phonograph cylinder records. Experimentation continues throughout the next decade.
	January	Jonas W. Aylsworth begins experiments on the composition of phonograph cylinders. These experiments continue until his resignation in January 1891.
	January–February	Renews the search for bamboo, grass, and other fibers to be used in the incandescent lamp filament; sends Frank McGowan and Charles F. Hanington to South America and James Ricalton to Asia.
	3 May	Organizes the Edison Phonograph Works and begins construction of a factory in West Orange. Small-scale production of phonographs begins in the Fall.
	31 May	Edison's second daughter, Madeleine, is born.
	May–October	Executes twenty-two patent applications for phonographs and cylinder records.
	June	Engages in an intensive campaign, including several overnight efforts, to produce the "perfected" cylinder phonograph.
	8 October	Executes the first of four major patent caveats for the kinetoscope and kinetograph and puts William Dickson in charge of experiments.
	27 December	Organizes the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Concentrating Works to engage in the large-scale magnetic separation of iron ore in Sussex County, New Jersey.
1889	10 January–1 February	Executes twelve patent applications for improvements in phonographs and cylinder records.
	January	Files suit against his former associates John C. Tomlinson and Ezra T. Gilliland for alleged fraud in negotiations with Jesse Lippincott and the North American Phonograph Company.
	March–July	Constructs an ore milling plant at Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania.
	24 April	The Edison General Electric Company is organized.
	23 July	Testifies regarding electric power and electrocution in William Kemmler v. Charles F. Durston.
	August–October	Attends Paris Exposition and tours Europe with Mina Miller Edison
	December	Organizes the Edison Manufacturing Company to manufacture and market the Edison-Lalande battery.
1890	February	The Automatic Phonograph Exhibition Company is organized to market the coin-in-the-slot phonograph.
	30 April	Closes the experimental ore milling plant at Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania.
	May	The Edison Phonograph Works suspends the manufacture of talking dolls.
	3 August	Edison's third son, Charles, is born.
	August	Purchases property in Silver Lake, New Jersey (now the Bloomfield-Belleville area); locates the plant of the Edison Manufacturing Company on the site.
	Summer	Completes construction of his iron concentration plant in Ogden (later Edison), New Jersey. Full-scale operations begin the following April.
	October	Reaches agreement with the Edison General Electric Company for support of his research on electric light and power.
1891	20 May	Demonstrates the kinetoscope at the West Orange laboratory for the Federation of Women's Clubs.
	June–December	Spends most of his time at the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Concentrating Works plant in Ogden.
	14 July	The primacy of Edison's lamp patents is upheld in the decision of Edison Electric Light Co. v. U.S. Electric Lighting Company.
	24 August	Executes patent applications (U. S. Pats. 493,426 and 589,168) for the kinetoscope and kinetograph.
1892	15 April	The General Electric Company is organized.
	14 November	Closes the Ogden plant for repairs and modifications—the first of many such shutdowns.
1893	February	Completes construction of the Black Maria motion picture studio, which becomes fully operational in May.
	August–September	Joins members of the Miller family for a visit to Chicago during the Columbian Exposition.
	29 December	Executes a patent application (U. S. Pat. 567,187) for the "Giant" ore crushing rolls.
1894		The bank panic of 1893 and the ensuing depression result in the discharging of numerous "old hands" and the suspension of many activities at the laboratory.

		For the next four years spends most of his time at the Ogden plant, which he shut downs repeatedly for repairs and design modifications. Sell blocks of his General Electric stock and railroad bonds to finance these activities.
	January	William K. L. Dickson produces "Edison Kinetographic Record of a Sneeze," the first motion picture to receive a copyright. Dickson and Theodore Heise go on to copyright approximately seventy-five motion pictures in 1894.

	14 April	The first commercial viewing of the peephole kinetoscope is held by the Holland Brothers at 1155 Broadway, New York City.
	April	John F. Randolph succeeds Alfred O. Tate as Edison's private secretary.
	21 August	The North American Phonograph Company enters receivership.
1895	Summer	Experiments in the mass production of iron ore briquettes suitable for shipping and use in blast furnaces; development continues through early 1897.
	October	Resumes work on squirted cellulose lamp filaments under contract with General Electric Company.
1896	27 January	Organizes the National Phonograph Company.
	January–March	Experiments with x-rays and sends a completed x-ray fluoroscope to Columbia University physicist Michael Pupin.
	26 February	Edison's father, Samuel, dies in Norwalk, Ohio. Edison attends the funeral.
	March–July	Closes the Ogden plant for modifications.
	23 April	The Edison Vitascope, a motion picture projector invented by Thomas Armat, has its commercial debut at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City.
	April	Tests his gold ore separation process on placer samples sent from the Ortiz Mine in Dolores, New Mexico.
	November	Introduces the Edison Home Phonograph, an inexpensive, spring motor driven phonograph.
1897	16 July	Executes a patent application (U. S. Pat. 644,746) for the three-high crushing rolls in his ore milling process.
	Summer	The Ogden plant is again closed for repairs and modifications.
	30 November	Edison's own motion picture projector, the projectoscope or projecting kinetoscope, has its first commercial exhibition.
	December	Begins a series of lawsuits alleging patent infringement by his competitors in the motion picture industry.
1898	10 July	Edison's fourth son is born; is named Theodore Miller Edison after Mina Edison's brother, who died two days earlier in the Spanish-American War.
	20 December	Shuts down his ore milling plant at Ogden; plans to repair the machinery, build additional employee housing, and start up the mill in the Spring.
1899	January	Designs a long rotary kiln for making cement.
	17 February	Edison's father-in-law, Lewis Miller, dies. Edison attends his funeral in Akron, Ohio.
	15 April	Organizes the Edison Portland Cement Company.
	Summer	Begins experimental work on storage batteries.

1900	March	Vacations with his family in Florida. The following year, visits Seminole Lodge, his winter home in Fort Myers, for the first time since 1887. Thereafter, takes frequent winter vacations in Fort Myers.
	June 16	Executes a patent application on a method of mass producing cylinder phonograph records.
	Summer	Edison's experimental mill for the concentration of gold ore begins testing at the Ortiz Mine in Dolores, New Mexico but is shut down in November due to poor quality ore.
1901	Winter	Supervises construction of the Edison Portland Cement Company works at Stewartsville, New Jersey, using some equipment from the nearby New Jersey and Pennsylvania Concentrating Works.
	14 May	Receives threatening letters demanding $25,000 in gold, "or we will kidnap your child." Hires Pinkerton detectives and the plot is foiled.
	27 May	Organizes the Edison Storage Battery Company.
1902	January	Introduces "moulded" records commercially.
	May	Successfully conducts the first road tests of electric vehicles equipped with Edison storage batteries.
	August	Begins commercial production of cement at his mill in Stewartsville.
1903	January	Initiates production of his "E" type alkaline storage battery.
	2 March	An explosion at the Edison Portland Cement Company's coal grinding plant results in the death of eight workers, including chief engineer Edward A. Darling, and the shut-down of the plant for redesign.
	8 June	Signs an agreement with his son Thomas A. Edison, Jr., whereby the younger Edison will not use his own name in any business enterprise in exchange for a weekly allowance of $35.
	December	The Edison Manufacturing Company releases its hit film The Great Train Robbery, directed by Edwin S. Porter.
1904	30 September	Authorizes longtime associate Sigmund Bergmann to organize a corporation for the manufacture of storage batteries in Germany; nominally becomes a director of the Deutsche Edison Akkumulatoren Gesellschaft in April 1905.
	2 October	Laboratory employee Clarence M. Dally dies as the result of radiation burns sustained during x-ray experiments.
	1 November	Suspends the manufacture of his alkaline storage battery in order to investigate the loss of electrical capacity and leaking cans.
1905	23 January	Undergoes an operation to remove or drain a mastoidal abscess.
	Winter	Forgoes his annual vacation in Florida because of work on the storage battery.
	Summer	Begins a series of experiments using perforated tubes holding nickel flake as the positive electrode in his storage batteries. Tests continue for a decade.
1906	25 January	Wins a thirty-year lawsuit against Jay Gould's Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Company for infringement of his automatic telegraph patents; receives only one dollar in damages. The decision is reversed on appeal by both parties in February 1911.
	October	Conceives and announces a plan to develop molds whereby an entire house can be made of poured concrete.
1907	11 February	Announces his intention to "give up the commercial end and work in my laboratory as a scientist."
	5 March	The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals finds for Edison in Thomas A. Edison v. American Mutoscope & Biograph Company, affirming the validity of his reissued camera patent and increasing his control of American film production.
1908	8 January	Signs a cross-licensing agreement with the North American Portland Cement Company for mutual use of important cement patents.
	17 January	The Edison Business Phonograph Company is incorporated.
	17 February	Private secretary John F. Randolph dies from a self-inflicted gunshot wound; he is succeeded by Harry F. Miller.
	23 February	Enters New York hospital and has two additional operations on his left ear.
	1 October	Introduces Amberol cylinder records. With approximately 200 threads each, these records increase playing time from two to four minutes.
	December	Agreement achieved among motion picture manufacturers results in the organization of the Motion Picture Patents Company.
1909	April	Receives a gold medal from the Royal Academy of Sciences in Sweden for his inventions in connection with the phonograph and the incandescent light.
	June	Dictates personal reminiscences to Thomas C. Martin in order to provide additional material for Edison: His Life and Inventions (1910), the authorized biography prepared by Martin, Frank L. Dyer, and William H. Meadowcroft.
	1 July	Begins commercial manufacture of his new "A" type alkaline storage batteries.
	December	Begins to develop a disc record and phonograph.
1910	1 January	Edison's former associate and longtime friend Charles Batchelor dies.
	January	Plans to establish an Engineering Department at the West Orange laboratory in order to centralize research and development for the numerous Edison companies.
	May	Exhibits a scale model of his poured concrete house at the Real Estate and Ideal Homes Exhibit at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Continues to receive international attention for his idea.
	26 August	Demonstrates his kinetophone or "speaking pictures" to members of the press at the West Orange laboratory.
	17 Septemer	Two electric vehicles equipped with Edison storage batteries leave New York on a promotional "ideal tour," ending with an ascent of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.
	October	Receives national attention after making statements to the press revealing his unorthodox religious beliefs, including his skepticism regarding the existence of an immortal soul.
1911	28 February	Organizes Thomas A. Edison, Inc.
	August-September	Tours Europe with his wife, Mina, and their children, Charles, Madeleine, and Theodore.
	11 November	Makes Miller Reese Hutchison his personal representative at the West Orange laboratory. Appoints him chief engineer the following August
1912	Fall	Introduces the Diamond Disc phonograph, Blue Amberol cylinder records, and the Home Projecting Kinetoscope.
1913	17 February	Introduces talking pictures to American theatergoers by attending a performance of his Kinetophone (a phonograph connected by pulleys to a film projector) at the Colonial Theater in New York City.
	May	Is named "most useful" man in America by a survey of readers of Independent magazine.
1914	8 September	Five weeks after the outbreak of war in Europe, announces the erection of a plant in Silver Lake, New Jersey, for the manufacture of phenol and other chemicals in short supply. Later erects other plants in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Alabama.
	9 December	An explosion in the Film Inspection Building triggers a conflagration that destroys or damages more than half of the buildings in the West Orange laboratory complex.
1915	1 March	Announces his new divisional policy for Thomas A. Edison, Inc. Three days later, Steven B. Mambert is named efficiency engineer in charge of implementing the policy.
	7 July	Is invited by U.S. Secretary of Navy Josephus Daniels to head the newly established Naval Consulting Board.
	October	Travels by train to California and attends events in his honor at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco with Mina Miller Edison and Henry Ford.
1916	15 January	Learns of an explosion aboard the U.S. Navy's E-2 submarine in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The accident, which kills five men and injures ten others, is attributed to the hydrogen gas emitted by the Edison batteries installed a few weeks earlier.
	28 August	Leaves West Orange for a camping trip in the Adirondack and Berkshire mountains with Harvey Firestone and John Burroughs. They are joined by Henry Ford in Plattsburgh, N.Y., on 6 September.
1917	8 February	Two months before the entry of the United States into World War I, begins devoting nearly all of his time to experiments for the U.S. government in a laboratory established in a large casino on Eagle Rock Mountain in West Orange.
	9 April	U.S. Supreme Court decides against Edison in Motion Picture Patents Company v. Universal Film Manufacturing Company, making the Motion Picture Patents Company's licensing agreements illegal.
1918	30 March	Ends his involvement in the motion picture business by selling his studio in the Bronx to the Lincoln & Parker Film Co.
1920	October	In the wake of the postwar economic downturn, initiates an "economy campaign" that leads to the dismissal or resignation of several top managers and a drastic reduction in the manufacturing labor force.
1921	25 January	Resigns from Naval Consulting Board following a prolonged debate over the location and mission of the proposed naval research laboratory.
	July	Takes a camping trip in Maryland with Harvey Firestone and President Warren G. Harding.
1924	28 August	Consolidates the Edison Phonograph Works into Thomas A. Edison, Inc.
1926	2 August	Steps down as president of Thomas A. Edison, Inc., in favor of his son Charles; becomes chairman of the board.
1927	July	Organizes the Edison Botanic Research Corporation to develop a process for producing rubber from plant substances native to the United States.
1928	20 October	Receives a special Congressional Medal for "illuminating the path of progress through the development and application of inventions that have revolutionized civilization in the last century."
1929	21 October	Is honored at Light's Golden Jubilee.
	28 October	Stops production of phonograph records; shifts production emphasis from phonographs to radios.
1931	6 January	Executes his last patent application (U.S. Patent 1,908,830)
	18 October	Dies at Glenmont.

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A Brief Chronology of Edison's Life