Interview Questions: Thomas Alva Edison

Q: What made you want to become an inventor?

A: Well, at an early age, I had a problem of hearing well. So school was very hard on me. With the lessons and listening in class and to the teacher, it was very difficult. But that was not about to stop me, oh no. By age 10, I was a voracious reader and built a lab in my basement.

By age 12, I have been well ahead for my age. I had completed Gibson’s Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, and Sear’s History of the World. Also I read Burrton’s anatomy of melancholy. I had devoured the world dictionary of science and a number of works of practical chemistry. So when the dawn of the “Age of Electric light and power,” I believed that this was my fate.

Q: What did your mentors in life make you want to follow in the field of invention?

A: Well, J.U. Mackenzie, taught me some a new thing. Such a thing was railroad telegraphy. I got this reward after saving a three year old from the tracks when he was about to be hit. Some other mentors where my partners, Franklin L. Pope and James Ashley. Together we made Pope, Edison and CO.

Some people I just wanted to prove I was better. I wanted to prove to them that I was the best. One was George Westinghouse. He was in charged of the AC current while I was head of DC current. So that also what drove me to become better.

Q: What was the field of inventions and inventors when you first got into it?

A: I was very much the same as any other. There were people in it, in there own way. I think when I entered, I brung a new attitude to this era and field. Let me explain. I was not afraid to fail, because that was one step closer to success, as I saw it.

I made hundreds and hundreds of different inventions. But I never stopped until I completed one. Take the light bulb. It took me many tries until I finally got it just right. And I know you are happy right.

Q: How did the world’s situations affect your work in your field such as political, economic, and cultural?

A: I think political situations are more so of a good person in my life, Abraham Lincoln. I always, as a little boy, looked up to his values and that is one thing that shaped me. The economic situations where more of how people saw me as a person not just a genius. Also I looked at how I saw myself. I was a good person and I knew that.

The cultural situation was more of an urban, city like culture. I had some what of a small town look on life. So all of them played a part in my art. The political was for my attitude. The culture was more of my view. The economic was how much passion I had my work.

Q: What where your major accomplishments and what methods did you use to make these inventions more accomplish?

A: Well as some of you may know or all at that, I was the 1^st to create the light bulb. But what you may not know is that I did not make the 1^st electric light bulb. Oh no, I made the 1^st commercially practical incandescent light. Yes this is what I did. My methods I used were filament which I applied to the element of glowing wire which carried the current.

Another major invention of mine was another light bulb. This was the improvement of the electric light bulb. What I used was a carbon filament. On Jan. 27, 1880, I was granted for the design I made on Nov. 4, 1879, a U.S. patent 223,898. They said the electric lamp was using “ a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected to patina contact wires.”

Q: What were the key moments giving to you that sparked your uprising in the field of invention?

A: Excuse me if I get sensitive, but in my life it was my wives and children. I loved my two wives and my six children with all my heart. I believed that gave me a little “ boost” sort of speaks, to be the best for my kids to see. So that they could be proud of their old man and what I accomplished. Not just that, but also a good father.

In my art, I think it was the same. I thought to myself, “How can I be better then the rest,” seeing artist such as Henry Woodward and J.P. Morgan and all their success. That is what drove me to become better. To become the best so that they can see that this was my passion. Now I can say, I think I did that wouldn’t you?

Q: What personal choices made you successful?

A: The personal choices I made were to never give up. This was my passion so I wanted to do it and be the best. As a boy I wanted to learn and become different from the others. So I got a job and learned different things about different inventions. Also I loved to read.

So I think the choices I made when I was young influenced the choices I made when I was older. The job of inventing with the automatic repeater and other things help me gain fame. That is what drove me to make the phonograph in 1877. I redesigned some of the models using wax-coated cardboard cylinders which were produced by many, one being Alexander Graham Bell. That is why I called it the “Perfected phonograph.”

Q: What problems or situations did you have to dig your way through to become what you were and are in this field?

A: I believe one of the hardships was life. I lost my mother in 1871. Then I lost my 1^st wife in 1886, to a brain tumor. So I had to be strong for me and my kids. So I think that was a hardship.

The other was failure. When you fail, you always fall backward. No matter who you are or what you do, that will happen. So they were always very hard to overcome. But again, that’s when your determination kicks in. So that’s mainly what I think.

Q: What kind of blockage did you run into as a person and in your field?

A: I think it was the same things. As a person it was the deaths of my mother and my 1^st wife. But it also was somewhat of a limitation of hearing for me. I couldn’t hear that well so that also put a block on things. Even though that was so, I still overcame it.

In my life as an artist, it was also the same. The failures were, I say, the biggest limitation. But it was also the long work-filled nights. Also some of the technology was not there as it is now. So we didn’t have much to work with but we had enough. And once again, I overcame those.

Q: What personal memories best show how you became successful in this field?

A: I hate to repeat myself, but the main ones were at age 10 and age 12. At age 10, I made my 1^st lab in my basement. So I think that illustrated that I was going to keep building labs and continue my discovery of new things. I built my 2^nd one at the place that I was working at after my mother was tired of the smell. I also built one in New Jersey, where I launched my career.

At the age of 12, I had a job, as you know, and after saving a little baby boy, my boss taught me about a railroad telegraphy. So I think I wanted to expand my knowledge. So I learned more about different artist before me such as Alexander Graham Bell. So from that of his work, I made an improvement of some of their inventions. So this is what illustrated on how I became successful in the arts.