Thomas Edison 1847-1931

World famous inventor, pioneer and influencial american Thomas Edison was an incredibly famous, intellegent man, who's greatness helped revolutionise modern day life and improve standards of living for the masses significantly. Throughout his life he invented a wealth of devices, cameras, light bulbs, early day x-rays, and more importantly in our cases, the Kinetoscope.

As well as a prestigious inventor he was also a revolutionist and philosopher, he was a very admiral man whoms views were often depicted as strong however these days they are saw as very knowledgeful and humble. Edison was often referred to as a freethinker for his very strong, but forward thinking ideals. One of his most famous speeches reflecting this was his views on religion in an interview for the New York Times Magazine in 1910 showed how much of a logical thinker he was and though many religious people were offended by the statement, it could not be anything but admired. I've included his speech below.

"Nature is what we know. We do not know the gods of religions. And nature is not kind, or merciful, or loving. If God made me — the fabled God of the three qualities of which I spoke: mercy, kindness, love — He also made the fish I catch and eat. And where do His mercy, kindness, and love for that fish come in? No; nature made us — nature did it all — not the gods of the religions."

Another of his most famous quotes was given again in the New York Times when he stated "Gold is a relic of Julius Ceasar, and interest is an invention of Satan." This clearly showed his humble, but strong nature, however many people thought his attitude to money as absurd due to him being an extremely successful, wealthy businessman.

Edisons Life began in Milan Ohio however he moved and grew up in Michigan. Son of a fleeing rebel whom was assumed to have been part of the failed Mackenzie Rebellion in 1837 in Canada. His acedemic life, unlike Joseph Plateau & William Horner was poor, he was branded "addled" and his performance in formal education was so poor he was withdrawn and home schooled. This however was the decision which would shape him into the successful man he was. Taught at home by his mother, he stated later in life it was his love for her that he did not want to disappoint he tried incredibly hard to make her happy.

Edison as a young man was not as successful as later in life. Moving back to Michigan when business declined in Milan he sold sweets and newspapers on trains to support his family. It wasnt until he gained the exclusive right to sell newspapers on the road that he amassed enough money to, along with companions create a business venture, the first of many in which manufactured the Grand Trunk Herald and sold this along with papers. The success of this highlighted his ability as a businessman and this sparked a chain reaction of ventures amassing companies and founding others. Some of these businessed then began to invent products which allured him to become an inventor. His first invention of which was the Phonograph.

Edison began to rapidly create inventions from a broad range of areas. His "addled" mind clearly had been the mindset of a creative person whom enjoyed challenges and could not be pinned down to one task, he was an inventor and enjoyed the thrill and fame associated with creating, it could perhaps be his mindset that lead him to being such a successful man whom created a mass of inventions that made life easier, it could be said due to him not being able to focus on one project this caused him to need a lot of help in bringing his inventions to the forefront, however enabled him to create even more devices.

My Thoughts?
Edison is without a doubt one of the greatest inventors of all time, ranking currently as the 4th most prolific inventors in history (having 1093 parents in just the us alone). He not only had a great mind, however his openness and views are also, and have been influencial. Edison has not only invented things for improving quality of life, entertainment and making tasks easier, he is also accredited for his help in improving the US economy dramatically. In my eyes he is a great philosopher whom should be greatly respected for his life time of contributions to making modern life easier.

However from an animation stand point he was the inventor of the Kinetoscope, which was the main invention behind modern cinema, he was far more influential than most realise. I feel Edison is far more important than that of Joseph Plateau and William Horner, in both society and contributions to evolution of animation, however i do feel that Plateau was very important in allowing edison to understand how the concept of stop motion works (through his work on persistence of vision).

Importance
Explained briefly above Edisons importance was massive, in society he made living much easier, and standards improve significantly. To the economy he contributed to rapid growth and the take-off of mass production (as he was one of the first inventors to utilize this method). To animation he created a device (Kinetoscope) which was the earliest form of cinema and based on its design many more inventions have been created and because of it led to the very advanced animation methods we see to this day. To this point no other method of animation has pulled away from the basic design principles associated with the Kinetoscope, which is the use of many still frames (in a linear sequence) to give the impression of motion. In relation to other animation inventors i feel Edison is definely one of the best and most important as his creation was one of the first which showed evolution and the possibility for successful expandability, as such it could be expanded so animations produced on it could be longer, which was not possible on the Zoetrope, and other such wheel animators due to the circular design.

This isnt to say he alone is responsible for rapid growth of animation, each animator contributed in some way, whether they amassed audiences (Horner), or created base principles which allowed others to create sophisticated devices (Plateau). Edison however i feel contributed to a more mainstream method which is though evolved now still used to this day massively.