Thomas Alva Edison has always been portrayed as the greatest, most prolific by far American inventor. The man obtained over a thousand patents in his lifetime and is credited with inventing or improving upon devices that changed our world, our lives forever: the lightbulb, the phonograph, the motion picture camera, telegraphs, telephones, x-rays, and batteries. The list goes on. His contemporaries were blown away. But in recent decades, many have come to doubt Edison’s genius. More recent Edison critics take a look at his impressive body of work with scrutiny. "He didn't really invent all of those things," they say. Modern minds are split on Thomas Edison. He’s either a great American hero, inventor of our modern world, or an idea stealing fraud who ripped off other great minds and claimed the credit. But who was he really? Was Thomas Edison the real deal or do we need to rewrite the history books, giving back credit where credit is due? Let’s fix that.

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Sources:

• Library of Congress "Life of Thomas Alva Edison"
• National Park Service "Edison Biography"
• US News "Many Minds Produced the Lightbulb That Illuminated America"
• Forbes "Nikola Tesla Wasn't God and Thomas Edison Wasn't the Devil"
• Ranker "Here Are All The Things That Thomas Edison Didn't Actually Invent, But Took The Credit For Anyway"
• Wikipedia "Thomas Edison"

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