Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison was a renowned American inventor and entrepreneur. He held more than a thousand patents; landmark work includes practical incandescent lighting and related power distribution, the phonograph, and key advances in motion-picture technology. At Menlo Park and later labs he organized invention as collaborative research and development.

Edison linked technical invention to commercial deployment and helped shape early electric lighting and consumer electronics. He is often seen as a classic inventor-entrepreneur of the late Industrial Revolution, and his methods and patent strategies remain central topics in the history of technology.