Edison's and His Brilliance Thomas A. Edison earned his reputation as one of America's greatest inventors and heroes. Full of innovation, ingenuity, and enterprise, Edison "embodie[d] much of what Americans have felt was positive about the national experience. " Edison can put claim to 1093 US patents in addition to thousands more international patents. His works include such major contributions as advancements in telegraphy, the phonograph, a perfected nickel-iron-alkaline battery, and the first commercially successful incandescent …showed first 75 words of 4741 total…

…showed last 75 words of 4741 total…to the period of technolog Bibliography McAuliffe, Kathleen. The Undiscovered World of Thomas Edison. http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/95dec/edison/edison.html Melosi, Martin V. Thomas A. Edison and the Modernization of America. Harper Collins Publishers. 1990. 8 Pretzer, William S. Working at Inventing: Thomas A. Edison and the Menlo Park Experience. Dearborn, Michigan; Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. 1991. 15 Schwalbe, David. American History: Thomas Alva Edison. http://americanhistory.about.com/education/americanhistory/library/weekly/aa120197.