Sixth Grade
Worksheets
Thomas Edison: More than the Light Bulb
Thomas Edison was a well known American inventor. Born on February 11, 1847, he owned 1,093 U.S. patents. A patent is given to an inventor so that only the inventor can sell the invention. Edison is best known for making a practical light bulb. But he did so much more!
When Edison was twelve, he began working as a newsboy. He sold candy and newspapers. He printed a newspaper on the Grand Trunk Railway. He sold vegetables. These jobs helped Edison become a successful businessman. During his lifetime, he founded fourteen different companies. The most famous is General Electric, still in business today.
As a young man, Edison worked as a telegraph operator. One of his first inventions was an improved telegraph machine. The money he received from selling these machines gave him the chance to experiment and invent more things. Many of his early inventions had to do with the telegraph. He invented a stock ticker. His first patent in 1869 was for an electronic vote recorder. He thought this invention was a failure because it did not sell. He decided to work only on inventions the public would want.
