Frith - Who Was Thomas Alva Edison?

By Margaret Frith

Illustrated by John OBrien

Grosset & Dunlap

For David, ever curiousM.F.

For LindaJ.O.

GROSSET & DUNLAP

Published by the Penguin Group

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Text copyright 2005 by Margaret Frith. Illustrations copyright 2005 by John OBrien.

Cover illustration copyright 2005 by Nancy Harrison. All rights reserved. Published by Grosser & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Printed in the U.S.A.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Frith, Margaret.

Who was Thomas Alva Edison? / by Margaret Frith; illustrated by John OBrien.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN: 978-1-101-63992-4

1. Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931Juvenile literature. 2. InventorsUnited StatesBiographyJuvenile literature. 3. Electric engineersUnited StatesBiographyJuvenile literature. I. OBrien, John, 1953- II. Title.

TK140.E3F736 2005

621.3092dc22

2005003386

20 19 18 17

One day the Edisons couldnt find six-year-old Al, as his family called him. They were visiting Als older sister and her husband on their farm. It was just outside of Milan, Ohio. The year was 1853.

Suddenly Als uncle had an idea. He ran out to the barn and there he found Al sitting on a pile of straw. He was trying to hatch a goose egg. He had seen a hen sitting on her eggs when some baby chicks came out. Al wanted to make a baby goose come out of the egg.

The Edisons werent surprised. They had three other children, but their youngest, Al, was the most curious. He would be that way all of his long life.

The world was very different when Thomas Alva Edison was a childno electric light to see by, no recorded music to listen to, no movies to watch. It was Edison who made all of these possible and much more, changing our lives forever. Edison firmly believed in inventions, ones that could make everyday life easier and more comfortable. That is exactly what he accomplished.

Thomas Alva Edison was, perhaps, the greatest inventor of his time.

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847, on a cold snowy night in Milan, Ohio. His parents, Nancy and Samuel, named him Thomas after his great-uncle and Alva after Captain Alva Bradley, a good friend of his father. The family didnt call him Tom or Tommy. They called him Al.

Little Al wanted to find out everything about the world around him. He went about it like a scientist doing an experiment. He didnt just ask questions; he liked to find out the answers himself.

Once Al broke open a bumblebees nest to see what was inside.

Another time he watched birds eat worms and fly off. So Al made a mixture out of water and mashed worms. Then he gave it to a neighbor girl to drink. He wanted to see if eating worms would make her fly. But it just made her sick, and Al got a licking with a birch branch.

Nothing stopped Alnot bees, not a licking, not even falling into a grain-storage bin. He was walking around the rim of the bin when he fell in. Luckily someone pulled him out by the legs just before he was buried under the wheat.

Als father owned a small grain and timber mill in Milan. Boats like Captain Alva Bradleys carried timber down from Canada across Lake Erie, down the Huron River and through the Milan Canal. There it was cut into logs and planks at mills like Mr. Edisons.

Trucks and cars had not yet been invented, and trains didnt come to Milan. But one day a railroad line was built. Trains started chugging into town, and the canal wasnt so important anymore. The railroads were faster and easier to use for carrying things around the country. So when Al was seven, the family moved to a new home in Port Huron, Michigan, more than a hundred miles north of Milan.

They lived in a big house on the St. Clair River. Als father did lots of things to earn a living. He worked as a carpenter. He ran a grocery store. He had a vegetable garden. He tried farming. He even built a 100-foot tower overlooking the river. For twenty-five cents, anyone could climb up and watch the boats go by.

The Edisons had only been there a short time when Al caught scarlet fever. It was a serious illness back then without the medicines used today. He ran a high fever. A red rash broke out on his skin. Al got better, but he realized that he couldnt hear as well as he used to, probably because of the scarlet fever.