Little Tom

The year was 1847, during a cold, crisp winter in Milan, Ohio when a baby was born to middle class parents, who they would name Tom. Tom was the baby in the family. Coming from a usual Midwestern sized family for the times, Tom had six older siblings to contend with.

At age four, after learning to be in the shadows of his siblings, Tom finally spoke his first words. It is not unlikely for geniuses to begin talking later than their peers, but the school in which he attended at age 7, thought Tom may have been "slow" or even "retarded". Tom's teacher noticed that Tom's forehead was rather large and misshaped, and blamed this for his hyperactivity and frequent questions that would disrupt the class. After only 12 weeks in school, Nancy, a daughter of a well-respected Presbyterian minister, decided to teach Tom herself.

His mother drilled Tom in the 3R's, and before too long his father was giving him ten cents a classic upon completion of each book. Tom took a fondness to Shakespeare. He would read the plays and soliliqouys and act them out for himself, and even dreamed of being an actor. There was one problem, Tom's shyness and introverted personality made him scared of large crowds.

Tom began reading books in enormous numbers from the library, after his mother and father taught him the wonders of research. On a diet of Newton, Physics, and Mathematics, Tom would soon lose most of his hearing, making a traditional secondary education virtually impossible.

After delivering papers for a short while, at the age of 14, Tom decided to begin his own publishing business. He was so successful at this practice, he was earning ten dollars a day. But, science and technology had more in store for this young lad.

At 16, after serving in the military as a telegraph operator during the Civil War, young Tom would soon find himself in Boston, considered the information and technological centers of the world for the time, working for Western Union as an operator. Working long hours at Western Union, he would spend his nights tinkering with new technological ideas. His first...a rather efficient vote recording machine, which turned out to be a complete disaster, proved to be 'too risky' for the Massachusetts state legislature, and they turned it down.

Now at the age of 21, Tom started attending lectures at the local Boston Tech, which we now know as the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Another man, of the same age, was attending these lectures with Tom, and they immediately became friends. His name...Alex. Another friend of his, Ben, would also play a crucial role for Tom's future. Paving the way for men like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs; Tom, Ben, and Al were taking on new ventures in the world of technology.

Soon, Tom was off to New York City where he was earning $300.00 per month for fixing a company's stock tickers. A life of success and fortune was starting to come his way, one step at a time. After tinkering and improving the company's machines to be the most efficient in the world, the company gave him $40,000 for the rights to these new machines he had developed. Tom was stunned, but soon repaid a $35 dollar debt he had to Ben back in Boston.

Making more money, after the selling of a firm that held a few patents he came up with after work, Tom had enough money to open his own laboratory in New Jersey.

In New Jersey, Tom was in frequent competition with his old friend, Alex, from his Boston days. Tom beat him and 1877 invented and held the patent for the first phonograph. Alex beat Tom for the invention of the telephone. Tom, then flustered by Alex, invented and held the patent for the incadescent electric light bulb.

And who is this man who changed the way we look at indoor lighting...If you haven't already guessed...young Tom is the inventor Thomas Edison.

And, his friend from Boston who was in a battle with Edison for all those years making Edison the best inventor he could be... We know him as Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone.

And, the story goes... that if Edison had listened to his teacher when he was 7, and stopped inventing when the Massachusetts legislature turned him down, we may have very well still be sitting in the dark.