Thomas Alva Edison is born in Milan, Ohio in 1847.  He was said to be a scientist and an inventor.  He
would not only see great changes in his life time, but would be the cause of that change in man.  He may more
responsible for the birth and rise of the entertainment business than any man in history.  When he was born,
society looked at electricity as a fad and somewhat a novelty.  He was known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park."

Edison was issued 1,093 patents, more than any other inventor in history. Below
is a list of a few of his major inventions.
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               1874 - Edison's quadruplex revolutionizes the field of telegraphy.
               1876 - Receives patent for the electric pen and the mimeograph.
               1877 - Edison and Charles Batchelor perfect the carbon-button telephone transmitter
               1877 - Edison invents phonograph.
               1878 - Edison Electric Light Company is founded.
               1879 - First practical incandescent electric light bulb is perfected at Edison's laboratory.
               1881 - Edison begins mass production of light bulbs and electrical parts.
               1882 - Pearl Street plant starts operation as world's first commercial electric lighting power station.
               1883 - Edison Illuminating Company begins building municipal power plants.
               1895 - Edison creates first commercially successful phonograph.
               1887 - Edison marries Mina Miller.
               1889 - Edison General Electric Company is formedby consolidating many Edison companies.
               1892 - Edison General and Thomson- Houston merge to become General Electric Company
               1894 - Edison's kinetoscope, or motion picture machine, is introduced to the public.
               1900 - Produces the Edison nickel-iron-alkaline storage battery.
               1902 - Edison improves cement, making it suitable for major construction.
               1912 - Edison produces first talking motion pictures.
               1928 - Edison receives U.S. congressional gold medal for career achievements.
               1931 - Edison dies at age eighty-four.

Edison explained the idea behind the phonograph in the following excerpt from the
June,1888 issue of the "North American Review":

"To make the general idea of the recording of sound more clear, let me remark one or two points.
We have all been struck by the precision with which even the faintest sea-waves impress upon the
surface of a beach the fine, sinuous line which is formed by the rippling edge of their advance.
Almost as familiar is the fact that grains of sand sprinkled on a smooth surface of glass or wood,
on or near a piano, sift themselves into various lines and curves according to the vibrations of the
melody played on the piano-keys. These things indicate how easily the particles of solid matter
may receive an imparted motion, or take an impression, from delicate liquid waves, air waves, or
waves of sound. Yet, well known though these phenomena are, they apparently never suggested
until within a few years that the sound-waves set going by a human voice might be so directed as
to trace an impression upon some solid substance, with a nicety equal to that of the tide in
recording its flow upon a sand beach."

We would love your help continuing this story...if you have any important dates or
information that helps us tell the story of the evolution of  the music and
entertainment business send them to us and we will add to KICKIN' UP DUST