1847-1879 | 1880-1889 | 1890-1899 | 1900-1931

1847-1879 (TOP)

1847

- Thomas Alva Edison born on February 11 in Milan, Ohio.

1854

- His family moves to Port Huron, Michigan.

1859

- Young Thomas takes job selling newspapers and candy on the Grand Trunk Railway.

1862

- He begins work as a telegraph operator in Port Huron.

1863

- Obtains telegraph job for the Grand Trunk Railway in Ontario.

- Returns to the U.S. in the fall and goes from city to city as a telegraph operator.

1869

- Arrives in New York City and eventually gets job at Laws' Gold Indicator Co. after fixing the company's stock ticker.

- Receives patent in June for his first invention, an electric vote recorder.

1870

- Opens his first workshop in Newark, New Jersey.

1871

- Marries Mary Stilwell on December 25.

1873

- Daughter, Marion Estelle ("Dot"), is born.

1876

- Moves to Menlo Park, New Jersey, and establishes laboratory.

- Son, Thomas Alva, Jr. ("Dash"), is born on January 10.

1877

- Invents carbon telephone transmitter, extending the clarity and range of the telephone.

- Develops tin foil cylinder phonograph; files patent for it on December 24 which is awarded on February 19, 1878.

1878

- Edison Speaking Phonograph Co. incorporated April 24.

- Son, William Leslie, is born on October 26.

1878-79

- Devises an electric incandescent light bulb that lasts for more than 13 hours.

1879

- Organizes the Edison Ore Milling Company.

1880-1889(TOP)

1880

- Discovers phenomenon which is later termed the "Edison Effect".

1881

- Creates the Edison Electric Lamp Co., the Edison Machine Works and other companies to produce his electric lighting system.

1882

- Opens a commercial electric station in New York City with approximately 85 customers.

- The Menlo Park laboratory is closed, and another instituted in New York City.

1884

- Edison's wife, Mary, dies on August 9.

1886

- Patent awarded to Chichester A. Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter for their wax cylinder graphophone; Edison later refuses to collaborate with them on the invention.

- Marries Mina Miller on February 24.

- Moves his laboratory to East Newark, New Jersey.

1887

- Develops the New Phonograph, using a wax cylinder.

- Edison Phonograph Co. formed in October.

- Moves to a larger and more modern laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey.

1888

- Meets Eadweard Muybridge, who shows him his zoopraxiscope; Edison sets William K. L. Dickson and other assistants to work to make a Kinetoscope, "an instrument which does for the Eye what the phonograph does for the Ear".

- Improved Phonograph introduced, followed by the Perfected Phonograph.

- Daughter, Madeleine, is born on May 31.

- Jesse H. Lippincott assumes control of phonograph companies by forming the North American Phonograph Co. on July 14; leases phonographs as dictation machines.

- Files his first caveat (a Patent Office document in which one declares his work on a particular invention in anticipation of filing a patent application) on the Kinetoscope and Kinetograph on October 8; William Kennedy Laurie Dickson assigned to work on project.

1889

- Produces dolls with tiny cylinders inside to make them talk for the Edison Phonograph Toy Manufacturing Co.; project ceases in March 1891.

- Edison General Electric formed in April.

- Edison Manufacturing Co. is organized.

 

1890-1899(TOP)

1890

- Lippincott becomes ill and loses control of North American Phonograph Co. to Edison, its principal creditor.

- Son, Charles, is born on August 3.

1891

- A peep-hole viewing machine shown by Edison on May 20 to participants from the National Federation of Women's Clubs.

1892

- Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston merge into General Electric.

1893

- Construction on a film studio known as the "Black Maria" completed in February; earliest Edison motion pictures were filmed there.

- First public demonstration of 1 1/2" system of Kinetoscope at the Brooklyn Institute on May 9.

- Copyright registered to William K. L. Dickson for sample kinetoscope records on October 6.

1894

- Declares bankruptcy for the North American Phonograph Co.

- Applications submitted to U.S. Patent Office for the Kinetograph and the Kinetoscope.

- First Kinetoscope parlor opened in midtown Manhattan on April 14.

- Puts the Edison Manufacturing Co. in charge of the manufacture and sale of Kinetoscopes and films on April 1.

1894-95

- Edison and Dickson experiment to synchronize sound with film; the Kinetophone is invented which loosely synchronizes a Kinetoscope image with a cylinder phonograph.

1895

- The Edison Spring Motor Phonograph appears.

- Dickson resigns on April 2.

- C. Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat demonstrate their Phantoscope, a motion picture projector, in Atlanta, Georgia, in late September to early October.

1896

- Forms the National Phonograph Co. with the purpose of manufacturing phongraphs for home use on January 27.

- Spring Motor Phonograph is released under aegis of the National Phonograph Co., followed by the Edison Home Phonograph.

- Negotiates in January with Raff & Gammon to manufacture the Phantoscope which Armat presents as his own invention; machine is renamed the Vitascope in February, and Edison's name put on it.

- Vitascope publicly exhibited at Koster & Bial's Music Hall on April 23 to great acclaim.

- The company begins practice of copyrighting its films on October 23 by sending short pieces of positive nitrate film from the motion pictures to the Library of Congress.

- Distances himself from agreement with Raff & Gammon; introduces the Projecting Kinetoscope or Projectoscope on November 30 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

1897

- Edison Standard Phonograph manufactured.

- Begins to send positive paper prints of motion pictures for copyright deposit to the Library of Congress in August.

- James White hired to head Kinetograph Department at the Edison Manufacturing Co. in October.

- Begins legal battles in December that continue for the following year against other producers and exhibitors whom he charges with infringement.

1898

- Spanish-American War occurs; Edison Company sends cameraman to Cuba to film scenes of war.

- Son, Theodore Miller, is born on July 10.

1899

- Edison Concert Phonograph introduced.

1900-1931(TOP)

 

1900

- Edison Manufacturing Co. incorporated on May 5.

- Edwin S. Porter hired by Edison Co. in November to work with film equipment; he later becomes the company's most famous director.

1901

- Process for mass-producing duplicate wax cylinders put into effect; they are known as Gold Moulded cylinders.

- A new film studio for the Edison Co. in New York is completed in January; this is the nation's first indoor, glass-enclosed studio.

- U.S. Circuit Court recognizes Edison's motion picture patent claims in his suit in July; American Mutoscope & Biograph Company appeals decision.

- Edison cameras are present at Pan-American Exposition when President McKinley is shot by an assassin.

1902

- Circuit Court's decision reversed on March 10 by Court of Appeals, which essentially disallows Edison having a monopoly on motion picture apparatus.

1903

- One of the most famous early films, The Great Train Robbery, directed by Edwin S. Porter, is filmed during November.

1905

- Business Phonograph introduced.

- Nickelodeons become popular in Chicago and later spread to other urban areas.

1908

- Amberol Record introduced; the cylinder could play as long as four minutes, twice as long as previous cylinders.

- Association of Edison Licensees and Film Service Association formed; Motion Picture Patents Co. formed from it later to include Biograph licensees.

- New film studio opened in the Bronx, New York, June-July.

1909
- Edwin S. Porter fired on November 10.

1910

- Company reorganized into Thomas A. Edison, Inc.

1911

- Edison Disc Phonograph shown in public for the first time.

1912

- Disc Phonograph put on sale.

- Blue Amberol introduced, an unbreakable cylinder with superior sound.

1913

- Kinetophone is introduced, which attempts to synchronize motion pictures with a phonograph cylinder record.

1915

- Kinetophone abandoned.

- Tone tests for Diamond Discs introduced.

- Motion Picture Patents Co. found guilty of antitrust violation on October 1.

- Edison named head of the Naval Consulting Board.

1917

- American involvement in World War I begins; Edison creates Army and Navy Model of the Disc Phonograph.

1918

- Motion picture studio ceases production in February; studio sold on March 30 to the Lincoln & Parker Film Co.

1926

- Resigns as president of Thomas A. Edison, Inc., and becomes chairman of the board; his son, Charles takes over as president.

1928

- Takes over Aplitdorf-Bethlehem Electrical Co., a move which allows him to manufacture radios.

- Awarded Congressional gold metal for his many contributions.

1929

- Makes programs for radio on long-playing discs; first used by radio station WAAM of Newark, New Jersey, on April 4.

- Edison Portable Disc Phonograph with New Edison Needle Records introduced.

- Orders given on October 21 to close the Edison disc business.

1931

- Dies in West Orange on October 18.

Photos Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division

Discuss in my forum

• thomas edison
• motion pictures
• photography