Edison made more than 2,000 inventions in his lifetime and held more than 1,000 patents. The more important ones include electric lights, trams, movies, generators, electric motors, telephones, phonographs, etc.
1. Electric light
Contrary to people's common understanding, Edison was not the original inventor of the electric light. Edison improved the electric light. As early as 1801, a British chemist named Humphrey Davy used platinum wire to generate electricity in the laboratory.
In 1810, he invented the "electric candle" that was illuminated by the arc generated between two energized carbon rods. This was considered the earliest prototype of the electric light. After nearly 30 years of research, another British electrical engineer, Joseph Swan, made a vacuum light bulb that used carbon filaments to energize and emit light in December 1878.
2. Phonograph
In 1877, Edison discovered that the diaphragm in the telephone microphone would vibrate with the sound of speech, so he experimented with a short needle and learned a lot from it. Big inspiration. The speed of speaking can cause the short needle to vibrate in different ways. Then, in turn, this vibration must also be able to produce the original speaking sound, so he began to study the problem of sound reproduction.
On August 15, Edison asked his assistant to make a "weird machine" consisting of a large cylinder, a crank, a receiver and a diaphragm according to the drawing. After it was made, Edison took out a piece of tin foil and rolled it. On the metal cylinder engraved with spiral grooves, let one end of the needle rub against the tin foil and rotate, and the other end is connected to the receiver.
Then Edison cranked the crank, sang into the receiver, put the needle back in place, cranked the crank again, and the machine played back Edison's voice. In December, Edison publicly displayed this "tinfoil cylinder phonograph", which caused a sensation around the world.
3. Kinetoscope
In 1889, Edison invented a kinetoscope that used a pointed gear to drive a 19 mm wide tape without holes. , under the control of the ratchet, drives the tape to move intermittently and punch holes at the same time. This kind of camera is driven by a motor, and the shutter shaft is linked to a phonograph. When the camera is running, the phonograph records the sound and can continuously capture images. ?
4. Kinetoscope
In 1891, Edison invented the kinetoscope, an early movie display device. It introduced the basic method of movie projection by using an engine in front of the light source. To rotate a strip of film with continuous pictures at high speed, creating the illusion of movement, and a light source projects the pictures on the film onto the screen. ?
5. Talking Movies
In 1910, Edison invented a movie camera that was a combination of a phonograph and a video camera. Under the power of the motor, the light-shielding crankshaft of the camera was connected to the phonograph. The gramophone can record sound when the camera is running. During the screening, the gramophone runs synchronously with the picture, allowing sound and images to appear at the same time.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Thomas Alva Edison