The scientist who invented the electric light and many other important devices –Thomas Alva Edison was born February 11, 1847 at Milan, Ohio, in the United States of America. He came from a poor family. In school he asked his teacher so many questions that they thought he was stupid. Finally, his mother withdrew him from school and taught him herself at home. At the age of 12, Edison started selling newspapers in trains. In 1869, he purchased a printing press and printed and printed his own journal Grand Trunk herald. He set up a laboratory in the railway compartment and performed experiments in his spare time. During one such experiment, phosphorus fell on the floor and the compartment were caught in fire. The railway guard was so angry that he slapped Edison so hard which left him short of hearing in one ear. But Edison did give up. He started selling newspapers at the station itself. He saved the son of the telegraph operator Mackenzie from an accident and as a reward was offered a job at the Port Huron telegraph office. At the age of 16, he got a better ob as a night operator at a station in Canada, on the Grand Trunk railway. However, Edison was so busy during the daytime with his experiments that he used to fall asleep during the night while duty and so was fired. Edison found himself another job ad earned enough money to set p his own laboratory. He improved up on the telephone invented by Graham Bell by providing better sound quality. He invented a talking machine called the phonograph. His most important invitation, the electric light bulb came about in 1879 and Edison became a famous man. In 1881, he invented the kinetograph, a kind of movie camera. He even created a machine that could project visuals on a screen, which he called kinetograph. He connected the phonograph with it and projected audio –visual images on the screen. Edison, the greatest inventor of all times, he died October 18, 1931, at the age of 84. The electric bulbs across the nation were dimmed for a minute in his honor.