Inventions in the name of Edison

 

There are a number of things that we believe were invented by Edison, but the reality is that the first ideas of these inventions were developed by other people. The 19th century was a century of a lot of excitement among inventors, so it was common for inventors to work on similar projects at the same time while being away from each other.

X-ray photography machines became popular with the technology that Edison developed.
However, the first X-ray picture was taken by German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen.
He took a picture of his wife’s hand on 22nd December 1895.
At the time, people were not aware of the dangers of X-ray photography.
Edison gave up his research on X-rays when one of his assistants developed cancer,
because of testing X-rays on his hands.

One of Edison’s most famous inventions is the phonograph. It was invented in 1877,
and it recorded and played audio. However, 17 years before his invention,
another person named Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville invented the phonautograph.
It transformed audio to lines on a cylinder. However, it was unable to play back the sound.

Edison’s most famous invention, the light bulb, was not actually his original idea.
The first working light bulb was invented by Sir Humphry Davy in 1802,
77 years before Edison made his own successful one.
Davy’s light bulb burnt for a short time and was not bright enough. Later, a few inventors,
including Edison and Joseph Swan, took the idea and developed better versions of the light bulb.
Edison was the first to make a practical and lasting light bulb.