1-158-120 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

Thomas Alva Edison, American inventor, with an early hand-driven model of his phonograph, 1878. Edison (1847-1931) was a prolific inventor who registered over 1000 patents, many of which were related to the development of electricity. His inventions, in collaboration with his staff, include the phonograph, ticker-tape machine, carbon granule microphone, incandescent light bulb and the Kinetoscope, which combined sound and vision and was a precursor of talking pictures.