lifetime (Josephson 396).

As Edison grew older, he never quit learning our experimenting. His hands were permanently stained from the chemicals he had used over the years. He still rushed into his research, doing experiments as fast as they came to him. Edison became very controlling of his inventions in his later years. He learned that people would turn up the speed on the phonograph to make the music faster than normal. This angered Edison so he made his manufacturing department put a speed on controls on the phonograph to keep this from happening. Thomas Alva Edison died when he was eighty-four years old, on Sunday, October 18, 1931. He was still experimenting until the day that he died. He was buried in Orange New Jersey near his factory.Three days after his death electric lights were dimmed throughout the United States in honor of Edison (www.minot.k12.nd.us/mps/edison.html).

In Edison’s life he invented many things. He gave the world many things that are necessities today. Without electric lights, the telephone, the stock market machine, movie projector, and the phonograph the world would be a much more inconvenient place. We would not be able to turn on and off a light or easily communicate with others. Edison was truly a genius and many incredible works throughout his lifetime.