thomas alva edison short essay

Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison is credited with inventions such as the first practical incandescent light bulb and the phonograph. He held over 1,000 patents for his inventions.

(1847-1931)

Who Was Thomas Edison?

Early life and education.

Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio. He was the youngest of seven children of Samuel and Nancy Edison. His father was an exiled political activist from Canada, while his mother was an accomplished school teacher and a major influence in Edison’s early life. An early bout with scarlet fever as well as ear infections left Edison with hearing difficulties in both ears as a child and nearly deaf as an adult.

Edison would later recount, with variations on the story, that he lost his hearing due to a train incident in which his ears were injured. But others have tended to discount this as the sole cause of his hearing loss.

In 1854, Edison’s family moved to Port Huron, Michigan, where he attended public school for a total of 12 weeks. A hyperactive child, prone to distraction, he was deemed "difficult" by his teacher.

His mother quickly pulled him from school and taught him at home. At age 11, he showed a voracious appetite for knowledge, reading books on a wide range of subjects. In this wide-open curriculum Edison developed a process for self-education and learning independently that would serve him throughout his life.

At age 12, Edison convinced his parents to let him sell newspapers to passengers along the Grand Trunk Railroad line. Exploiting his access to the news bulletins teletyped to the station office each day, Edison began publishing his own small newspaper, called the Grand Trunk Herald .

The up-to-date articles were a hit with passengers. This was the first of what would become a long string of entrepreneurial ventures where he saw a need and capitalized on the opportunity.

Edison also used his access to the railroad to conduct chemical experiments in a small laboratory he set up in a train baggage car. During one of his experiments, a chemical fire started and the car caught fire.

The conductor rushed in and struck Edison on the side of the head, probably furthering some of his hearing loss. He was kicked off the train and forced to sell his newspapers at various stations along the route.

Edison the Telegrapher

While Edison worked for the railroad, a near-tragic event turned fortuitous for the young man. After Edison saved a three-year-old from being run over by an errant train , the child’s grateful father rewarded him by teaching him to operate a telegraph . By age 15, he had learned enough to be employed as a telegraph operator.

For the next five years, Edison traveled throughout the Midwest as an itinerant telegrapher, subbing for those who had gone to the Civil War . In his spare time, he read widely, studied and experimented with telegraph technology, and became familiar with electrical science.

In 1866, at age 19, Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky, working for The Associated Press. The night shift allowed him to spend most of his time reading and experimenting. He developed an unrestricted style of thinking and inquiry, proving things to himself through objective examination and experimentation.

Initially, Edison excelled at his telegraph job because early Morse code was inscribed on a piece of paper, so Edison's partial deafness was no handicap. However, as the technology advanced, receivers were increasingly equipped with a sounding key, enabling telegraphers to "read" message by the sound of the clicks. This left Edison disadvantaged, with fewer and fewer opportunities for employment.

In 1868, Edison returned home to find his beloved mother was falling into mental illness and his father was out of work. The family was almost destitute. Edison realized he needed to take control of his future.

Upon the suggestion of a friend, he ventured to Boston, landing a job for the Western Union Company . At the time, Boston was America's center for science and culture, and Edison reveled in it. In his spare time, he designed and patented an electronic voting recorder for quickly tallying votes in the legislature.

However, Massachusetts lawmakers were not interested. As they explained, most legislators didn't want votes tallied quickly. They wanted time to change the minds of fellow legislators.

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In 1871 Edison married 16-year-old Mary Stilwell, who was an employee at one of his businesses. During their 13-year marriage, they had three children, Marion, Thomas and William, who himself became an inventor.

In 1884, Mary died at the age of 29 of a suspected brain tumor. Two years later, Edison married Mina Miller, 19 years his junior.

Thomas Edison: Inventions

In 1869, at 22 years old, Edison moved to New York City and developed his first invention, an improved stock ticker called the Universal Stock Printer, which synchronized several stock tickers' transactions.

The Gold and Stock Telegraph Company was so impressed, they paid him $40,000 for the rights. With this success, he quit his work as a telegrapher to devote himself full-time to inventing.

By the early 1870s, Edison had acquired a reputation as a first-rate inventor. In 1870, he set up his first small laboratory and manufacturing facility in Newark, New Jersey, and employed several machinists.

As an independent entrepreneur, Edison formed numerous partnerships and developed products for the highest bidder. Often that was Western Union Telegraph Company, the industry leader, but just as often, it was one of Western Union's rivals.

Quadruplex Telegraph

In one such instance, Edison devised for Western Union the quadruplex telegraph, capable of transmitting two signals in two different directions on the same wire, but railroad tycoon Jay Gould snatched the invention from Western Union, paying Edison more than $100,000 in cash, bonds and stock, and generating years of litigation.

In 1876, Edison moved his expanding operations to Menlo Park, New Jersey, and built an independent industrial research facility incorporating machine shops and laboratories.

That same year, Western Union encouraged him to develop a communication device to compete with Alexander Graham Bell 's telephone. He never did.

In December 1877, Edison developed a method for recording sound: the phonograph . His innovation relied upon tin-coated cylinders with two needles: one for recording sound, and another for playback.

His first words spoken into the phonograph's mouthpiece were, "Mary had a little lamb." Though not commercially viable for another decade, the phonograph brought him worldwide fame, especially when the device was used by the U.S. Army to bring music to the troops overseas during World War I .

While Edison was not the inventor of the first light bulb, he came up with the technology that helped bring it to the masses. Edison was driven to perfect a commercially practical, efficient incandescent light bulb following English inventor Humphry Davy’s invention of the first early electric arc lamp in the early 1800s.

Over the decades following Davy’s creation, scientists such as Warren de la Rue, Joseph Wilson Swan, Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans had worked to perfect electric light bulbs or tubes using a vacuum but were unsuccessful in their attempts.

After buying Woodward and Evans' patent and making improvements in his design, Edison was granted a patent for his own improved light bulb in 1879. He began to manufacture and market it for widespread use. In January 1880, Edison set out to develop a company that would deliver the electricity to power and light the cities of the world.

That same year, Edison founded the Edison Illuminating Company—the first investor-owned electric utility—which later became General Electric .

In 1881, he left Menlo Park to establish facilities in several cities where electrical systems were being installed. In 1882, the Pearl Street generating station provided 110 volts of electrical power to 59 customers in lower Manhattan.

Later Inventions & Business

In 1887, Edison built an industrial research laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, which served as the primary research laboratory for the Edison lighting companies.

He spent most of his time there, supervising the development of lighting technology and power systems. He also perfected the phonograph, and developed the motion picture camera and the alkaline storage battery.

Over the next few decades, Edison found his role as inventor transitioning to one as industrialist and business manager. The laboratory in West Orange was too large and complex for any one man to completely manage, and Edison found he was not as successful in his new role as he was in his former one.

Edison also found that much of the future development and perfection of his inventions was being conducted by university-trained mathematicians and scientists. He worked best in intimate, unstructured environments with a handful of assistants and was outspoken about his disdain for academia and corporate operations.

During the 1890s, Edison built a magnetic iron-ore processing plant in northern New Jersey that proved to be a commercial failure. Later, he was able to salvage the process into a better method for producing cement.

Motion Picture

On April 23, 1896, Edison became the first person to project a motion picture, holding the world's first motion picture screening at Koster & Bial's Music Hall in New York City.

His interest in motion pictures began years earlier, when he and an associate named W. K. L. Dickson developed a Kinetoscope, a peephole viewing device. Soon, Edison's West Orange laboratory was creating Edison Films. Among the first of these was The Great Train Robbery , released in 1903.

As the automobile industry began to grow, Edison worked on developing a suitable storage battery that could power an electric car. Though the gasoline-powered engine eventually prevailed, Edison designed a battery for the self-starter on the Model T for friend and admirer Henry Ford in 1912. The system was used extensively in the auto industry for decades.

During World War I, the U.S. government asked Edison to head the Naval Consulting Board, which examined inventions submitted for military use. Edison worked on several projects, including submarine detectors and gun-location techniques.

However, due to his moral indignation toward violence, he specified that he would work only on defensive weapons, later noting, "I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill."

By the end of the 1920s, Edison was in his 80s. He and his second wife, Mina, spent part of their time at their winter retreat in Fort Myers, Florida, where his friendship with automobile tycoon Henry Ford flourished and he continued to work on several projects, ranging from electric trains to finding a domestic source for natural rubber.

During his lifetime, Edison received 1,093 U.S. patents and filed an additional 500 to 600 that were unsuccessful or abandoned.

He executed his first patent for his Electrographic Vote-Recorder on October 13, 1868, at the age of 21. His last patent was for an apparatus for holding objects during the electroplating process.

Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla

Edison became embroiled in a longstanding rivalry with Nikola Tesla , an engineering visionary with academic training who worked with Edison's company for a time.

The two parted ways in 1885 and would publicly clash in the " War of the Currents " about the use of direct current electricity, which Edison favored, vs. alternating currents, which Tesla championed. Tesla then entered into a partnership with George Westinghouse, an Edison competitor, resulting in a major business feud over electrical power.

Elephant Killing

One of the unusual - and cruel - methods Edison used to convince people of the dangers of alternating current was through public demonstrations where animals were electrocuted.

One of the most infamous of these shows was the 1903 electrocution of a circus elephant named Topsy on New York's Coney Island.

Edison died on October 18, 1931, from complications of diabetes in his home, Glenmont, in West Orange, New Jersey. He was 84 years old.

Many communities and corporations throughout the world dimmed their lights or briefly turned off their electrical power to commemorate his passing.

Edison's career was the quintessential rags-to-riches success story that made him a folk hero in America.

An uninhibited egoist, he could be a tyrant to employees and ruthless to competitors. Though he was a publicity seeker, he didn’t socialize well and often neglected his family.

But by the time he died, Edison was one of the most well-known and respected Americans in the world. He had been at the forefront of America’s first technological revolution and set the stage for the modern electric world.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Thomas Alva Edison
• Birth Year: 1847
• Birth date: February 11, 1847
• Birth State: Ohio
• Birth City: Milan
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Thomas Edison is credited with inventions such as the first practical incandescent light bulb and the phonograph. He held over 1,000 patents for his inventions.
• Technology and Engineering
• Astrological Sign: Aquarius
• The Cooper Union
• Interesting Facts
• Thomas Edison was considered too difficult as a child so his mother homeschooled him.
• Edison became the first to project a motion picture in 1896, at Koster & Bial's Music Hall in New York City.
• Edison had a bitter rivalry with Nikola Tesla.
• During his lifetime, Edison received 1,093 U.S. patents.
• Death Year: 1931
• Death date: October 18, 1931
• Death State: New Jersey
• Death City: West Orange
• Death Country: United States

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CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Thomas Edison Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/inventors/thomas-edison
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: May 13, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
• Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
• Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.
• I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill.
• I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.
• Restlessness is discontent — and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man — and I will show you a failure.
• To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.
• Hell, there ain't no rules around here! We're trying to accomplish something.
• I always invent to obtain money to go on inventing.
• The phonograph, in one sense, knows more than we do ourselves. For it will retain a perfect mechanical memory of many things which we may forget, even though we have said them.
• We know nothing; we have to creep by the light of experiments, never knowing the day or the hour that we shall find what we are after.
• Everything, anything is possible; the world is a vast storehouse of undiscovered energy.
• The recurrence of a phenomenon like Edison is not very likely... He will occupy a unique and exalted position in the history of his native land, which might well be proud of his great genius and undying achievements in the interest of humanity.” (Nikola Tesla)

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Thomas Edison

By: History.com Editors

Updated: October 17, 2023 | Original: November 9, 2009

Thomas Edison was a prolific inventor and savvy businessman who acquired a record number of 1,093 patents (singly or jointly) and was the driving force behind such innovations as the phonograph, the incandescent light bulb, the alkaline battery and one of the earliest motion picture cameras. He also created the world’s first industrial research laboratory. Known as the “Wizard of Menlo Park,” for the New Jersey town where he did some of his best-known work, Edison had become one of the most famous men in the world by the time he was in his 30s. In addition to his talent for invention, Edison was also a successful manufacturer who was highly skilled at marketing his inventions—and himself—to the public.

Thomas Edison’s Early Life

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio. He was the seventh and last child born to Samuel Edison Jr. and Nancy Elliott Edison, and would be one of four to survive to adulthood. At age 12, he developed hearing loss—he was reportedly deaf in one ear, and nearly deaf in the other—which was variously attributed to scarlet fever, mastoiditis or a blow to the head.

Thomas Edison received little formal education, and left school in 1859 to begin working on the railroad between Detroit and Port Huron, Michigan, where his family then lived. By selling food and newspapers to train passengers, he was able to net about $50 profit each week, a substantial income at the time—especially for a 13-year-old.

Did you know? By the time he died at age 84 on October 18, 1931, Thomas Edison had amassed a record 1,093 patents: 389 for electric light and power, 195 for the phonograph, 150 for the telegraph, 141 for storage batteries and 34 for the telephone.

During the Civil War , Edison learned the emerging technology of telegraphy, and traveled around the country working as a telegrapher. But with the development of auditory signals for the telegraph, he was soon at a disadvantage as a telegrapher.

To address this problem, Edison began to work on inventing devices that would help make things possible for him despite his deafness (including a printer that would convert electrical telegraph signals to letters). In early 1869, he quit telegraphy to pursue invention full time.

Edison in Menlo Park

From 1870 to 1875, Edison worked out of Newark, New Jersey, where he developed telegraph-related products for both Western Union Telegraph Company (then the industry leader) and its rivals. Edison’s mother died in 1871, and that same year he married 16-year-old Mary Stillwell.

Despite his prolific telegraph work, Edison encountered financial difficulties by late 1875, but one year later—with the help of his father—Edison was able to build a laboratory and machine shop in Menlo Park, New Jersey, 12 miles south of Newark.

With the success of his Menlo Park “invention factory,” some historians credit Edison as the inventor of the research and development (R&D) lab, a collaborative, team-based model later copied by AT&T at Bell Labs , the DuPont Experimental Station , the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and other R&D centers.

In 1877, Edison developed the carbon transmitter, a device that improved the audibility of the telephone by making it possible to transmit voices at higher volume and with more clarity.

That same year, his work with the telegraph and telephone led him to invent the phonograph, which recorded sound as indentations on a sheet of paraffin-coated paper; when the paper was moved beneath a stylus, the sounds were reproduced. The device made an immediate splash, though it took years before it could be produced and sold commercially.

Edison and the Light Bulb

In 1878, Edison focused on inventing a safe, inexpensive electric light to replace the gaslight—a challenge that scientists had been grappling with for the last 50 years. With the help of prominent financial backers like J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilt family, Edison set up the Edison Electric Light Company and began research and development.

He made a breakthrough in October 1879 with a bulb that used a platinum filament, and in the summer of 1880 hit on carbonized bamboo as a viable alternative for the filament, which proved to be the key to a long-lasting and affordable light bulb. In 1881, he set up an electric light company in Newark, and the following year moved his family (which by now included three children) to New York.

Though Edison’s early incandescent lighting systems had their problems, they were used in such acclaimed events as the Paris Lighting Exhibition in 1881 and the Crystal Palace in London in 1882.

Competitors soon emerged, notably Nikola Tesla, a proponent of alternating or AC current (as opposed to Edison’s direct or DC current). By 1889, AC current would come to dominate the field, and the Edison General Electric Co. merged with another company in 1892 to become General Electric .

Later Years and Inventions

Edison’s wife, Mary, died in August 1884, and in February 1886 he remarried Mirna Miller; they would have three children together. He built a large estate called Glenmont and a research laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, with facilities including a machine shop, a library and buildings for metallurgy, chemistry and woodworking.

Spurred on by others’ work on improving the phonograph, he began working toward producing a commercial model. He also had the idea of linking the phonograph to a zoetrope, a device that strung together a series of photographs in such a way that the images appeared to be moving. Working with William K.L. Dickson, Edison succeeded in constructing a working motion picture camera, the Kinetograph, and a viewing instrument, the Kinetoscope, which he patented in 1891.

After years of heated legal battles with his competitors in the fledgling motion-picture industry, Edison had stopped working with moving film by 1918. In the interim, he had had success developing an alkaline storage battery, which he originally worked on as a power source for the phonograph but later supplied for submarines and electric vehicles.

In 1912, automaker Henry Ford asked Edison to design a battery for the self-starter, which would be introduced on the iconic Model T . The collaboration began a continuing relationship between the two great American entrepreneurs.

Despite the relatively limited success of his later inventions (including his long struggle to perfect a magnetic ore-separator), Edison continued working into his 80s. His rise from poor, uneducated railroad worker to one of the most famous men in the world made him a folk hero.

More than any other individual, he was credited with building the framework for modern technology and society in the age of electricity. His Glenmont estate—where he died in 1931—and West Orange laboratory are now open to the public as the Thomas Edison National Historical Park .

Thomas Edison’s Greatest Invention. The Atlantic . Life of Thomas Alva Edison. Library of Congress . 7 Epic Fails Brought to You by the Genius Mind of Thomas Edison. Smithsonian Magazine .

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Chapter 12 – Thomas Alva Edison

Karen garvin.

Thomas Alva Edison (1847–1931), the “Wizard of Menlo Park,” was an American inventor. Considered to be a true genius, Edison created the world’s first research laboratory, where his systematic approach to inventing focused on practical results rather than theoretical knowledge. Although best known for his improvements to the light bulb and for creating the phonograph and motion picture camera, much of Edison’s work was related to the generation and distribution of electricity.

Figure 1. Thomas Alva Edison, c. 1904. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Collection, LC-USZ62-108087.

Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio. He was the youngest of seven children and had limited formal education, which would later feed the myth that he was “a poor boy, uneducated and entirely self-taught.” [1] In fact, during 1854 Edison attended a private school run by Reverend George Engle and from 1859 to 1860 he attended the Port Huron School. [2] Edison, who would later describe himself as a “delicate” small boy, was mostly homeschooled by his mother, a former high-school teacher, who taught her son “how to read good books quickly and correctly.” [3] Edison devoured books on history, philosophy, and science. He liked to do chemical experiments and even strung up a telegraph wire to a friend’s house so they could send messages to each other. [4]

In 1859, Edison began working as a newsboy on the Grand Trunk Railroad line, where he earned pocket money to buy materials for his home chemical laboratory. [5] The twelve-year-old Edison rode the train and sold newspapers and magazines, but he also had a great deal of free time. In 1862 he purchased a small printing press, which he set up in the baggage car. From this makeshift office, Edison printed his own newspaper, the Weekly Herald . [6] Edison also conducted chemical experiments until a fire broke out and he was evicted from the train. [7]

Edison learned telegraphy and, despite noticing that he was developing a hearing loss, spent the next several years working as a telegraph operator. In early 1868 he moved to Boston and took a job with Western Union. During his free time there he designed and patented his first invention: an electronic vote recorder, which was met with indifference by lawmakers in Washington. [8]

Despite this initial setback, Edison quit his job at Western Union in January 1869 so that he could become a full-time inventor. He moved to New York City in April 1869, and in February 1870 he signed a contract with Gold and Stock Telegraph Company to do research and development on improvements to telegraph equipment. Edison began working on designs for an improved stock ticker, which he named the Universal Stock Printer. [9]

Edison sold the rights to the stock ticker to the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company for $40,000. [10] Then, he used the money to set up the Newark Telegraph Works in Newark, New Jersey. [11] That same year, an investor put up enough money for Edison to open a second shop, the American Telegraph Works. Between the two companies, Edison employed more than 160 men.

Edison soon outgrew the facility in Newark, and in December 1875 moved his operations to Menlo Park, New Jersey. He had a two-story laboratory built to his specifications, which housed a machine shop on the ground floor and a chemical laboratory on the second floor. Edison opened the laboratory in the spring of 1876 with a staff of five: two experimenters and three machinists. [12] The Menlo Park lab was quickly dubbed “the invention factory” by reporters, [13] and it was one of the first research and development laboratories. [14] Edison’s system was to come up with ideas and assign teams of researchers to work on projects, whom he referred to as “muckers.” [15] By having multiple teams engaged in developing marketable products, it was possible for the lab to be more productive than a lone inventor could ever have been. [16]

To keep Menlo Park running, Edison needed money. His method of raising money was to pursue only the inventions that were both “practical and profitable.” [17] In the summer of 1877, Edison came up with an idea for a machine that would record and play back sound messages. His prototype used a stylus that vibrated from the pressure of sound waves and carved small grooves on a piece of tin foil wrapped around a cylinder. The foil cylinder was later replaced by wax cylinders. [18] The phonograph became a commercial success and put Edison in the public spotlight, earning him the epithet “Wizard of Menlo Park.”

By early 1878, the laboratory staff had increased to 25, and by the 1880s expanded to a maximum of 50 to 60 employees. Edison added a separate machine shop and several other buildings to the Menlo Park site, and even provided a boardinghouse for some of his employees. [19] For a short time, Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) was employed by Edison as an electrical engineer. [20] Both men were dedicated workaholics, but a rift developed between them after Edison supposedly promised Tesla fifty-thousand dollars if he could increase the efficiency of Edison’s electric dynamo. After Tesla succeeded, Edison claimed it had been a joke but counteroffered a raise in pay. Tesla, believing he had been cheated, resigned. [21]

In 1878, Edison began work on developing a longer-burning filament for electric light bulbs. Existing bulbs burned out within just a few hours; Edison realized that in order for the bulbs to be commercially viable they needed to last much longer. He did not invent the light bulb, however—the credit for that goes to English scientist Humphry Davy, who, in the early 1800s, had connected batteries to charcoal sticks and generated an arc of electricity to produce incandescent lighting. [22] On October 14, 1878, Edison filed a patent application for “Improvement in Electric Lights,” but he continued to refine the bulb and submitted another patent application on November 4, 1879.

Eventually, after Edison and his muckers tested thousands of materials for the light bulb filament, including carbonized cardboard and platinum, Edison discovered that a carbonized bamboo filament would last more than a thousand hours before it burned out. [23] Edison made further improvements, such as evacuating the air from the glass bulb and designing the screw base for the light bulb, which is still in use today.

Figure 2. Edison’s patent for the Electric-Lamp. Note the coiled filament inside the bulb. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, “Drawing for an Electric Lamp,” National Archives Catalog, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/595450 .

Edison began to manufacture and market his bulbs, but delivering electricity to run them was still problematic. But instead of just fabricating pieces of the electric puzzle, it was Edison’s intention to create a whole system, from electrical generation and distribution to the end products for home and business use. [24] In December 1880, Edison founded the Edison Illuminating Company with the purpose of constructing electrical generating stations. In 1881, he purchased a large building in Manhattan and obtained permission from the city to dig up the streets in order to lay nearly fourteen miles of electrical conduits. [25] Edison’s Pearl Street Power Station opened in 1882, and it used coal to power an electrical generator. This central power company delivered direct current (DC) electricity to his customers.

In a DC system, electrical current flows in one direction and is relatively low voltage. But while Edison’s DC distribution system was successful, it had several major drawbacks: the voltage could only be sent over short distances before it dropped too low to be useful, and the voltage could not be changed easily for varying electrical loads, which meant that each electrical device needed its own power lines. A competing power system, one favored by Edison’s ex-employee Tesla, was alternating current (AC), which allowed electricity to be sent over many miles of wire without loss and used a system of transformers to change voltages so that lighting and motors could be operated from the same power lines.

In 1886, William Stanley Jr. (1858–1916) had successfully electrified Great Barrington, Massachusetts, using alternating current. While others, including Tesla and George Westinghouse (1846–1914), believed that an AC distribution system was safe, Edison felt strongly that it was dangerous because of the high voltages it used and its tendency to spark. Indeed, several deaths, including the ghastly public spectacle of the electrocution of lineman John Feeks, had already taken place. [26]

By now Edison had invested a great deal of cash in his own DC system, which served only one square mile of customers, and he was fighting to keep his system financially solvent. [27] He appealed to public emotion about the safety of his DC system, but the differences of opinion between proponents of DC and AC devolved into a bitter rivalry that became known as the “War of the Currents.” It was a losing battle for Edison: in 1891 the Electrical World magazine reported that there were just over 200 Edison DC power stations in use, versus nearly 1,000 operational AC power stations. When the contract for electrifying the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition was awarded to Westinghouse, who used Tesla’s AC system, it cemented the superiority of alternating current for electrical distribution systems.

Nevertheless, Edison’s business continued to grow, and in 1887 he built a larger research facility in West Orange, New Jersey, where he became increasingly involved in management. Construction on the new laboratory began in May and the facility was occupied by the new year. Unlike the informal research facility of Edison’s younger days, this new laboratory employed university-trained scientists and utilized large-scale teamwork in its research methods. [28] Although Edison made no claims for himself about being a “pure scientist,” he nevertheless read professional literature, even as he disdained the career of a pure scientist. [29]

During his time at his West Orange lab, Edison continued to refine his phonograph and, after seeing the work of photographer Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904), came to believe that motion could be captured on film. On July 31, 1891, Edison filed a patent for his motion picture camera. Never one to do half measures, Edison built a motion picture studio at the West Orange research park, called the Black Maria, in 1893. [30]

Figure 3. Interior of Thomas. A. Edison Laboratories, Building No. 2, West Orange, New Jersey. Apparatus on the table was used to make a steel master for the mass production of phonograph records. Photo: Jet Lowe, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, HAER NJ,7-ORAW,4-A.

Some of the early films created at the studio were shown in Kinetoscopes, which were wooden boxes that housed rollers and spools for a single film. The first Kinetoscope parlor opened on April 14, 1894, in New York, where viewers could pay to watch the movies. The first commercial motion picture intended for a large audience was projected at Koster and Bial’s Music Hall in New York City on April 23, 1896.

During the 1890s, Edison began experimenting with something completely different: he built an iron ore separating plant in Ogden, New Jersey, that crushed rocks and used an electromagnet to separate the iron ore from the rock. [31] After several expensive upgrades to the plant, and the discovery of high-grade iron ore deposits in the Great Lakes area, Edison realized the unprofitability of this venture. But while the iron had never been a moneymaker, his company had sold crushed rock to cement companies. Thus, Edison followed the money trail and in 1899 he organized the Edison Portland Cement Company, which opened in 1901. [32]

Next, Edison turned his attention back to a project that he had been interested in for years: a storage battery. [33] In 1901, he formed the Edison Storage Battery Company and began working on a storage battery for electric cars. An “E” type of alkaline storage battery was produced in 1903, but there were problems with the batteries leaking and they did not recharge properly. In 1909, a new “A” type of nickel-iron alkaline battery was manufactured, [34] and in 1910, two electric cars with Edison batteries climbed Mt. Washington in New Hampshire on a promotional tour. [35]

In 1915, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels (1862–1948) appointed Edison as president of the newly formed Naval Consulting Board. The board comprised civilian experts who would review technology-related suggestions submitted by the public for possible military application. [36] Edison petitioned the government to establish a permanent research laboratory, but resigned from the naval board in January 1921. [37] Eventually the lab was constructed and the Naval Research Laboratory began operations on July 2, 1923. [38]

In 1927, Edison, now 80 years old, joined forces with Henry Ford (1863–1947) and Harvey Firestone (1868–1938) to form the Edison Botanic Research Corporation in Fort Meyers, Florida. The company’s goal was to find a domestic source of rubber so that America would not be dependent on foreign sources in case of another war. More than 17,000 plants were tested before goldenrod was selected as the most viable source for rubber. [39]

Edison married twice and had six children, although his heavy work schedule left little time for family. [40] In 1871, he met Mary Stilwell (1855–1884), who was working at the News Reporting Company, a short-lived business venture of Edison’s. He proposed  and they were married on Christmas Day. [41] They had three children: Marion (1873), Thomas (1876), and William (1878). Mary’s health declined and she died in 1884.

In 1885, while on a trip to New Hampshire with a group of friends, Edison met and proposed to Mina Miller (1865–1947). They married on February 24, 1886, and also had three children: Madeleine (1888), Charles (1890), and Theodore (1898).

Edison’s research spanned a wide range of electrical improvements and inventions, including small electrical appliances for home use, such as a coffeemaker and iron. He received 1,093 patents and won awards that included the French Légion d’Honneur in 1881 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1928. [42] He died on October 18, 1931, at his home in Glenmont, New Jersey.

Further Reading:

DeGraff, Leonard. Edison and the Rise of Innovation . New York: Sterling Signature, 2013.

Jonnes, Jill. Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World . New York: Random House, 2004.

Freeberg, Ernest. The Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America . New York: Penguin Books, 2013.

Morris, Edmund. Edison . New York: Random House, 2019.

Munson, Richard. Tesla: Inventor of the Modern . New York: W.W. Norton, 2018.

Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, Thomas A. Edison Papers Project, http://edison.rutgers.edu/.

Stross, Randall. The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World . New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007.

[1] . Frank Parker Stockbridge, “Rubber from Weeds, My New Goal,” Popular Science Monthly 3, no. 6 (December 1927): 9–11.

[2] . Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, Thomas A. Edison Papers, “The Boyhood Years,” last updated October 28, 2016, http://edison.rutgers.edu/educationinventor.htm#5 .

[3] . Thomas Alva Edison, letter to the pupils of the grammar schools of New Jersey, April 30, 1912, http://edison.rutgers.edu/yearofinno/Oct13/TAE%20to%20Pupils%20of%20Grammar%20School%20of%20NJ_1912-4-30.pdf.

[4] . Rutgers, “The Boyhood Years”; Leonard DeGraff, Edison and the Rise of Innovation (New York: Sterling Signature, 2013), xxi.

[5] . Edison, letter to the pupils.

[6] . DeGraff, Edison and the Rise of Innovation , xxii–xxiii; Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, Thomas A. Edison Papers, “Learning to Do Business: Early Entrepreneurship,” last updated October 28, 2016, http://edison.rutgers.edu/educationinventor.htm#5 .

[7] . Rutgers, “The Boyhood Years.”

[8] . DeGraaf, Edison and the Rise of Innovation , 3.

[9] . Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, Thomas A. Edison Papers, “Stock Ticker,” last updated October 28, 2016, http://edison.rutgers.edu/ticker.htm .

[10] . Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, Thomas A. Edison Papers, “Edison’s Autobiographical Notes,” https://edison.rutgers.edu/yearofinno/TAEBdocs/V1App1_A.pdf , 643.

[11] . Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, Thomas A. Edison Papers, “Newark, N.J., 1870–1875,” last updated October 28, 2016, http://edison.rutgers.edu/educationinventor.htm#5.

[12] . Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, Thomas A. Edison Papers, “Building the Lab,” last updated October 28, 2016, http://edison.rutgers.edu/inventionfactory.htm.

[13] . DeGraaf, Edison and the Rise of Innovation , 22.

[14] . “Edison and His Era: ‘Muckers’ and the Invention Process,” Thomas Edison National Historical Park, last updated February 26, 2015, https://www.nps.gov/edis/learn/kidsyouth/edison-and-his-era.htm .

[15] . Thomas Edison National Historical Park, “The Gifted Men Who Worked for Edison,” National Park Service, last updated February 26, 2015, https://www.nps.gov/edis/learn/kidsyouth/the-gifted-men-who-worked-for-edison.htm.

[16] . “Edison and His Era: ‘Muckers’ and the Invention Process.”

[17] . Edmund Morris, Edison (New York: Random House, 2019), 7.

[18] . Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, Thomas A. Edison Papers, “Tinfoil Phonograph,” last updated October 28, 2016, http://edison.rutgers.edu/tinfoil.htm.

[19] . Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, Thomas A. Edison Papers, “Expanding the Laboratory,” last updated October 28, 2016, http://edison.rutgers.edu/inventionfactory.htm.

[20] . Ernest Freeberg, The Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America (New York: Penguin Books, 2013), 208.

[21] . Munson, Tesla: Inventor of the Modern , 53–54.

[22] . DeGraaf, Edison and the Rise of Innovation , 48; Freeberg, The Age of Edison , 15–17.

[23] . Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, Thomas A. Edison Papers, “Electric Lamp,” last updated October 28, 2016, http://edison.rutgers.edu/lamp.htm.

[24] . Thomas P. Hughes, “The Electrification of America: The System Builders,” Technology and Culture 20, no. 1 (January 1979): 124.

[25] . Jill Jonnes, Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World (New York: Random House, 2004), 4, 80.

[26] . Freeburg, The Age of Edison , 181.

[27] . DeGraaf, Edison and the Rise of Innovation , 90.

[28] . DeGraaf, Edison and the Rise of Innovation , 75, 78–79.

[29] . Morris, Edison , 7, 46.

[30] . DeGraaf, Edison and the Rise of Innovation , 129–30.

[31] . Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, Thomas A. Edison Papers, “Ore Milling,” last updated October 28, 2016, http://edison.rutgers.edu/ore.htm .

[32] . Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, Thomas A. Edison Papers, “Cement,” last updated October 28, 2016, http://edison.rutgers.edu/cement.htm ; Jonnes, Empires of Light , 347–50.

[33] . Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, Thomas A. Edison Papers, “Storage Battery,” last updated October 28, 2016, http://edison.rutgers.edu/battery.htm .

[34] . Jonnes, Empires of Light , 352; Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, Thomas A. Edison Papers, “A Brief Chronology of Edison’s Life,” http://edison.rutgers.edu/brfchron.htm .

[35] . “A Brief Chronology of Edison’s Life.”

[36] . “Thomas Edison’s Vision,” U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, https://www.nrl.navy.mil/about-nrl/history/edison/.

[37] . “A Brief Chronology of Edison’s Life.”

[38] . DeGraaf, Edison and the Rise of Innovation , 200–03.

[39] . New York Botanical Garden, International Plant Science Center, Mertz Library, “Personal Papers, Thomas Alva Edison (1880–1964),” https://sciweb.nybg.org/science2/libr/finding_guide/edison2.asp.html ; Stockbridge, “Rubber from Weeds, My New Goal.”

[40] . Jonnes, Empires of Light , 353.

[41] . DeGraaf, Edison and the Rise of Innovation , 11.

[42] . Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, Thomas A. Edison Papers, “Later Years,” last updated October 28, 2016, http://edison.rutgers.edu/biogrphy.htm ; Jonnes, Empires of Light , 96; “Historical Highlights: Thomas Edison’s Congressional Gold Medal,” History, Art, and Archives, United States House of Representatives, https://history.house.gov/HistoricalHighlight/Detail/36558 .

History of Applied Science & Technology Copyright © 2017 by Karen Garvin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Thomas Alva Edison

It is difficult to imagine the modern world without the contributions of Thomas Alva Edison. Although Edison’s inventions are well known and his place in history firmly established, familiarity with his work doesn’t lessen the awe inspired by it. While many can lay claim to creative genius, few demonstrate the remarkable breadth of Edison’s interests. Fewer still demonstrate Edison’s business insight. His inventions, coupled with a business vision focused on commercial development, gave rise to three major industries: recording, motion pictures, and electric utilities.

Edison was born on 11 February 1847 in Milan, Ohio, the last of seven children. Like many children during that era, Edison had little formal education. During his early youth his mother taught him at home. As he grew older he became more self-directed in his reading and sought out scientific books and technical journals.

Born to modest means, Edison began his working life early. At age thirteen he took a job as a newsboy on the local railroad. At the age of sixteen, acting on his interest in telegraphy, he found full-time work as a telegraph operator. In 1868 Edison settled in Boston and began his transformation from itinerant telegrapher to world-class inventor. In that year Edison received his first patent—an electric vote recorder intended for use by elected bodies to speed the voting process. Although Edison’s instincts were noble, the machine was a commercial failure. For the rest of his career Edison focused on inventions that had strong commercial appeal, and therefore the potential of financial reward.

In 1869, Edison moved to New York City, and it was there that he made an improved stock ticker . With the money generated by the stock ticker’s success, Edison set up his first laboratory and manufacturing facility at Ward Street, Newark, New Jersey. After several years, Edison left Newark for the small village of Menlo Park, New Jersey. At Menlo Park , Edison created the first industrial research laboratory, which contained equipment and materials necessary to work on any idea that might pique his interest. Akin to an inventor’s playground, the lab at Menlo Park became the prototype for later, modern research and development (R & D) facilities such as the famous Bell Laboratories . The Menlo Park Laboratory was followed in 1887 by a laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey. This complex consisted of five buildings which housed, among other things, a power plant, machine shops, a physics lab, a chemistry lab, and a metallurgy lab. Over the years, factories to manufacture Edison inventions were built around the laboratory. At its peak during World War I, the complex covered more than twenty acres and employed 10,000 people.

With everything he needed on hand in his laboratories, Edison launched a flurry of creative and business activity that earned him the nickname “The Wizard of Menlo Park.” His first great invention (and, he once said, his favorite) was the phonograph , the first device that could record and reproduce sound. His invention found a receptive public and Edison became internationally famous. His companies manufactured both the phonograph as well as the wax cylinders and, later, the disks, that the phonograph played. In one of the rare cases of Edison shortsightedness, he refused to acknowledge the growing popularity of disc records in the early 1900s. While other companies, such as Columbia, made both discs and cylinders and let consumers make the choice, Edison stuck with the cylinder far too long. Eventually, his declining market share forced him to introduce a disc record in 1912.

The second of the Edison-created industries was that of electric power generation and distribution. Edison developed practical electrical lighting and, in essence, ushered in the electrical age. Edison’s monumental achievement was not the invention of the incandescent light bulb, for which he is often mistakenly credited, but rather the invention of a complete system of electric light and power and the launching of the modern electric utility industry. Pearl Street Station , which opened in lower Manhattan in September 1882 featured safe and reliable central power generation, efficient distribution, and a successful end use (i.e., the long-lasting incandescent light bulb and electric motors developed by Edison), all at a competitive price. The one-square mile lit up by the Pearl Street station demonstrated the potential of electric power.

In the 1890s, Edison began working on motion picture technology, and in the process helped to create a third industry. Edison began commercial production of short movies in 1893, often filming in the famous “Black Maria,” the first motion picture studio. Like the electric light and phonograph before it, Edison developed a complete system that encompassed everything needed to both film and show motion pictures. Although Edison’s work in motion pictures was pioneering, the industry quickly became so competitive that Edison left the business.

Edison’s inventions bought him great fame and wealth. A savvy publicist, Edison carefully cultivated a public image of eccentric genius combined with common man. By the dawn of the twentieth century Edison had become an icon of American ingenuity. During the last years of his life, Edison’s health deteriorated and on 18 October 1931, he died at the age of 84.

The following minute, adopted by the Institute's board of directors shortly after Mr. Edison's death, indicates briefly the tremendous scope of his activity: "The physical life of Thomas Alva Edison, world benefactor, ended on Sunday, October 18, 1931. The spiritual benefits of his contributions to humanity continue to live. His genius, vision, patience, persistence, industry, and widely diversified talents, which brought to fruition many of his conceptions, have contributed greatly to the comfort, convenience, and happiness of mankind, and his achievements constitute a great incentive and inspiration to those who follow. In particular, his invention of the incandescent electric lamp and his conception, more than 50 years ago, of the combination of a central generating station with a suitable distributing system for electrical energy, firmly establish him as the founder of the electric lighting industry of the world. He was the outstanding world leader in the group of inventors, scientists, and engineers whose achievements in technology have produced great social and economic benefits, including the employment, in useful occupations throughout the civilized world, of tens of thousands of men and women. He was respected and admired by his associates who cherish their memory of his ability, simplicity, and other personal characteristics. Mr. Edison was, in 1884, one of the signers of the call for the organization meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, and he was elected a vice-president at the first election of officers; later he was elected an Honorary Member. His achievements caused a group of his associates and friends to establish the Edison Medal, which is now awarded annually by this Institute."

John W. Howell and John W. Lieb.

Stock Ticker

Photo credit: Richard Warren Lipack / Wikimedia Commons. The evolution of Edison's incandescent electric light bulb and socket - 1880-1881. Left to right: First form "1880 Wire Terminal Base" socket and bulb as used on the S.S. Columbia - first commercial installation of Edison electric lighting system; Second form "1880 Wire Terminal Base" socket and bulb; "1880 Original Screw Base" socket and bulb and the "1881 Improved Screw Base" socket and light bulb.

"Edison Chemical Meter" for reading power

Photo credit: Richard Warren Lipack / Wikimedia Commons. Detail of original Edison chandelier with first form "1880 Wire Terminal Base" sockets and incandescent lamps behind "Edison Pioneer" and 'Edisonian' author Francis Jehl.

Photo credit: Richard Warren Lipack / Wikimedia Commons. Table card obverse reads: "Banquet by the American Electricians in honor of the Foreign Official Delegates to the International Electrical Congress" held at The Grand Pacific Hotel, Chicago, Illinois on 24 August 1893. Signatories include General Electric co-founders Elihu Thomson and Thomas A. Edison. Event occurred as Tesla Polyphase A.C. electrical system was introduced at 1893 Chicago Columbian Expo as effort to aid D.C. direct current faction cause in face of new Tesla Polyphase A.C. system soon to supplant it.

Photo credit: Richard Warren Lipack / Wikimedia Commons. Table card verso bearing printed inscription reading: "The Grand Pacific Hotel - Chicago, Thursday, August 24th, 1893," for banquet held in Chicago, Illinois by the American Electricians in honor of the Foreign Official Delegates to the International Electrical Congress. Signatories include H.Helmholtz, A. Palaz and T. A. Edison. Provenance is estate of Thomas A. Edison.

Upstairs at Thomas Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory (removed to Greenfield Village) Note the organ against the back wall. Photo by Andrew Balet

Edison's Electrographic Vote Recorder

Photo credit: Richard Warren Lipack / Wikimedia Commons. Westinghouse Corporation Tesla based Polyphase A.C. electric light display shown in foreground dominating Edison-Thomson General Electric Company D.C. / direct current based electric lighting display at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

Edison Movie Projector

Black Maria Movie Studio

Further Reading

• Thomas Alva Edison Historic Site at Menlo Park, 1876 - Edison's site in Menlo Park was recognized as an IEEE Milestone
• Thomas A. Edison West Orange Laboratories and Factories, 1887 - Edison's laboratory in West Orange was recognized as an IEEE Milestone
• Papers of Thomas Edison - correspondence, records and ephemera, 1926 - 1947
• Thomas Edison at Menlo Park
• Thomas Edison's Children
• Edison and Ore Refining
• Edison's Electric Light and Power System
• Edison and Motion Pictures
• Edison's Alkaline Battery
• Edison's Electric Pen
• Edison Effect
• Edison's Incandescent Lamp
• Biographies
• Power distribution

• Scientific Methods
• Famous Physicists
• Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison

Thomas Alva Edison, being one of the most creative inventors of all time, was considered a true gem in the world of inventions. He also spent a significant part of his life giving contributions to the world of designs that had an incredible influence on modern life. The creation of the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera, as well as improving the workings of telegraph and the telephone, were some of his astonishing inventions. Thomas Alva Edison was also a successful businessman and innovator who managed to change the lifestyle of people through his essential innovations and improvements in a wide range of fields.

Table of Contents

About thomas alva edison, education, career and achievements, the invention of the light bulb, the phonograph.

• Edison’s Contribution in the Field of Electricity

Thomas Alva Edison was the phenomenal American inventor who holds the world-record of 1093 patents. Also, he created the world’s first industrial research laboratory. Edison was born on 11th February 1847, in Milan, Ohio – U.S.

Edison’s patents and numerous inventions contributed significantly to mass communications and telecommunications. Stock ticker, phonograph, the practical electric light bulb , motion picture camera, mechanical vote recorder and a battery for the electric car were some of his notable inventions.

He sold newspapers to passengers traveling along the Grand Trunk Railroad line during his early years. This led him to start his own newspaper named as the ‘Grand Trunk Herald’. The access to up-to-date information in this newspaper became quite a hit between the masses. Also, it was the first of the many more to come business ventures by Edison.

• Thomas Alva Edison always had a thrust of knowledge within him, and due to that, at an early age, he started reading a wide range of books and different subjects. 
• Edison’s higher education did not include any university or attending college; instead, he was primarily self-taught. 
• The absence of a well-defined curriculum led him to develop the skill of self-education and independent learning, which remained with him all his life.
• He began his career as an inventor when he moved to New York. 
• He devoted the decade of the 1870s to conducting experiments on the telephone, phonograph, electric railway, electric lighting, and other developing inventions. 
• His first round of fame was brought by the design of the phonograph in 1877, which took his status to greater heights. 
• He formed Edison Electric Light Company in 1878 in New York City.
• Achievement:
• He was felicitated with several awards and medals for his generous contribution to humankind. 
• Some of them include the Distinguished Service Medal by the U.S. Navy and Congressional Gold Medal by the U.S. Also, he was decorated with the  “Officer of the Legion of Honour”  by France. 
• He was welcomed into the New Jersey Hall of Fame and Entrepreneur Walk of Fame.

The greatest challenge faced by Thomas Alva Edison was to develop a practical luminous, electric light. He accomplished this using lower current electricity , an improved vacuum inside the globe and a small carbonized filament which is a stitched thread that burned for thirteen and a half hours. He was successful in producing a reliable, long-lasting source of light.

Did Edison really invent the light bulb?

The tinfoil Phonograph was Thomas Edison’s first greatest invention in 1877. It was the first machine to record and play a person’s voice. Edison recited the rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on a tin cylinder that captured the recording.

He also recommended other uses for the phonograph, such as letter writing and dictation, record music boxes, etc. Edison’s device phonograph played using cylinders rather than discs. It consisted of two needles, one for recording and one for playback.

Edison’s contribution in the field of electricity

A system of conductors , meters, current switches, etc. was designed by Edison as he knew that his light bulb invention would be ineffective without a proper method to deliver electricity. Edison improved the designs of generators, which led him to invent more efficient power output generators than the existing ones at that time. Hence, this was marked as the beginning of the electric age.

For more such interesting articles, stay tuned to BYJU’S. Also, register to “BYJU’S – The Learning App” for loads of interactive, engaging Physics-related videos and an unlimited academic assist.

Frequently Asked Questions

Name some of the incredible inventions of thomas alva edison..

Thomas Alva Edison is famous for his incredible inventions like the light bulb, phonograph and motion picture cameras.

How did Thomas Alva Edison invent the lightbulb?

Edison invented the light bulb by passing electricity through a thin platinum filament packed inside a glass vacuum bulb.

What is a filament?

A filament is a metallic thin wire or thread inside a bulb that lights up when electricity is passed through it.

What is a phonograph?

It is a form of gramophone using cylinders to record and reproduce sounds.

How many times did Thomas Alva Edison fail while inventing the light bulb?

Thomas Alva Edison made 1000 unsuccessful attempts before getting the final result.

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Productions

For more than four decades, we have avoided being labled, as “Historical; Art; Industrial; etc. - Producers”. Instead, we have chosen to document the many fascinating aspects of our society, in as many inventive ways, as possible.

Our stories are about people, institutions and events in the Arts; Dance; Music; Business and Industry; Education; Health; Science and Medicine; Journalism; Crime and Punishment; our History and our Future.

A Sampling from that range of subjects and hundreds of films, follows:

AMERICA 9 Min; pgp inc/Magnum Films This photo-animated production orchestrated to a special composed version of “America the Beautiful”, was the centerpiece of a traveling exhibition of photographs by Americas’ greatest photographers titled “America In Crisis”. Gold Medals from the Atlanta International Film Festival and the Moscow Film Festival.

THE AMERICAN LEGEND 29 min CBS News, Public Affairs Department This program was a kaleidoscopic look at the American’s rich legacy of folk music with Oscar Brand; its folk legends, art and crafts. This series pilot received the Thomas Alva Edison Mass Media Award..

AT THE MET: CURATORS CHOICES 29 Min ABC Video Enterprises/ The Metropolitan Museum of Art This film used an exhibition in which Curators have spent no more than $5000 for works of art, as the vehicle to explore the interior world of the Curator, Who are they and how do they think and why to they make the decisions they do to add to the Museum’s collection.

AT THE MET: GARDENS & FLOWERS 29 Min ABC Video Enterprises/ The Metropolitan Museum of Art How flowers and gardens have inspired artists throughout history is explored in this film from paintings, pottery and the huge floral displays in the main hall, to the living medieval garden and unicorn tapestry in the Met’s Cloisters.

AT THE MET: OLMSTEAD AND CENTRAL PARK 29 Min ABC Video Enterprises/ The Metropolitan Museum of Art Using an exhibit in the Museum about landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead as a springboard, this film explored how Olmstead created the work of art around the Metropolitan Museum - Central Park.

AT THE MET: THE TOURNAMENT 29 Min ABC Video Enterprises/ The Metropolitan Museum of Art One of the world’s largest collections of arms and armor from the age of chivalry is located in the Met. The film highlights the jewels of the collection and the role of the Knights and the Tournament The film dispels old myths while giving surprising meaning to others.

THE BALLET 16 Min New York City Ballet Company In a unique blending of still photography, shot by the gifted photographer, Ernst Haas, high-speed photography and conventional filming, this film is a beautiful, visual essay about the creation of a ballet dancer, transformed from a child at the bar to the elegance of a finished dancer. This wordless film, built to the music of Bizet’s Symphony in C, concludes with the entire New York City Ballet Company on stage, choreographed by George Balanchine.

BEGINNINGS 3 Min Sesame Street/Children’s Television Workshop This film uses clay and a potter and her wheel to explore the idea.that all things have a beginning and often change their shapes in time,

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS 29 Min CBS News & Public Affairs The first fully photo-animated film on the Network. Torn between the government’s effort to get Native Americans off their reservations and into the cities of the country and their strong cultural ties to their Tribes, we moved onto the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to live with and document the conflicted life for these young Oglala Sioux and their families.

CBS REPORTS: THE BUSINESS OF HEROIN 60 Min This film traveled from the poppy fields of the Far East to the laboratories in Marseille to the bust of a drug dealer on the streets of New York, filmed with hidden cameras.

CHANGE: HANDLE WITH CARE 28 Min Fortune Magazine Featuring the country’s leading business and industrial leaders, journalists and social critics, this film challenged the businessman to respond to the forces of change in the country.

CHINA: A PORTRAIT OF THE LAND 18 Min Encyclopedia Britannica Films Gaining access to China, which had been closed to western journalists for years, through a Swiss colleague, Rene Burri, we were able to explore six major regions. They included Manchuria, North China, South China, Inner Mongolia, Sinkiang Province, and Tibet.

CHINA’S VILLAGES 18 Min Encyclopedia Britannica Films A portrait of life in three villages, one south of Shanghai, the second in Sinkiang Province and the third in Mongolia.

CHINA’S INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 18 Min Encyclopedia Britannica Films Explored the changes in China’s efforts to modernize its industrial production and the early failures resulting from Mau Tze-Tung's policies.

CLINICAL DEPRESSION: University of Pennsylvania/Pfizer Laboratories Studies showed that many primary care physicians were not recognizing that the signs and symbols of Depression. We were asked for a communication solution and we recommended using television as a medium to reach the physicians. We created a course that included, a monograph on the History of Depression and two documentaries. The Department of Psychiatry of the University of Pennsylvania created a treatment manual and an exam for the physicians that enabled them to earn continuing education credits. 18 thousand Physicians took the course.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES 29 Min To tell the story of 20 centuries of painful misunderstanding about the true nature of depression, we filmed evocative scenes, in Greece, Italy, Germany, France, Belgium and the United States, to represent periods of that history, with many different voices reading from works that reflected the attitudes towards depression of that time – and treatment.

CLINICAL DEPRESSION: CURRENT CONCEPTS 29 min University of Pennsylvania/Pfizer Laboratories Psychiatric experts and their current patients and those who have seen “light at the end of the tunnel” are all part of this tough, but encouraging and hopeful documentary

COMPANY FOR LUNCH 26 Min Xerox The goal was to convey to viewers that Xerox was a company you could bet on for your future. We chose an annual meeting held in the country’s largest circus tent to tell their story. With unlimited access, and using our photo-animated technique we had a team of six of the world’s finest photographers and four sound reporters to document the expected and unexpected dramatic confrontations with some shareholders. We had 28 hours of sound and 10,000 photographs to create the film. The result was filled with some very funny moments and a great portrait of its President, Joe Wilson. The New York Times wrote: “Xerox should make extra copies of this marvelous film”.

THE COOL REBELLION 29 Min CBS News, Public Affairs Department To tell the story of the “Beat Generation” we lived in and documented the scene in Greenwich Village in New York City, Venice Beach in Los Angeles and North Beach in San Francisco, meeting with poets, musicians, artists and leaders, like Alan Ginsberg and Kenneth Rexroth. We also met with their followers, living in their shadows, who were opting out of the “straight” world.

THE DEATH PENALTY AND CARYL CHESSMAN 29 Min CBS News, Public Affairs Department An examination of the pros and cons of capital punishment, with special focus on Caryl Chessman, who had been sentenced to death despite having committed no capital crime. The program included a chilling visit to the Death cells in San Quentin Prison and the gas chamber, in which Chessman was executed one month after the program aired.

GRAND ROUNDS 29 Min CBS News, Public Affairs Department The first pilot program on the network that was dedicated to reporting on health and medicine. It included a segment on organ transplants from Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, the first hospital in the United States to have a successful human organ transplant.

HEALTHY LIVING TV Series 12 Hours Many of the physicians and nurses of the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, one of the country’s 100 leading Medical Centers, are the stars in this series that puts a human face on medical care and information. The series captures the drama of the Emergency Room to watching an Interventional Radiologist enter the brain of a wide-awake 79-year-old woman to prevent an inevitable stroke.

YOU’RE NOT ALONE 14 Min TO LIVE 16 Min Cooley’s Anemia Foundation Thalassemia is the name of a group of genetic blood disorders. The red blood cells do not form properly and cannot carry sufficient oxygen. The result is anemia that begins in early childhood and lasts throughout life, which for a long time, very brief. Our series of films was designed to inform the public raise funds for research and provide comfort and hope to families confronted with this problem.

HIGH RISK YOUNG PEOPLE 5 Min Robert Wood Johnson Foundation A powerful statement underscoring the frustration of young men and women fighting drug addiction and health issues and the many different agencies and clinics they have to go to, to find help. The film was used to announce The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s “one stop” health program for ;young people, in Monte Fiore Hospital in New York City.

INDIAN CHILDREN GAMES 6 Min Sesame Street/Children’s Television Workshop Kids are kids wherever they may be. They may call it street hockey in New York City and shinny stick on the Santa Anna Pueblo in New Mexico, but, it produces the same excitement in both places and conveys the message that there are more things we share in life than the differences.

INDIAN SUMMER 29 Min Ford Foundation This film documents the life of one family living on the Santa Anna Pueblo in New Mexico. The main focus is with the children, their friends and very special grandfather. It’s a summer of fun and work, helping their Dad build a new room on their room and tending the garden where Grandpa shows them how to use his “magic, corn growing powder. He also takes his grandchildren to ancient Kivas and teaches them to dance and sing native songs.

INDIAN TO INDIAN 24 Min INDIAN FOR A CHANGE 25 Min US Department of Labor These films profiled Native Americans from tribes and pueblos in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and California who have pursued their education and have achieved responsible jobs in many different professions. The films were designed to encourage other Native Americans to take the same paths.

KEEP ME SAFE 14 Min Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital The death of a nurses’ baby resulting from a boy friend who tried to quiet the child’s crying by violently shaking it, serves as the dramatic story of the Shaken Baby Syndrome. The message that care must be taken in the choice of caregivers is unmistakable. The film is part of an ongoing educational program in Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital in Loma Linda, California and others medical institutions around the country for professionals and Mothers.

IT ONLY TAKES A MINUTE Series of :60 &:30 spots Prevent Child Abuse California The line “It only takes a minute” – to listen to a chlld, was the key phrase for a public service campaign to prevent child abuse, The key performers were non-professional children talking about the things in their lives that make them feel secure and loved.

LANDSCAPE 28 Min The Wall Street Journal This portrait of The Wall Street Journal took the unusual approach of not focusing on the “business” newspaper, but rather’ the quality of its marvelous writing throughout its pages, in essays, reviews, off beat funny stories and outstanding profiles of people and places. Six stories were selected, and they included “The most innovate town in America” and a beautiful essay of a reporter searching his family’s roots in Minnesota.

LIFE IN MOTION 7 Min Howard Hughes Medical Institute “Life in Motion” tells how one group of teachers came together to revitalize their classrooms. They participated in a summer biology institute of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, supported by HHMI. Short and inspirational, the film shows how teachers can work with scientists to help students discover the excitement of today’s biology

MATING & DATING AT THE SAN DIEGO ZOO 8 Min IBM To insure that the beautiful, baby Snow Leopard at the San Diego Zoo will never be mated with any relative, a data bank of endangered species and their locations, has been created and is stored in IBM computers in Zoos located throughout the world

MORE THAN A DREAM: Series 1 ½ Hours BEING YOUR OWN BOSS RAISING THE MONEY RUNNING YOUR OWN BUSINESS US Department of Labor The most comprehensive series on entrepreneurship ever played on PBS. The series debuted at a White House Conference on small business and featured President Jimmy Carter - as a peanut farmer.

MUSEUM WITHOUT WALLS; HENRY MOORE IN NEW YORK 29 Min Blue Hill Cultural Center George & Virginia Abla, avid collectors of sculptures by Henry Moore lent New York City, 15 monumental works by the sculptor, to be located in public places, like Central Park and the Bronx Zoo. This film documents that experience, from the first installation, the confrontation with the public to Henry Moore’s reaction, filmed at his home in England, to those who called his works abstract. “Abstract, abstract? You can knock your head against them. I don’t know what they’re talking about!”

TO PROTECT A CHILD 25 Min Robert Wood Johnson Foundation The documentation of a 10-city demonstration project, conducted over several years, was designed to determine what kind of dental program would be best to protect children from dental decay. The use of fluorides and sealants were among the preventive treatments studied.

NOT SO WILD A DREAM 27 Min Howard Hughes Medical Institute This film features minority men and women who have achieved great success in the sciences, like the first Native American, a Navaho, to have earned a PhD from the University of California, Berkley, The goal was to encourage other minorities to continue their education and consider science as a career. In addition to PBS telecasts, over 50,00 copies of the film were requested by schools throughout the country.

NOW GOD SPEAKS TZELTAL 23 Min Wycliffe Bible Translators From the jungles of Chiapas in Mexico, we tell the story of two women, one a nurse and the other a linguist, who creates a written language, where none existed, for the Mayan Tzeltal Indians. We capture the last stage of 20 years of work, when “the word” - the Bibles - are flown in from Mexico and given to the Indians and the woman leave to start all over again with another tribe in Columbia, South America. The films used a combination of still photographs, by Cornell Capa, and live action footage.

PEOPLE WITH PURPOSE 18 Min IBM The theme for the year was productivity. We proposed that the question to follow should be, “To what extent are we using the earth’s resources productively”. We filmed three stories to get that answer. In Mexico, we filmed Norman Borlaug, who won a Nobel prize for his creation of a wheat that would grow in the desert; Sylvia Earle, the world’ first woman aquanaut, who was studying farming in the sea; and Robert Reines, who created a village powered only by the sun and wind in New Mexico

PRECIOUS MEMORIES 9 Min St. Christopher’s This film celebrates the “Precious Memories” that the St. Christopher summer camps provide to the inner city children. Days of fun, love and affection from a wonderful staff.

PORTRAIT/PERSONAL STORY Series’ CBS News, Public Affairs Department Over 400 programs featuring many of the most outstanding men and women in the world, National leaders, actors, philosophers, musicians, composers, writers, speaking with candor and introspection on a host of subjects, from childhood memories to the reasons for their success.

THE UNITY OF PICASSO’S ART: PROFESSOR MEYER SCHAPIRO 92 Min Metropolitan Museum of Art The Director of a world class Museum spoke for many when he said, “Our Mothers taught us how to walk, but Professor Meyer Schapiro taught us how to see!” Through innovative use of computer graphics a gallery of Picasso paintings was created so that one of the Columbia University Professor’s most famous lectures would be transformed into a film, to preserve forever his extraordinary insights.

REFLECTIONS 28 Min American Bank & Trust To celebrate the Bi-Centennial in Pennsylvania, we created an affectionate portrait of the people and the extraordinary diversity in 5 of its counties. Filming for an entire year, we went from the coal fields in Schuylkill, to the Amish farms of Lebanon and Lancaster, to the steel mills of Montgomery to the urban Berks filming people and events with the sound track dedicated entirely to the people’s voices.

REFLECTIONS BY ROBERT FROST 29 Min CBS News, Public Affairs Department Friendship, magnanimity and the subject of good neighbors was Robert Frost’s subject in this solo tour de force.

SHARING A VISION 29 Min Frederick Weisman Foundation Eager to share his passion for contemporary art with the world. Collector Fred Weisman had an exhibit created from his collection and then sent it around the world. This film documents that experience and its affect upon visitors in Jerusalem, Anchorage, Alaska, Los Angeles and Tokyo. It also visits the studios of some of the artists, like Christo, Alex Katz and Ed Ruscha for their views on collectors and collecting.

TAKE JOY 13 Min American Cancer Society Instead of a conventional anti-smoking film, we created a film designed to have children celebrate the systems of their body that made life so much fun, running, swimming under water, eating, jumping. The principle narrated line was “You have one body, and only one body, that will be with you for the rest of your life. So Take Joy in Life, take joy in yourself!

THE HIDDEN REVOLUTION 3 Hours CBS News, Public Affairs Department Narrated by Edward R. Murrow, this series examined the changes in society, in all aspects of life, as viewed by leading educators, philosophers, writers, journalists and politicians

THE LAST JOURNEY 29 min World Jewish Congress Still photographs documenting what remained of Jewish life in the Soviet Union were smuggled out of the country to the United States. They were taken by two journalists, one a Professor of Philosophy, Nodar Djindjihashvili, a perilous journey covering thousands of miles across the Soviet Untion. Utilizing the photo-animated technique and live action footage of Nodar, we created a film was featured on the CBS Network and nominated for an Emmy.

THE OPEN BLUEPRINT 18 Min IBM This film dramatized the transformation of IBM from being a hardware company, just selling computers to one providing services as a main source of income.

THE TRUETT CATHY STORY 43 Min Chick-filj-A The life story of an original Horatio Alger who, with little education, created a boneless breast of chicken sandwich and with it a chain of fast food stores called Chick-fil-A that has defined the true meaning of quality and service and earns two billion dollars in annual sales. The underlying story of this businessman//philanthropist is his unshakable faith in God and commitment to be a good steward to the rewards he has received and has given..

THE UK REPORT 24 Min American Express To dramatize the positive role that American Express plays in the host countries in which it operates, we selected the UK and covered three events sponsored by Amex to make that point. The first was an exhibit of Picasso’s drawings in the National Gallery, the second was a school created to train young men and women for jobs in the travel industry. And finally, a marvelous program of music in the great cathedrals of England with the London Festival Orchestra.

THIS WAY UP 22 Min The Fashion Institute of Technology A portrait of the most important school for the fashion industry in the world used as a fund raising tool to help build the great complex. The film used our photo-animated technique, with photographs shot by the gifted Bruce Davidson and a sound track drawn entirely from actuality sound of the staff and students.

TO TOUCH THEIR HEARTS 18 Min Westchester Holocaust Commission In a moving encounter, two Holocaust survivors, Sol Hubert, Jack Polak and rescuer, Dr. Tina Strobos, share their experiences with a class of High School Students. Sol was separated from his parents as a child and would never see them again. Jack survived a concentrayion camp and Tina faced death from the Gestapo for her efforts saving Jews. The Commission is decicated to keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive and its lessons alive.

TODAY’S HEALTH Series 7 Hours After acquiring the rights to the American Medical Association’s consumer magazine we syndicated a television series. In addition to news about the latest developments in medicine, the series featured celebrities who had various confrontations with health issues, Peter Sellers, Lloyd Nolan, Dina Merrill, Eunice Kennedy

HEALTHY LIVING Series 12 Hours Many of the physicians and nurses of the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, one of the country’s 100 leading Medical Centers, are the stars in this series that puts a human face on medical care and information. The series captures the drama of the Emergency Room to watching an Interventional Radiologist enter the brain of a wide-awake 79-year-old woman to prevent an inevitable stroke.

UNRAVELING THE TRAGEDY AT BHOPAL INDIA 25 Min Union Carbide An investigative documentary that sought to identify the cause of the most tragic industrial event in history. The most dramatic moment came with the testimony of a former worker, filmed in Calcutta, India, who identified the act of sabotage that triggered the explosive release of the poison gas from the Union Carbide plant, that affected and killed thousands.

VALLEY FORGE: NO FOOD, NO SOLDIER! 13 Min The New York Times No history books about the Revolution for children acknowledged that the cry, “No Food, No Soldier” was heard in Valley Forge. This revisionist film dispels the myth that all were heroes in Pennsylvania. Without phony heroics, the film tells the story of that terrible winter and recovery in Valley Forge in the words of those who suffered, making the experience truly come alive, making them true heroes of the Revolution. Our costumed soldiers were only treated as soft focus “ghosts”.

YORKTOWN: THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN 13 Min The New York Times In the same spirit and with the same kind of evocative photography, “soldiers” and use of contemporary accounts of the event as in Valley Forge: No Food, No Soldier, this film tells the story of the final battle of the Revolution, both on land and with the rescuing French fleet on the high seas, as well.

VOYAGES: JOURNEY OF THE MAGI 28 Min The Metropolitan Museum of Art/ABC Video Enterprises Series pilot that is premised on the idea that every work of art is the beginning of a journey. Filmed in Israel, the program followed the journey of the three Magi to Bethlehem and their escaping from Herod by leaving from the Roman seaport of Caesarea.

WHEN A CHILD DIES 15 Min Parents Magazine This film was designed to provide understanding about the needs of parents who have had a child die. While each of the three parents featured have lost a child for different reasons, an accident in one case, cancer in another instance and sudden infant death in the third, the film makes it absolutely clear that they all share the same pain and that simple acts, often mistakenly avoided, like not mentioning the child in conversation, is exactly what each parent wants to hear. For the parent – it means the child isn’t forgotten.

XAVIER EXPERIENCE 18 Min The Howard Hughes Medical Institute Xavier University is located in New Orleans and was created in the turn of the 20th Century to serve minorities. The University. is still giving black students an outstanding education and has produced more minority Doctors and Dentists than any other school in the country.

XEROX IN CONCERT 15 Min Xerox The challenge: Tell the story of a world -wide company selling many goods and services. The solution: Send an outstanding Swiss photojournalist, Rene Burri, to travel the world shooting Xerox people conducting similar activities in ways that reflected ther native countries. Select from the thousands of photos less than a hundred and photo-animate them to Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos. The result: A one-of-a-kind award winning film.

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MOSCOW WIDENS NEW POLICY LINE; Essay, Scored During Rule of Khrushchev, Praised for View of Hard Rural Life

MOSCOW, Dec. 26—A growing reversal of the policies of former Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev, especially in agriculture, was‐extended today to the field of literary criticism.

The literary‐union newspaper Literaturnaya Gazeta published a laudatory review of Yefim Dorosh's essay “Half Rain, Half Sunshine,” which gives what is widely regarded as a realistic depiction of the countryside of central European Russia.

The essay, published last summer in the liberal literary monthly Novy Mir, was violently attacked in the Soviet press just before Mr. Khrushchev's overthrow in October as misrepresenting life in rural areas.

One critique, by L. Lebedev, a collective farm chairman from the Galich area northeast of Moscow, appeared in Selskaya Zhizn (Rural Life), the farm newspaper of the Communist party's Central Committee over whose content Mr. Khrushchev had direct control.

Mr. Lebedev charged Mr. Dorosh with conveying a picture of “prerevolutionary dreariness, despondency, stagnation, and complete hopelessness drifting from every page.”

The farm chairman accused the author of concentrating attention “on an old monastery, an ancient lake, an abandoned grave of some count instead of writing, say, about the new widescreen moviehouse.”

Mr. Lebedev said Mr. Dorosh had misrepresented the cultural level of farm youth and the rural intelligentsia by depicting them as “primitive, uneducated people without interest in literature or the arts.”

Mr. Dorosh had written that the residents of his fictitious country town of Raigorod “read little, went, to be sure, to the movies, but had not been in the regional museum, in the picture gallery, in the theater or at the philharmonic concert.”

Today's review in Literaturnaya Gazeta by Vladimir Voronov, a critic, contended that Mr. Dorosh had performed a useful service by drawing attention to problems that continued to bedevil Soviet agriculture and life in the countryside.

The essay, published while Mr. Khrushchev was still in power, questioned the effectiveness of some reforms inspired by the former Premier and criticized the continuing close supervision of farm production and the imposition of output plans from above.

In an evident allusion to Mr. Khrushchev's style of running Soviet agriculture, Mr. Voronov wrote:

“Dorosh regards the struggle for a growth of the rural economy not as a short‐lived, noisy campaign but as a long, complicated haul.”

Mr. Voronov assailed the farm chairman for having judged the essay simply on the basis that his own area was more prosperous than the one pictured in “Half Rain, Half Sunshine.”

The reviewer said it was not literary criticism to say:

“We live better” and to tell “about a milkmaid who had obtained 800 quarts of milk more from a cow than in the previous year.”

The controversial essay is part of a series of “rural diaries” that Mr. Dorosh, a resident of Moscow, has been writing since 1956 on the basis of periodic visits to an unidentified small town and the surrounding countryside in central Russia.

Ch. 9 The Development of Russia

Ivan i and the rise of moscow, learning objective.

• Outline the key points that helped Moscow become so powerful and how Ivan I accomplished these major victories
• Moscow was considered a small trading outpost under the principality of Vladimir-Suzdal into the 13th century.
• Power struggles and constant raids under the Mongol Empire’s Golden Horde caused once powerful cities, such as Kiev, to struggle financially and culturally.
• Ivan I utilized the relative calm and safety of the northern city of Moscow to entice a larger population and wealth to move there.
• Alliances between Golden Horde leaders and Ivan I saved Moscow from many of the raids and destruction of other centers, like Tver.

A rival city to Moscow that eventually lost favor under the Golden Horde.

Grand Prince of Vladimir

The title given to the ruler of this northern province, where Moscow was situated.

The Rise of Moscow

Moscow was only a small trading outpost in the principality of Vladimir-Suzdal in Kievan Rus’ before the invasion of Mongol forces during the 13th century. However, due to the unstable environment of the Golden Horde, and the deft leadership of Ivan I at a critical time during the 13th century, Moscow became a safe haven of prosperity during his reign. It also became the new seat of power of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Ivan I (also known as Ivan Kalita) was born around 1288 to the Prince of Moscow, Daniil Aleksandrovich. He was born during a time of devastation and upheaval in Rus’. Kiev had been overtaken by the invading Mongol forces in 1240, and most of the Rus’ principalities had been absorbed into the Golden Horde of the Mongol Empire by the time Ivan was born. He ascended to the seat of Prince of Moscow after the death of his father, and then the death of his older brother Yury.

Ivan I. He was born around 1288 and died in either 1340 or 1341, still holding the title of Grand Prince of Vladimir.

Ivan I stepped into a role that had already been expanded by his predecessors. Both his older brother and his father had captured nearby lands, including Kolomna and Mozhaisk. Yury had also made a successful alliance with the Mongol leader Uzbeg Khan and married his sister, securing more power and advantages within the hierarchy of the Golden Horde.

Ivan I continued the family tradition and petitioned the leaders of the Golden Horde to gain the seat of Grand Prince of Vladimir. His other three rivals, all princes of Tver, had previously been granted the title in prior years. However they were all subsequently deprived of the title and all three aspiring princes also eventually ended up murdered. Ivan I, on the other hand, garnered the title from Khan Muhammad Ozbeg in 1328. This new title, which he kept until his death around 1340, meant he could collect taxes from the Russian lands as a ruling prince and position his tiny city as a major player in the Vladimir region.

Moscow’s Rise

During this time of upheaval, the tiny outpost of Moscow had multiple advantages that repositioned this town and set it up for future prosperity under Ivan I. Three major contributing factors helped Ivan I relocate power to this area:

• It was situated in between other major principalities on the east and west so it was often protected from the more devastating invasions.
• This relative safety, compared to Tver and Ryazan, for example, started to bring in tax-paying citizens who wanted a safe place to build a home and earn a livelihood.
• Finally, Moscow was set up perfectly along the trade route from Novgorod to the Volga River, giving it an economic advantage from the start.

Ivan I also spurred on the growth of Moscow by actively recruiting people to move to the region. In addition, he bought the freedom of people who had been captured by the extensive Mongol raids. These recruits further bolstered the population of Moscow. Finally, he focused his attention on establishing peace and routing out thieves and raiding parties in the region, making for a safe and calm metaphorical island in a storm of unsettled political and military upsets.

Kievan Rus’ 1220-1240. This map illustrates the power dynamics at play during the 13th century shortly before Ivan I was born. Sarai, the capital of the Golden Horde, sat to the southeast, while Moscow (not visible on this map) was tucked up in the northern forests of Vladimir-Suzdal.

Ivan I knew that the peace of his region depended upon keeping up an alliance with the Golden Horde, which he did faithfully. Moscow’s increased wealth during this era also allowed him to loan money to neighboring principalities. These regions then became indebted to Moscow, bolstering its political and financial position.

In addition, a few neighboring cities and villages were subsumed into Moscow during the 1320s and 1330s, including Uglich, Belozero, and Galich. These shifts slowly transformed the tiny trading outpost into a bustling city center in the northern forests of what was once Kievan Rus’.

Russian Orthodox Church and The Center of Moscow

Ivan I committed some of Moscow’s new wealth to building a splendid city center and creating an iconic religious setting. He built stone churches in the center of Moscow with his newly gained wealth. Ivan I also tempted one of the most important religious leaders in Rus’, the Orthodox Metropolitan Peter, to the city of Moscow. Before the rule of the Golden Horde the original Russian Orthodox Church was based in Kiev. After years of devastation, Metropolitan Peter transferred the seat of power to Moscow where a new Renaissance of culture was blossoming. This perfectly timed transformation of Moscow coincided with the decades of devastation in Kiev, effectively transferring power to the north once again.

Peter of Moscow and scenes from his life as depicted in a 15th-century icon. This religious leader helped bring cultural power to Moscow by moving the seat of the Russian Orthodox Church there during Ivan I’s reign.

One of the most lasting accomplishments of Ivan I was to petition the Khan based in Sarai to designate his son, who would become Simeon the Proud, as the heir to the title of Grand Prince of Vladimir. This agreement a line of succession that meant the ruling head of Moscow would almost always hold power over the principality of Vladimir, ensuring Moscow held a powerful position for decades to come.

• Boundless World History. Authored by : Boundless. Located at : https://www.boundless.com/world-history/textbooks/boundless-world-history-textbook/ . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike