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Edison, Thomas Alva

inventor, was born Feb. 11, 1847, in Erie county, Ohio. He started life as a train boy at the age of twelve. While on the train he published a weekly paper, which was the first paper ever published on a train. One day he grabbed the station-master's child from in front of an approaching train.

The station-master was so pleased that he taught young Edison how to telegraph. He then became a telegraph operator, and invented a system by which he could send two or more messages over the same wire at the same time. His principal inventions are the telephone, phonograph and electric light. He is now perfecting a system of taking iron out of solid rock by electricity. a