Thomas Alva Edison is an unparalleled figure in the history of the ... The bulb lasted for more than 40 hours and was considered a major breakthrough. The experiment, concluded on October 21, 1879, is ...

In 1877, Thomas Alva Edison (1847 – 1931) invented the tin foil phonograph – a machine that recorded sound by indenting a sheet of tin foil into a groove in a cylinder. A later wax version was ...

In Britain, too, the popular press saw Edison as a mixture of scientist and magician. H.G. Wells would have been aware of this mixed persona, perpetuated in numerous articles, as The Times of 31 ...