Many people believe that light bulbs were invented by Thomas Edison. Is that true? Edison was born in 1847 in Milan, Ohio, USA. In school, Edison was often absent-minded, and his teacher did not think that he was very smart. In 1854 his family moved to Port Huron, Michigan, where young Edison sold candy and newspapers on trains from Port Huron to Detroit. These early sales experiences led Edison to discover his talents as a businessman and eventually(最后) to found fourteen companies, including General Electric', which still exists today.
Edison started his career as an inventor in Newark, New Jersey. In 1878 Edison formed the Edison Electric Light Company. During his first public demonstration(展示）of his incandescent light(白炽灯) bulb on December 31,1879, he said, "We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles." Light bulbs were not the only things Edison worked on. He also built the first industrial research laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. There, Edison and his assistant, William J. Hammer, worked on the telephone, phonograph(留声机), electric railway, and electric lighting.
However, Edison did not invent many of the things he is said to have invented; he only improved them so that they could be sold to the public. He did not invent the electric light bulb, either. He did, however, start the first company that made and sold electric light bulbs. The only major invention that he actually did invent was the phonograph. It was his invention of the phonograph in 1877 that made him famous, and he became known as The Wizard of Menio Park(门洛帕克的奇才), New Jersey.
