Thomas Alva Edison

A Sketch by Shyam

“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration”

~ Thomas Alva Edison

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*A Well Known Story *

Thomas Alva Edison was labeled an “addled” boy and was sent out of the school. But his poor mother refused to take the teacher’s words and she taught him by herself. They were quite poor people. By the age of 10 he was selling newspapers to make a living. He did not have the family background or the necessary resources for a university education. He taught himself all the time and achieved so much in his life by his indomitable persistence. rnt

He started his experiments in a ramshackle shed near his little home. He did not any have a new lab or a guide. He was all by himself. This is the boy who later patented more than thousands of inventions! How much difficulties and struggles he had to undergo to reach his goals! But inventions did not come very easy. It was the hard way all through.

When he was working on the electric bulb, he failed over 10,000 times. Edison was trying to identify a material that can withstand heat when electricity is passed through its thin filaments. He ordered various types of materials from around the world and started testing. One test failed, two test failed …hundred tests failed…. thousand tests failed….ten thousand tests failed!

His friends and family members asked him, “Have you gone mad?” “Well, I know ten thousand things that won’t work. Hence I am nearer to my goal than I ever was,” he replied. The very next test was success. The Tungsten filament was identified and electric bulb became a reality.

When he tried to identify a plant that could yield latex, he had to do many more tests. No wonder he said,

“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety nine percent perspiration.”

He was not intelligent by any standard of the time. He was poor and he had to undergo the ridicule from his peers. So, many dissuaded from him work and ''cranky'' experiments. But he proved them all wrong. When he was past 75, a big fire destroyed his office and everything he had built up so far. His friends and relatives thought that he was finished. But the very next day he started the work of another office and he contributed so much later to make human life more comfortable and meaningful.

His life proves that success is 99 percent hard work. It does not matter whether you are born into poverty or whether you are uneducated. He has proved that anyone can climb to any level from zero.
~ By Prof.P.A.Varghese, 2008

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