THOMAS ALVA EDISON was an american scientist . He was also a business man. He went to school for just three months.his mother was his teacher. He learnt most of the things at home. . He was a quick learner. . He was different from other boys. He had a sharp mind and always wanted to know how things happened. Edison became deaf at a very young age, yet, he did amazing things. There are almost one thousand inventions to hi credit. . As a child, he sold candies , vegetables and newspapers on the train. He sold his own two_page weekly herald newspaper that he printed himself. It was full of news about the people who travel led or worked on trains. . In 1868, when he was twenty-one, edison invented an automatic vote counter for which he received his first patent. A patent is issued by the government, which gives an inventor the rig ht to make and sell his idea. . When he was thirty, he established a laboratory in menlo park, USA. . Here' he invented the tin-foil phonograph and electric light bulb. In edison 's life time, none of his inventions made him so popular as the phonograph, commonly known as gramophone. People called it"the talking machine" . . Edison invented thousands of big and small things of daily use. Upto the age of eighty-four when he died, he remained busy in his laboratory. There is no doubt that edison was one of the greatest scientists of our age.