Thomas Alva Edison first went to school at the age of eight and a half. But after only three months his teacher called him 'stupid', and he came home crying. From then on, his mother taught him at home, and he read science books by himself.
At the age of twelve he had a job selling newspapers. He made money in a clever but simple way. He checked the news stories first. When the news was interesting, he took a lot of papers; when it was boring, he took only a few.
He got a job sending telegraph messages. Then he started inventing things. He saw ways to make the telegraph system quicker. Later he made a better microphone for Bell's invention, the telephone.
In 1877 he made a 'phonograph' - the first ever sound recorder. The following year he invented the light bulb. In 1889 he made a 'kinetoscope' - a moving picture machine. He also made films for his new machine. In 1903 he made The Great Train Robbery, at that time the world's longest film. (It was ten minutes long!)
After more than one thousand inventions, Edison died at the age of eighty-four. In his honour, they switched off the lights all over America.