Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman whose laboratories developed technologies for recorded sound, electric power and motion pictures. After working as a telegraph operator, he established workshops devoted to invention and manufacturing. At Menlo Park, New Jersey, Edison and his assistants developed the phonograph in 1877 and later produced a commercially practical incandescent lighting system.

Edison approached invention as an organised process involving experimentation, engineering and commercial production. His work on electric lighting extended beyond the lamp to generating stations and distribution networks, including the Pearl Street station in New York, which began operating in 1882. He later established a larger laboratory at West Orange, where work included improved phonographs, storage batteries and motion-picture technology. Edison received 1,093 United States patents during his lifetime and was involved in numerous companies built around his inventions. He remained active in experimental work until shortly before his death in 1931.