Media inventions.

Initially, it was believed that Thomas Edison invented the motion 
picture camera, but it has since been proven that William Kennedy 
Laurie Dickson actually invented it at the Edison laboratories by, 
as was common for the Menlo Park operation, expanding on the 
pioneering work of others (including Du Cos in 1864 and Marey in 
1882). Edison's influence on the history of film stretches beyond 
that of the instigator of film production and must be given credit 
for establishing the standard of using 35 mm (then 1 and 3/8 inches) 
film with 4 perforations on the edge of each frame that allowed 
film to emerge as a mass medium and not just a vaudeville novelty. 
He built what has been called the first movie studio, the Black 
Maria in New Jersey. Here he made the first copyrighted film, Fred 
Ott's Sneeze. In 1902, a US court rejected Edison's claim that he 
be granted sole rights over all aspects of movie production in 
the case "Edison v. American Mutoscope Company" 

His contributions to technology benefited people world wide and 
in 1878, he was appointed Chevalier of the Legion of Honor of 
France and in 1889 was made Commander of the Legion of Honor.

On September 30, 1890, Edison obtained patent US437422 for telegraphy, 
US437423, US437424, US437426 for the phonograph, US437425 for a 
phonograph-recorder, US437427 for a "Method of Making Phonograph 
Blanks", US437428 for a "Propelling Device for Electrical Cars", 
and US437429 for a phonogram blank.

In 1891, Thomas Edison built a Kinetoscope, or peep-hole viewer. 
This device was installed in penny arcades where people could 
watch short, simple films. This was important to Thomas Edison 
especially because he had been searching for a way to entertain 
customers that were listening to music on his phonograph. Now, 
people could go to a penny arcade, put in a coin, put on the 
headphones and watch a film through the peep-hole. Later that 
same year, on December 29th, Edison patented the radio 
("transmission of signals electrically").

On August 9, 1892, Edison received a patent for a two-way 
telegraph.

Later years

He claimed to had invented the movie camera, but the United 
States court of appeals proves he did not. In West Orange, 
New Jersey on February 1, 1893 Edison finished construction 
of the Black Maria, the first motion picture studio.

A United States court of appeals ruled on March 10, 1902 that 
Edison did not invent the movie camera and thus could not 
exercise monopoly power over its use (see Edison v. American 
Mutoscope). In 1894, Edison experiments with synchronizing 
audio with film; the Kinetophone was invented which loosely 
synchronizes a Kinetoscope image with a cylinder phonograph. 
In April of 1896, Edison and Thomas Armat's Vitascope were 
used to project motion pictures in public screenings in 
New York City.

Thomas Edison submitted his last patent application, "Holder 
for Article to be Electroplated", on January 6, 1931 and 
died later that year. The patent was granted two years 
later in 1933.


Personal life

Thomas Edison was an atheist. He was married twice, the 
first time in 1871 to Mary Stilwell (1855-1884), with whom 
he had three children - Marion Estelle, Thomas Jr., and 
William Leslie - before she died at age 29, probably of 
typhoid fever. His second marriage was to Mina Miller 
(1865-1946), also with three children, Madeleine, Charles 
(who took over the company), and Theodore Miller. He 
purchased a home known as Glenmont in 1886 as a wedding 
gift for Mina in West Orange, New Jersey. The remains of 
Thomas and Mina Edison are now buried there. The 13.5 
acre (55,000 m²) property is maintained by the National 
Park Service as the Edison National Historical Site.