The Edison Effect 
There are many people who say Thomas Edison single-handedly（单独地） invented the twentieth century. Although there are those who may disagree（不同意）, one thing cannot be denied（否认）: Edison was a genius, and his inventions greatly affected the development of modern society（现代社会）.

Born in 1847 in Ohio, Thomas Edison attended school for only three months. After his teacher claimed（声称） that he could not learn, Edison's mother decided to teach him at home. There he was allowed to explore（探究） the subjects that most interested him. By age ten, Edison had built a science laboratory in the basement（地下室） of his family's home and had become an avid（孜孜不倦的） experimenter.

Edison got his first job at age twelve on the railway selling candy and newspapers. Three years later, he suffered（遭受） an ear injury（伤害） from a train accident and lost much of his hearing. He could have had an operation（手术）, but he refused. He insisted that being deaf helped him concentrate on（集中做……） his experiments.

Thomas Edison's first invention was the automatic（自动的） telegraph repeater（电报机）. Next came the electric（电子的） vote recorder（投票机）. In his late twenties, Edison built an "invention factory" where he and his business partners could dedicate（致力于） all their time to inventing. After improving upon the telephone, Edison created the phonograph（留声机）, his favorite invention. Although Edison did not actually invent the light bulb（灯泡）, he did create an electric lighting system, and it enabled New York to be the first city in the world to have electric lights. This was the beginning of the modern world in which electricity became a way of life.

The following year, one of Edison's engineers discovered electrons（电子）, which eventually led to electronics（电子学）. This discovery was patented as the "Edison effect". Without electronics, we might not have radio, TV, computers, or space travel. The rest of Edison's life was spent making and improving inventions including the camera, the alkaline battery（碱性电池）, the copy machine（复印机）, and the microphone（麦克风）.

Thomas Edison died at the age of eighty-four in 1931. Three days later, much of America dimmed（使暗淡） its lights in honor of the inventor— man who had more impact on the development of present-day civilization（现代文明） than anyone else in history.