Science

Thomas Edison

Called 'addled' by his teacher and homeschooled; ran a lab in a train's baggage car at 12.

Born: 1847 · Milan, Ohio, US
Roots: White American; Canadian-exile father, Dutch and Scottish descent
Family: Middle class; His father fled Canada after the 1837 rebellion and worked shifting ventures; his schoolteacher mother educated him at home after three months of formal school.
Education: Three months of school; homeschooled, then self-taught in libraries
Started with: A baggage-car lab; Sold newspapers and candy on the railway at 12, running a chemistry lab and printing press in the baggage car — until a fire ended it.
Affiliations & societies: None documented.; Information only — claims like these are often unverifiable and may be wrong.

The pathway

1862 · age 15
The telegraph reward
Pulls a stationmaster's son from a train's path; the grateful father teaches him telegraphy — his trade for a decade.
1874 · age 27
First big sale$10K
Western Union buys his quadruplex telegraph.
1876 · age 29
Menlo Park
Builds the first industrial research laboratory — invention as a business.
1877 · age 30
The phonograph
Recorded sound makes him world-famous overnight.
1879 · age 32
A practical light bulb
After thousands of filament trials; the Pearl Street power station follows in 1882.
1892 · age 45
Loses control to General Electric
The merger drops his name from the company; he had also lost the currents war to Tesla and Westinghouse's AC.
1931 · age 84
Dies with 1,093 US patents
Electric lights are dimmed across America in tribute.

Sources

Compiled from these references and contemporaneous press reporting. Figures are approximate; verify before relying on them.