Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science that can simulate human intelligence, such as reasoning, learning, problem-solving, and decision-making. Think of it as algorithms with certain sets of rules. AI systems have the ability to learn from the iteration of tasks where the computer data (aka machine learning algorithms) are fed to the system. Thomas Edison was a big fan of innovations that saved time and made life easier or more convenient for the public – That’s exactly what AI does.

One impressive recent example (some would also say “scary”) is a program called ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) from OpenAI. Within 5 days of it being launched, 5 million people were using it.

The tool can be used to fulfill many requests from answering questions to writing poems to having a conversation with you. It responds within seconds and reads as if a human has typed the response.

We are much past the days of Thomas Edison’s Ediphone that he created for efficient oral dictation “without the aid of stenographers.” As OpenAI has showed us, people can do a lot more jobs today without the help of others, thanks to AI.

Can you imagine Thomas Edison with a personal assistant, perhaps affectionately named “Mina” after his wife, that could search his massive on-site technological library for information on what has been done before in certain key areas of interest? Think of the time he could have saved manually looking through books and technical reports!

Other Examples of Artificial Intelligence Technology That Would Impress Thomas Edison

• Alexa and Siri, personal home assistants (Alexa, will you turn on my incandescent light bulb?)
• Healthcare disease diagnosis–such systems (expert systems) have been in operation for close to 40 years
• Pattern recognition-these systems (neural networks) are able to discern data patterns both digitally and visually, such as facial recognition.
• Trouble-shooting systems; to determine root causes of hardware failures
• Fraud detection; looking for patterns or the forensics in financial transactions
• Prediction analytics; for potential future failures in subsystems and equipment
• Smart cars and drones; operation, navigation, and collision avoidance
• Text editors and autocorrect
• Social media and search algorithms that show you recommended content you’d like

In honor of Black History Month, we’d like to shine some light on an invaluable partner of Thomas Edison…Lewis Howard Latimer (1848-1928). Today, Latimer is considered one of the top ten black inventors, up there in stature with the great George Washington Carver. He was a man who never stopped learning and improving himself. 

Latimer was a chief draftsman, patent expert, and inventor. As the son of an escaped slave, Latimer overcame poverty and racism in his scientific career. Similar to Edison, he was self-taught and all of his inventions were related to improving quality of life for others.

Latimer and Edison

Latimer joined Thomas Edison’s lab in 1884, after he had already patented a process for making improved carbon filaments for bulbs.

He served as Edison’s key legal defense agent in his incandescent light patents against many infringers. He was of great importance to Edison finally helping him to gain total recognition as the inventor of incandescent lighting. He would work for Edison until about 1911, when he became an independent patent consultant.

Latimer also served as an expert witness for Edison, testifying on behalf of the great inventor in many court cases challenging Edison’s electrical system.

In 1924 at the age of 75, he helped form the “Edison Pioneers”, a group dedicated to keeping alive the ideals and aims of Thomas Edison. Latimer was its only African American member.

Edison once said…

Lewis Latimer…A True Renaissance Man

In addition to his scientific and business accomplishments, Latimer was also an active artist and civil rights leader.

Latimer served proudly in the civil war, and continued to advocate for civil rights throughout his life. From protesting the unlawful removal of a black school board member to teaching mechanical drawing classes at the Henry Street Settlement House, he often contributed both time and money to his community.

Latimer also wrote poems, plays and books. In 1889, as an expert electrical engineer, Latimer wrote a highly regarded technical book of its time, “Incandescent Electric Lighting—A Practical Description of the Edison System”. 

In his obituary by the Amsterdam News, it was written that, “His work in science was an achievement and his personal life was a work of art.”

Thomas Edison was one of many innovators whose work and patents influenced the electric railways of today. In fact, the mainline railroad tracks that today run past Edison’s historic sit in Menlo Park, NJ site are powered by electric catenary wires.

Edison’s connection with railroads stretches all the way back to his childhood, when he sold newspapers on the Grand Trunk lines in his native Michigan. At 12 years old, this was the first business that Edison started and his first taste of entrepreneurial skills such as time-management, problem-solving, creativity, and resilience.

His work as a newsboy on the railroad actually inspired him to start his invention career with telegraphy. At this time, railroads used telegraphy to circulate news across the country and to regulate train traffic. After being a night operator for the Grand Trunk Railway, Edison created his first real invention – An instrument that could record a Morse Code message on paper tape at regular speed and then play it back at a slower speed so it could be written down. By the time he died, Edison had 150 patents in telegraphy.

When he was older, Edison also became interested in the electric railways as a possible method to make his coal-fired power plants run all day (and thus, more economically), enabling things like electric railways, elevators and motors to run during the daylight hours before electric lighting was needed in the evening. He was also interested in the possible use of short haul electric trains to bring grain to market for wider distribution.

On May 13, 1880, on a U-shaped light rail track, Edison demonstrated his 32 horsepower, motor-dynamo driven train, along a 3/4 mile challenging route. Its top speed was 42 miles per hour. Edison’s trusted laboratory manager, Charles Batchelor, usually manned the helm. His daughter, Marion enjoyed this particular invention and once said, “I was always happy riding on his electric railway”. 

Later, in the Spring of 1882, a larger 3-mile track was developed for use, with four passenger cars and two locomotives. The trucks (or wheels) of the second electric locomotive are on view on the Main Street side of the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange, as shown below

Edison is not by any means the father of the electric railway, but his improvements did lead to several patents and innovations in the field, like an electrified third rail to power underground systems. He was an early experimenter who had to forego further work in this area as his electric lighting business (Pearl Street Station inaugurated in 1882) required increasing amounts of his attention and management. He sold off his electric railway interests in 1883.

However, Edison’s love of trains stayed with him until his death. Just a month before he passed away, the Lackawanna Railroad inaugurated a suburban DC-based electric train service from Hoboken to Montclair, Dover, and Gladstone in New Jersey. Edison was at the throttle of the first electric multiple-unit train to depart Lackawanna Terminal in Hoboken in September 1930, driving the train the first mile through Hoboken yard on its way to South Orange.

Yes, Thomas Edison had a tattoo. It was an image known as a quincunx-four dots arranged in a square, with a single dot in the middle – the way the number five is portrayed on a dice cube. It was inscribed on his right forearm. The only catch is no one knows how the tattoo got there. There is no mention of it in the vast Edison archives. Did he tattoo himself? We’ll never know.

Edison did not invent the tattoo pen, he did invent the electric pen in 1875 with the assistance of Charles Batchelor. The pen-like shaft had a reciprocating needle that was driven by a small motor powered by a wet-cell battery. As the user wrote or drew on a wax stencil, the needle made thousands of perforations per minute. The stencil was then placed in a press, and a roller forced ink through the holes, creating multiple copies (up to 15,000 according to Edison’s advertisements).

Humans have been decorating their skin for thousands of years, so the idea to use a similar pen to make the process easier seemed natural. The electric pen would later evolve into the tattoo pen invented in 1891 by Samuel O’Reilly. Today’s tattoo pens and guns are much improved, moving the needle anywhere between 50 and 3000 times per minute to deliver the beautiful tattoo designs that many people desire, creating a genre of art known as “body art”.

In fact, more people than you may think have tattoos inspired by Thomas Edison that they love to share on social media. It’s amazing how science and art can come together so beautifully! Below is a gallery of some of our favorite Edison-inspired tattoos: