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Edison, His Life and Inventions
by Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin
A detailed biography of Thomas Alva Edison, inventor of such things as the telephone, the microphone, the electric motor, the storage battery, and the electric light. In the words of the authors, “It is designed in these pages to bring the reader face to face with Edison; to glance at an interesting childhood and a youthful period marked by a capacity for doing things, and by an insatiable thirst for knowledge; then to accompany him into the great creative stretch of forty years, during which he has done so much. This book shows him plunged deeply into work for which he has always had an incredible capacity, reveals the exercise of his unsurpassed inventive ability, his keen reasoning powers, his tenacious memory, his fertility of resource; follows him through a series of innumerable experiments, conducted methodically, reaching out like rays of search-light into all the regions of science and nature, and finally exhibits him emerging triumphantly from countless difficulties bearing with him in new arts the fruits of victorious struggle.”
(Summary by Justin Barrett, with authors’ quote taken from the work itself)
- Gutenberg e-text
- LibriVox’s Edison, His Life and Inventions Internet Archive page
- Zip file of the entire book (856.0MB)
- RSS feed · Subscribe in iTunes · Chapter-a-day
Total running time: 29:41:34
mp3 and ogg files
- 00 - Introduction - 00:05:38
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Read by: Justin Barrett - 01 - The Age of Electricity - 00:13:42
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Read by: Justin Barrett - 02 - Edison’s Pedigree - 00:21:43
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Read by: Justin Barrett - 03 - Boyhood At Port Huron, Michigan - 00:45:52
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Read by: Alana Jordan - 04 - The Young Telegraph Operator - 00:30:02
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Read by: jude kaider - 05 - Arduous Years In The Central West - 00:51:48
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Read by: ontheroad - 06 - Work And Invention In Boston - 00:24:30
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Read by: ontheroad - 07 - The Stock Ticker - 00:44:09
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Read by: RaySee - 08 - Automatic, Duplex, and Quadruplex Telegraphy - 00:57:24
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Read by: Tysto - 09 - The Telephone, Motograph, and Microphone - 01:07:55
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Read by: Heidi Preuss - 10 - The Phonograph - 00:47:12
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Read by: J. M. Smallheer - 11 - The Invention Of The Incandescent Lamp - 00:51:21
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Read by: J. M. Smallheer - 12 - Memories Of Menlo Park - 00:52:50
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Read by: Ralph Snelson - 13 - A World Hunt for Filament Material - 00:29:57
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Read by: Melissa - 14 - A Complete System of Lighting - 00:58:09
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Read by: Heidi Preuss - 15 - Introduction Of The Edison Electric Light - 01:04:28
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Read by: Nelly (??) - 16 - The First Edison Central Station - 00:56:06
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Read by: Anthony Wilson - 17 - Other Early Stations — the Meter - 00:59:08
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Read by: Mitchell L Leopard - 18 - The Electric Railway - 00:48:31
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Read by: Heidi Preuss - 19 - Magentic Ore Milling Work - 00:45:44
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Read by: William Kevin Manire - 20 - Edison Portland Cement - 00:35:44
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Read by: Melissa - 21 - Motion Pictures - 00:52:48
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Read by: Denny Sayers - 22 - The Development Of The Edison Storage Battery - 00:39:39
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Read by: Heidi Preuss - 23 - Miscellaneous Inventions - 00:36:57
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Read by: Kalynda - 24 - Edison’s Method In Inventing - 00:47:30
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Read by: Kalynda - 25 - The Laboratory At Orange And The Staff - 00:45:24
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Read by: Alec Daitsman - 26 - Edison In Commerce And Manufacture - 00:44:02
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Read by: Heidi Preuss - 27 - Value of Edison’s Inventions to the World - 00:52:10
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Read by: Denny Sayers - 28 - The Black Flag - 01:10:14
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Read by: Mitchell L Leopard - 29 - The Social Side Of Edison - 01:10:15
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Read by: - 30 - Introduction to Appendix - 00:02:17
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Read by: Melissa - 31 - Appendix I. The Stock Printer - 00:14:45
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Read by: Melissa - 32 - Appendix II. The Quadruplex And Phonoplex - 00:32:14
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Read by: Anna-Maria Viola - 33 - Appendix III. Automatic Telegraphy - 00:18:51
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Read by: Heidi Preuss - 34 - Appendix IV. Wireless Telegraphy - 00:30:24
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Read by: Heidi Preuss - 35 - Appendix V. The Electromotograph - 00:09:22
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Read by: Anna Simon - 36 - Appendix VI. The Telephone - 00:10:00
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Read by: Esther - 37 - Appendix VII. Edison’s Tasimeter - 00:05:16
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Read by: Justin Barrett - 38 - Appendix VIII. The Edison Phonograph - 00:14:57
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Read by: Esther - 39 - Appendix IX. The Incandescent Lamp - 00:13:00
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Read by: Jerome Lawsen - 40 - Appendix X. Edison’s Dynamo Work - 00:32:04
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Read by: Melissa - 41 - Appendix XI. The Edison Feeder System - 00:15:57
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Read by: Melissa - 42 - Appendix XII. The Three Wire System - 00:10:24
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Read by: Esther - 43 - Appendix XIII. Edison’s Electric Railway - 00:17:46
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Read by: Heidi Preuss - 44 - Appendix XIV. Train Telegraphy - 00:05:59
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Read by: Esther - 45 - Appendix XV. Kinetograph And Projecting Kinetoscope - 00:08:38
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Read by: Jerome Lawsen - 46 - Appendix XVI. Edison’s Ore-Milling Inventions - 00:18:14
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Read by: Melissa - 47 - Appendix XVII. The Long Cement Kiln - 00:09:43
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Read by: Esther - 48 - Appendix XVIII. Edison’s New Storage Battery - 00:15:33
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Read by: Jerome Lawsen - 49 - Appendix XIX. Edison’s Poured Cement House - 00:09:26
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Read by: Esther - 50 - Appendix: List Of United States Patents, part 1 - 01:05:26
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Read by: Justin Barrett - 51 - Appendix: List Of United States Patents, part 2 - 00:47:56
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Read by: Esther - 52 - Appendix: Foreign Patents - 00:02:30
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[mp3@128kbps - 2.4MB]
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Read by: Justin Barrett
Cataloged on September 03, 2008










