I am Thomas Alva Edison. When I was 7 years old we moved to Port Huron, in Michigan.

We lived there until I struck out on my own at the age of 16. I had a very little formal education.

I was taught reading, writing and arithmetic by my mother, but I was a very curious child and taught myself by reading on my own. This belief remained throughout my life.

I work as a telegrapher. When I work as a telegrapher, I began working at an early age, as most boys did at the time. At 13 I took a job as a newsboy selling newspaper and candy on the local railroad that ran through Port Huron to Detriot. I seem to have spent much of my free time reading scientific and technical books and also had the opportunity at this time to learn how to operate a telegraph.

My First Patent: The development of the telegraph was the first step in the communication revolution expands rapidly in second half 19th Century. I worked in many cities in United States before arriving in Boston 1868. Here, I begun to telegraph to inventor. I received my first patent on an electric vote recorder, a device intended for use by elected bodies such as conguse to speed by voting process. The invention was a commercial failure. I resolved that he was certain the public would want. I move to New York City in 1869, worked and married to Marry Stillwell start a family.