“To invent takes a good imagination and a lot of junk.”- Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)And Thomas Edison himself certainly had both of these things. How else could he have obtained over 1800 patents worldwide? Thomas Alva Edison was someone you would call a genius. No sane person would refuse if given the chance to spend a whole day with him. You might say, “So what's so special about Thomas Edison? I would much rather spend a day with a pop star!” Well, read on and find out for yourself. Thomas Edison was born in Ohio, USA, on February 11, 1847. When he was seven years old, he was expelled from school, because his short-tempered teacher was fed up with his curiosity to know how everything worked. The teacher added that Thomas' brain was "fuzzy." But his patient mother simply took him out of school and began teaching him at home. She always believed that Thomas' strange outward behavior was just a sign of his incredible intelligence. Being free from schoolwork, Thomas had time to read various educational books and by the age of 12 he had read Gibbon's The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, Sears' History of the World, Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy and the World Book of science. and many other books on practical chemistry. You can easily see how intelligent Thomas Edison was, despite what his teacher said about him. No wonder he grew up to invent light bulbs, phonographs, carbon telephones, electric lighting systems, incandescent chandeliers, cine cameras, alkaline batteries, fluorescent electric lamps, etc. The list goes on. So what do you think now? Do you still want to go with that pop star or would you rather spend a whole day with Thomas Edison? What would you like... middle of paper... but Edison wasn't a genius after all.I now remind you of the quote mentioned at the beginning of this essay. “To invent takes a good imagination and a lot of junk.” What this quote wants to underline is that, in reality, Thomas Alva Edison was not a special person. He was simply a human being, just like all of us. Anyone can be as great as him if they have the courage and determination that he possessed. With this I conclude this essay and hope that you have been inspired by Thomas Alva Edison. And if you work hard enough, one day, you might become a scientific genius just like him! For more information on Thomas Alva Edison, refer to the following websites: http://www.thomasedison.com/ http://www.biography.com/people/thomas-edison-9284349http://www.lifehack.org / articles/productivity/thomas-edison-versus-nikola-tesla-who-is-most-productive.html