Thomas Alva Edison (Milan, Ohio, February 11, 1847 - West Orange, New Jersey, October 18, 1931) was an American businessman who patented and financed the development of many important devices of great industrial interest. "The Wizard of Menlo Park", as he was known, was one of the first to apply the principles of mass production to the process of invention.
In his lifetime, Thomas Edison filed 2,332 patents. The phonograph was one of his main inventions. Another was the cinematograph, the first successful cinematographic camera, with the equipment to show the films it made. Edison also perfected the telephone, invented by Antonio Meucci, into a device that worked much better. He did the same with the typewriter. He has worked on a variety of projects, such as vacuum-packed food, an X-ray machine and a system of cheaper concrete constructions.