Page 91 - English Class 07

During this period, he was out of a job for a short time and was staying with a friend.

This young man was working in a company there. In that company, they had an important
machine. One day, the machine stopped suddenly. Edison was there at the time. He had a
look at the machine and repaired it within a short time. The manager of the company liked
Edison and gave him a good job. Edison paid off his debts and improved his laboratory.

The next six years, Edison made a series of inventions. One invention followed another
quickly and Edison earned more fame and money. In 1877, he was working on a machine

that could reproduce the human voice. The next year, he actually made one. It was then
called the talking machine. We call it the gramophone now. The same year he was invited to
the White House in Washington. That is the name of the house where the President of the
United States of America lives. Edison went there to show his new machine to the President.

This made him famous all over America. Now, he was successful and prosperous. He owed
all this to his mother’s help and encouragement and to his own hard work.

In March, 1878, he began to work on an electric lamp. People used candles and oil
lamps in those days. They did not have electric lights. Edison promised to give them electric
lights in two years. When he said this, all the scientists laughed at him. They said that it was

impossible, but Edison was not worried at all. He worked harder and harder. He performed a
thousand experiments, but all of them failed. But he did not give up hope. “I must keep my
promise to the people,” he said to himself and worked harder still. He was racing against
time. At last, he succeeded in making an electric bulb after nearly one thousand and two
hundred experiments. On New Year’s Day, in 1880, he and his workers put up electric lights

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