Thomas Alva Edison was a prolific American scientist who enriched the world of science with numerous innovative inventions.

Thomas Alva Edison is unquestionably one of the finest, if not the finest, inventors ever lived in the history. He started working since a very early age and went on to succeed in various science fields such as telecommunications, electric power generation, motion pictures, sound recording, mining technology and more. Also, he was a great businessman and established the first industrial research laboratory in the world. Throughout his life, he acquired a total of 1,093 patents which is still a record. Here, let's get an insight into some of the most important inventions of Edison.

Electrographic Vote Recorder: Edison invented this device, at the age of 22, to help the US Congress legislators record their votes a lot quicker. During the vote process, the device had to be connected with a clerk's desk embedding the names of legislators. There's a switch, moving which to either 'yes' or 'no' would send electric current to the device at the clerk's desk. The wheels kept tracking of yes/no which the clerk would count for the result.

Phonograph: Phonograph is recognized as the first important invention of Edison. It's a two needled device which could both record the sound and play it back. The sound vibration would make the needle located inside the device shake, it would then create a groove into the tin-foil, which would ultimately lead the needle located on the other side play the recorded sound. Edison loved this device very much and continued working on it for years.

Edison Light Bulb: Thomas Edison didn't invent the incandescent light bulb, but transformed it into something which would be of better use to the mankind. The previous light bulbs had been expensive and short-lived. Edison and team did hundreds of experiments and finally managed to come up with a new bulb, by planting a vacuum inside it, which would last for over 13 hours.

Motion Picture Camera: Edison, together with W. K. L. Dickson, worked for years which resulted in the development of a motion picture camera and Kinetoscope (a peephole viewing device) which would record visuals and play it on screen. Following this, he built a motion picture studio and went on to produce a number of short movies. This actually led to the development of movies.

Alkaline Storage Battery: During the early 20th century, the batteries used in electric cars were extremely heavy and would often leak acid. Edison started doing a lot of experiments on various materials and invented alkaline battery which was lighter, more reliable and more powerful. But soon, Henry Ford's gasoline powered cars outshined this invention in the market.

Some other significant inventions of Thomas Alva Edison are Electricity distribution system, Carbon microphone, Magnetic Ore-separator etc.