Sherlock Holmes was modeled after a real person, Dr. Joseph Bell, a famous surgeon and lecturer of author A Conan Doyle’s time. Dr. Bell taught his medical students Continue reading Worst Career Change that Resulted in Great Success
According to his own retelling, when Thomas Edison was twelve years old, he had a job selling newspapers on a commuter train. He had set up a printing press on the train to make his own newspapers, and thereby increase his profits. He also set up a chemistry lab, to indulge his already well-developed scientific curiosity. One day, as the train went around a particularly tight turn, some of Edison’s phosphorus fell on the floor and started a small fire. As the train came into the station, and the conductor discovered the problem, Tom tried to run away. The conductor pulled him back up into the train by his ears. “I felt something snap inside my head,” Edison said. From that time until his death, he was hard of hearing.
This claim blends real elements of Thomas Edison’s early life with a famous myth that modern historians and medical experts widely dispute.
What Is Accurate
Newsboy on the Train: At age 12 (around 1859), Edison did work selling newspapers, candy, and snacks on the Grand Trunk Railroad between Port Huron and Detroit.
Printing Press and Chemistry Lab: He persuaded the railroad to let him use an empty baggage/box car, where he set up a small chemical laboratory and a printing press to produce his own newspaper, The Weekly Herald.
The Train Fire: While on the train, a jar of phosphorus fell, broke, and set the baggage car floor on fire. The conductor put out the fire, became enraged, and threw Edison, his laboratory, and his printing press off at the next stop.
The Quote: Edison recounted the “ears” story in later interviews, stating:
“A trainman reached over and grabbed me by the ears and lifted me… I felt something snap inside my head and the deafness started from that time…”
Did the conductor pull him up by his ears because of the fire?
In Edison’s own retellings, he conflated two different anecdotes. In one version, the conductor boxed him on the ears as punishment for the baggage-car fire. In another version, a trainman grabbed him by the ears to pull him onto a moving train when he was running to catch it—not because he was running away from a fire.
Did this incident cause his hearing loss?
No. Medical historians and Edison biographers—such as Paul Israel, director of the Thomas A. Edison Papers at Rutgers University—agree that trauma from being pulled or boxed by the ears was unlikely to cause progressive, lifelong bilateral hearing loss.
Edison suffered a severe bout of scarlet fever in childhood, along with recurring, untreated mastoiditis and middle ear infections. Medical experts conclude that these infections—not a conductor pulling his ears—were the true medical cause of his severe hearing impairment. In fact, Edison admitted to close friends late in life that his theatrical train-conductor stories were tall tales he enjoyed telling reporters.
He tried to build a device to talk to the dead. Late in his life, Edison became fascinated by the occult and spiritualism. He admitted in interviews that he was working on a sensitive electronic device designed to detect and communicate with spirit entities if they existed, though no prototype was ever found.
He was almost completely deaf. Edison lost most of his hearing in childhood, likely due to a combination of scarlet fever and a bad bout of mastoiditis. Rather than seeing it as a handicap, he claimed it helped him concentrate on his work by tuning out the distracting sounds of the world.
His famous “lightbulb” wasn’t actually the first. Edison didn’t invent the incandescent light bulb from scratch; dozens of inventors had already created working versions. Edison’s actual breakthrough was developing a long-lasting, commercially viable bamboo carbon filament and an entire electrical distribution system to power it.
He proposed to his second wife using Morse code. After teaching his 20-year-old sweetheart, Mina Miller, how to tap out Morse code, the 39-year-old Edison tapped “Will you marry me?” into her hand while they were riding in a carriage. She tapped back, “Yes.”
He held a record 1,093 U.S. patents. Edison was an extraordinarily relentless inventor and businessman, securing over a thousand patents in his lifetime for everything from the phonograph and motion picture camera to concrete construction methods and battery technology.
His first patent was a commercial failure because politicians hated it. In 1869, Edison patented an electronic vote recorder for legislative bodies to speed up roll-call voting. Congress rejected it, explicitly telling him they preferred slow voting because it allowed time for filibustering and political maneuvering. Afterward, Edison vowed never to invent something unless there was a clear market demand for it.
He tattooed himself using an electric pen. Edison invented the pneumatic stencil pen in 1876 to duplicate documents. While testing it, he experimented by tattooing a series of small, uniform dots on his own forearm. Decades later, Samuel O’Reilly modified Edison’s stencil pen design to create the world’s first modern electric tattoo machine.
His final breath is preserved in a glass test tube. As Edison lay dying in 1931, his close friend and fellow industrialist Henry Ford allegedly asked Edison’s son Charles to trap a vial of air from Edison’s bedroom at the moment of his death. That sealed glass test tube is still on display today at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
He conducted sleep-deprivation experiments using steel balls. Edison believed sleep was a waste of time and relied on micro-naps. To trigger rapid flashes of creativity, he would sit in a chair holding heavy steel balls over a metal pan. As he drifted off to sleep, his muscles would relax, dropping the balls into the pan with a loud clatter to wake him right at the edge of unconsciousness so he could write down his ideas.
He built a creepy talking doll that kids hated. In 1890, Edison created the “Edison’s Phonograph Doll,” which featured a tiny wax cylinder phonograph embedded in its chest that played a recording of a nursery rhyme. The mechanism was fragile, the sound was harsh and scratchy, and children found the dolls terrifying. It was pulled from the market after just six weeks.
Sometimes when we are rejected, we become dejected. When that happens, see if you can continue with one foot in front of the other, as Albert Einstein did.
In 1905 Albert Einstein wrote his famous Special Theory of Relativity. It was published in a scientific journal that same year, but took many years to gain general acceptance. In fact, it was not proven by actual experiment until 25 years later. This paper, entitled “Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?” is where E=mc² first appeared.
Two years after that paper was published, Einstein wanted a job as assistant professor of mathematics. This job required the applicant to submit a thesis paper, so Einstein submitted his Special Theory of Relativity. The university rejected it.
Einstein was a late talker and didn’t start speaking until he was almost 4 years old. Some say he couldn’t speak in full sentences until he was 9 years old.
He was a talented musician and could play the violin and piano. He often played music to help him think.
He had a poor memory for names and often forgot people he had met.
Einstein was a vegetarian and even wrote an essay called “The Ethics of Diet.”
He had a love for sailing and owned a sailboat named Tümmler which is German for porpoise.
Einstein was a smoker, but quit later in life after suffering from heart problems.
Einstein was offered a position in the Swiss Patent Office while he was trying to find a job as a teacher.
Einstein had a daughter named Lieserl who was born out of wedlock and was given up for adoption.
He was a pacifist and spoke out against war and violence.
Einstein was an avid letter-writer and wrote over 14,000 letters in his lifetime.
He was a fan of detective novels and even created his own detective, called Dr. René Belloq.
Einstein’s brain was preserved after his death for scientific study.
He had a close friendship with Charlie Chaplin and they often played music together.
Einstein was offered the position of Prime Minister of Israel, but declined.
He was a supporter of civil rights and spoke out against racism.
Einstein was an early member of the NAACP.
He was a fan of the philosopher Spinoza and even wrote a book about him.
“I have little patience with scientists who take a board of wood, look for its thinnest part, and drill a great number of holes where drilling is easy.” – Albert Einstein
When plans were required for a new house of government, Ben Franklin was given a crack at the architect’s job, but his design was rejected. It was just too offbeat. He had planned to hook all the seats in the meeting room to the fireplace chimney. The bottoms of the seats would have many small holes. The draft from the chimney would create a slight suction at these holes in the seats, carrying away what he called “personal odors.”
But, one has to try things, right? Look how well his other ideas worked out!
Lightning Rod
Designed in the 1750s after his famous kite experiment, this pointed iron rod attached to the tops of buildings grounded electrical charges from storm clouds, preventing disastrous structure fires.
Franklin Stove
Invented in 1741, this metal-lined fireplace featured a hollow baffle and a rear flue system designed to radiate more heat into the room while using significantly less wood than traditional open fireplaces.
Bifocal Eyeglasses
Tired of constantly swapping between distance and reading glasses, Franklin cut lenses from both types of preview spectacles in half and combined them into a single frame in 1784.
Flexible Urinary Catheter
In 1752, Franklin created a modified, flexible catheter made of hinged segments of silver tubing to help ease the medical discomfort experienced by his brother John, who suffered from kidney stones.
Glass Armonica
Inspired by wine glass music, Franklin invented a mechanical instrument in 1761 consisting of nested, color-coded glass bowls mounted on a rotating spindle operated by a foot pedal.
Odometer
While serving as Postmaster General, Franklin built a hub-attached gear mechanism for carriage wheels in the 1760s to accurately measure distances along postal routes and calculate efficient delivery rates.
Long Arm (Reach Extender)
To reach books on high shelves without a ladder, Franklin created a wood pole with two wooden fingers at the end operated by a cord, serving as an early mechanical grabber.
Three-Wheel Clock
Designed in 1757, this simplified mechanical clock used only three gears and two hands to keep accurate time, making it far cheaper and easier to manufacture than standard timepieces of the era.
Swim Fins
As an avid young swimmer in Boston around 1717, an 11-year-old Franklin crafted hand-held wooden fins shaped like painter’s palettes to increase propulsion in the water.
The Library Chair and Stepstool-Ladder
A master of practical furniture design, Franklin created a conversion library chair whose seat flipped over to turn into a short ladder, as well as a rocking chair fitted with a foot-powered fan to keep insects away.