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Of all of the brilliant scientists produced in the United States, none can rival Edison for the sheer scope and impact of his work. Edison earned 1,093 patents, the first coming at the age of 21, and the last after his death in 1931.
Edison received a patent for his most far-reaching invention, the electric light bulb, in 1879, but continued to produce revolutionary inventions over the following 50 years.
The 1890s was a prolific period for Edison. The Edison General Electric Company merged with Thomson-Houston to form the General Electric Company in 1892, allowing him to turn his attention from the electrical business to two other areas in which he made a significant impact: the phonograph and motion pictures. While he received numerous patents in each of these fields, he received none for his work with x-rays, which culminated in his invention of the fluoroscope in 1896. He refused to patent the machine, allowing doctors to utilize the technology without incurring licensing fees.
Despite the notion of many that Edison was a "genius" he consistently attributed his success to "hard work," as evidenced in his famous line, "Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration."
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