Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin:-

Historical Importance of Charlie Chaplin: Charlie Chaplin was a comic visionary who enjoyed a successful career as an actor, director, writer, and music composer during the silent-movie era. His comic portrayal of a drunk in a bowler hat and baggy pants, better known as “The Little Tramp,” captured the hearts of early movie-goers and became one of his most endearing and enduring characters. Chaplin became one of the most famous and admired men in the world until he fell victim to McCarthyism in 1952.

Dates: April 16, 1889 -- December 25, 1977
Also Known As: Charles Spencer Chaplin, Sir Charlie Chaplin, The Tramp

Charlie Chaplin’s Dickensian Childhood

Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on April 16, 1889, in South London. His mother, Hannah Chaplin (neé Hill), was a vaudeville singer (stage name Lily Harley). His father, Charles Chaplin, Sr., was a vaudeville actor. When little Charlie Chaplin was just three years old, his father left Hannah due to her adultery with Leo Dryden, another vaudeville actor. (The affair with Dryden produced another baby, George Wheeler Dryden, who went to live with his father soon after birth.)

Hannah was then single and had to find a way to care for her two remaining children: little Charlie Chaplin and an older son, Sydney, whom she had from an earlier relationship (Chaplin Sr. had adopted Sydney when he married Hannah). To bring in income, Hannah continued singing but also took up sweatshop piecework on a rented sewing machine.
Hannah’s stage career abruptly ended in 1894 when she lost her singing voice in the middle of a performance. When the audience began to throw things at her, five-year-old Chaplin rushed on stage and finished his mother’s song. The audience applauded the little fellow and tossed coins at him. Although Hannah was fired, she continued to dress up in her stage clothes at home and mimic characters to her sons’ delight. Soon, however, she was forced to pawn the costumes and just about everything else she owned since Chaplin Sr. never paid child support.
In 1896, when Chaplin was seven and Sydney was eleven, the boys and their mother were admitted to Lambeth Workhouse for the poor. Subsequently, the Chaplin boys were sent to Hanwell School for Orphans and Destitute Children. Hannah was admitted to Cane Hill Asylum; she was suffering from the debilitating effects of syphilis.
Eighteen months later, Charlie and Sydney were taken to Chaplin Sr.’s home. Although Chaplin Sr. was an alcoholic, the authorities found him to be an able-bodied parent and in child-support arrears. But Chaplin Sr.’s common-law wife, Louise, also an alcoholic, resented having to take care of Hannah’s children and often locked them out of the house. When Chaplin Sr. staggered home at night, he and Louise fought over her treatment of the boys, who often had to roam the streets for food and sleep outside.

Chaplin Signs on as a Clog Dancer

In 1898, when Chaplin was nine, Hannah’s illness gave her a temporary reprieve and so she was discharged from the asylum. Her sons’ were incredibly relieved and returned to live with her.

Meanwhile, Chaplin Sr. was successful in getting his 10-year-old son, Charlie, into The Eight Lancashire Lads, a clog-dancing troupe. (Clog dancing is a folk dance done in many parts of the world in which the dancer wears wooden clogs in order to make a stomping noise at each downbeat.) During Charlie Chaplin’s theatrical apprenticeship in British music halls with The Eight Lancashire Lads, Chaplin memorized his dance steps to precision. From the wings, he watched the other performers, especially the pantomimes in over-sized shoes outwitting comic policemen.
At the age of twelve, Chaplin’s clog-dancing career ended when he was diagnosed with asthma. That same year, 1901, Chaplin’s father died of cirrhosis of the liver. Sydney found a job as a ship’s steward and Chaplin, still living with his mother, worked odd jobs such as doctor’s boy, barber’s helper, retail assistant, hawker, and peddler. Sadly in 1903, Hannah’s health deteriorated. Suffering a bout of insanity, she was once again admitted to the asylum.

Chaplin Joins Vaudeville

In 1903, with the equivalent of an erratic fourth-grade education, fourteen-year-old Chaplin joined Blackmore’s Theatrical Agency. Chaplin learned timing while playing the part of Billy (Holmes’ page) in Sherlock Holmes. When a part became available, Chaplin was able to get Sydney (back from the sea) a role. Happily reunited with his brother, Chaplin enjoyed the applause in upper-end theaters and good reviews for the next two and a half years.

When the show ended, Chaplin had difficulty in finding leading roles to play, due partly to his small stature (5’5”) and his Cockney accent. Thus, when Sydney found work acting in a crude comedy in lower-end music halls, Chaplin reluctantly joined him.
Now sixteen, Chaplin was acting as a plumber’s klutzy assistant in a show called Repairs. In it, Chaplin used the memories of his mother’s mimicking antics and his father’s drunken mishaps to form his own comical character. For the next two years in various skits, shows, and acts he would master his clowning technique with slapstick precision.

Stage Fright

When Chaplin turned eighteen, he was awarded the lead in a comedy play for Fred Karno and the Karno Troupe. On opening night Chaplin was struck with stage fright. He had no voice and feared what had happened to his mother would happen to him. Since the actors were taught all the character roles in order to stand in for one another, Sydney suggested that his brother play a lesser role, the part of a pantomime drunk. Karno agreed. Chaplin played it with gusto, creating continuous laughter night after night in the successful sketch, A Night in an English Music Hall.

In his spare time, Chaplin became an avid reader and practiced playing the violin, discovering a passion for self-education. He grew introspective with a horror of alcohol, but had no problem womanizing.

Chaplin in the U.S.

Landing in the U.S. with the Karno Troupe in 1910, Chaplin was one of the favorite Karno comedians playing Jersey City, Cleveland, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Denver, Butte, and Billings.

When Chaplin returned to London, Sydney had married his girlfriend Minnie and Hannah was living in a padded cell at the asylum. Chaplin was surprised and saddened by both events.
On his second tour of the U.S. in 1912, Chaplin’s character of the English drunk caught the eye of Mack Sennett, the head of Keystone Studios. Chaplin was offered a contract with the New York Motion Picture Co. at $150 per week to join the Keystone Studios in Los Angeles. Finishing his contract with Karno, Chaplin joined Keystone Studios in 1913.
Keystone Studios was known for its Keystone Kops short films, depicting slapstick cops in pursuit of zany criminals. When Chaplin arrived, Sennett was disappointed. From seeing Chaplin on the stage he thought that Chaplin would be an older man and therefore more experienced. Twenty-four-year-old Chaplin responded that he could look as old as Sennett wanted.
Unlike the complicated scripts prepared for today’s movies, Sennett’s movies had no script at all. Instead, there would be an idea for a beginning of a movie and then Sennett and his directors would just shout impromptu commands to the actors until it led to a chase scene. (They could get away with this because these were silent films, meaning no sound was recorded during filming.) For his first short film, Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914), Chaplin donned a postage-stamp-sized mustache, baggy pants, tight coat, bowler hat, and large shoes from the Keystone costume hut. The Little Tramp was born, strutting about, swinging a cane.
Chaplin was quick to improvise when everyone ran out of ideas. The Tramp could be a lonely dreamer, a great musician, or kicking authoritarians in the derriere.

Chaplin the Director

Chaplin appeared in numerous short films, but all was not great. Chaplin created friction with the directors; basically, they didn’t appreciate Chaplin telling them how to do their jobs. Chaplin asked Sennett if he could direct a picture. Sennett, about to fire the cocky Chaplin, received an urgent wire from his distributors to hurry and send more Chaplin film shorts. He was a sensation! Sennett agreed to let Chaplin direct.

Chaplin’s directorial debut, Caught in the Rain (1914), with Chaplin playing a tipsy hotel guest, was a 16-minute short. Sennett was not only impressed with Chaplin’s acting but also his directing. Sennett added a $25 bonus to Chaplin’s salary for each short he directed. Chaplin flourished in the unexplored field of movie making. He was also able to get Keystone to sign Sydney as an actor in 1914.
Chaplin’s first full-length motion picture, The Tramp (1915), was a monstrous hit. After Chaplin made 35 films for Keystone, he was lured to Essenay Studios at a higher salary. There he made 15 films before being lured to Mutual, a Wall Street-backed production company where Chaplin made 12 films between 1916 and 1917, earning a hefty $10,000 a week plus bonuses, amounting to $670,000 that year. As the highest paid entertainer in the world, Chaplin continued to improve comedies with better plot and character development.

Charlie Chaplin Studios and United Artists

Between 1917 and 1918, First National Pictures, Inc., made one of the first million-dollar contracts in the history of Hollywood with Chaplin. However, they had no studio. The 27-year-old Chaplin built his own studio at Sunset Blvd. and La Brea in Hollywood. Sydney joined his brother as his financial advisor. At Charlie Chaplin Studios, Chaplin created many shorts and also feature-length movie dramas, including his masterworks: A Dog’s Life (1918), The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940), Monsieur Verdoux (1947), and Limelight (1952).

In 1919, Chaplin co-founded the United Artists film distribution company with actors Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks along with director D.W. Griffith. It was a way of having their own power over the distribution of their films, rather than putting them into the hands of the rising consolidation of film distributors and financiers.
In 1921, Chaplin moved his mother from the asylum to a house he bought for her in California where she was cared for until her death in 1928.

Chaplin and Younger Women

Chaplin was so popular that when people saw him they were reduced to tears and struggled against each other to touch him and tear at his clothes. And women pursued him.

In 1918, at the age of 29, Chaplin met 16-year-old Mildred Harris at a Samuel Goldwyn party. After dating a few months, Harris told Chaplin that she was pregnant. To save himself from scandal, Chaplin quietly married her. It turned out that she wasn't really pregnant. Harris later did get pregnant but the child died shortly after birth. When Chaplin asked Harris for a divorce at a settlement of $100,000, she asked for a million. They were divorced in 1920; Chaplin paid her $200,000. Harris was treated as an opportunist by the press.
In 1924, Chaplin married 16-year-old Lita Grey, who was to be his leading lady in The Gold Rush. When Grey announced pregnancy, she was replaced as leading lady and became the second Mrs. Charlie Chaplin. She bore two sons, Charlie Jr. and Sydney. On grounds of Chaplin’s adultery during the marriage, the couple divorced in 1928. Chaplin paid her $825,000. The ordeal is said to have turned Chaplin’s hair prematurely white at the age of 35.
Chaplin’s leading lady in Modern Times and The Great Dictator, 22-year-old Paulette Goddard, lived with Chaplin between 1932 and 1940. When she didn’t get the part as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind (1939), it was assumed it was because she and Chaplin weren't legally married. To prevent Goddard from being possibly further blacklisted, Chaplin and Goddard announced they had been secretly married in 1936, yet they never produced a marriage certificate.
After numerous affairs, some resulting in legal battles, Chaplin remained single until he was fifty-four. He then married 18-year-old Oona O’Neil, daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill, in 1943. Chaplin fathered eight children with Oona and remained married to her for the rest of his life. (Chaplin was 73 when his last child was born.)

Chaplin Denied Re-Entry to the U.S.

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) became suspicious of Chaplin during McCarthy's Red Scare (a period in the United States where rampant accusations of communism or communist leanings, usually without supporting evidence, led to blacklisting and other negative repercussions).

Although Chaplin had lived in the U.S. for several decades, he had never applied for U.S. citizenship. This gave the HUAC an opening to investigate Chaplin, eventually claiming that Chaplin was interjecting communist propaganda into his films. Chaplin denied being a communist and argued that even though he never became a U.S. citizen, he had been paying U.S. taxes. However, his previous affairs, divorces, and indulgences for teenage girls didn’t help his case. Chaplin was labeled a communist and subpoenaed in 1947. Although he answered questions and tried to rationalize his actions, the committee saw him as a nonconformist and therefore a communist.
In 1952, while abroad on a trip to Europe with Oona and the children, Chaplin was denied re-entry into the U.S. Unable to get home, the Chaplins eventually settled in Switzerland. Chaplin saw the entire ordeal as political persecution and satirized his experiences in his European-made film, A King in New York (1957).

Chaplin’s Soundtracks, Awards, and Knighthood

When film-making technology began to include sound in the late 1920s, Chaplin began writing soundtracks for nearly all of his films. No longer would he have to leave the melodies to the chance of random theater musicians (musicians used to play live music during the screening of films), he could now take control over what the background music would sound like as well as add special sound effects.

One particular song, “Smile,” which was the theme song Chaplin wrote for Modern Times, became a hit on the Billboard charts in 1954 when lyrics were written for it and sung by Nat King Cole.
Chaplin did not return to the U.S. until 1972, when he was honored with an Academy Award for his “incalculable effect in making motion pictures the art form of the century.” The 82-year-old Chaplin could barely speak while receiving the longest standing ovation in Oscar history, a full five minutes.
Although Chaplin made Limelight in 1952, before he was denied U.S. re-entry, his music for the film won him an Oscar in 1973 when the movie was finally played in a Los Angeles theater.
In 1975, Chaplin became Sir Charlie Chaplin when knighted by the Queen of England for his services to entertainment.

Chaplin’s Death and Stolen Corpse

Chaplin’s death of natural causes occurred in 1977 at his home in Vevey, Switzerland, surrounded by his family. He was 88. Chaplin was buried in Corsier-Sur-Vevey Cemetery, Switzerland.

Just over two months after his death, two motor mechanics dug up Chaplin’s coffin, reburied it in a secret location, and telephoned Chaplin’s widow that they were holding it for ransom. In response, police tapped 200 kiosk telephones in the area and traced the two men when they made calls to Lady Chaplin.
The two men were charged with attempted extortion and disturbing the peace of the dead. The coffin was dug up from a field, about a mile away from the Chaplin home, and cemented in its original gravesite.

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Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria

The Longest Ruling Monarch of the United Kingdom

Who Was Queen Victoria?

Ascending to the throne at only eighteen years old, Queen Victoria ruled the United Kingdom for nearly 64 years, the longest of any British monarch. During her reign, Great Britain became a powerful industrial nation and boasted an empire that stretched across the globe. Despite the early loss of her beloved husband, Queen Victoria provided a reassuring stability during much of the nineteenth century - an era of great social and technological change. The years of her reign are referred to as the Victorian Era.

Dates: May 24, 1819 - January 22, 1901
Reign: 1837 - 1901
Also Known As: Alexandrina Victoria of the House of Hanover; "the Grandmother of Europe"

The Girl Who Would Be Queen

Queen Victoria was born at Kensington Palace on May 24, 1819 to Edward, the Duke of Kent (and fourth son of King George III) and German Princess Victoire of Leiningen. Although Victoria was fifth in line to the throne - unlikely to become monarch - the duke feared that any future claim to the throne might be challenged if she were born abroad. He ensured that his daughter was born on British soil, moving with his pregnant wife from Germany to England.

Christened Alexandrina Victoria at birth, the child came to be called Victoria. Despite being born into royalty, she did not grow up surrounded by wealth. Edward's spendthrift ways had left him with many debts. The duke and duchess, in an attempt to reduce expenses, moved with their infant daughter to a modest home. Not long after the move, Edward became ill and died of pneumonia on January 23, 1820. Six days later, King George III died as well, thus making George IV King of England.
Victoria was now third in line to the throne behind her two uncles, who had failed to produce heirs.

Victoria's Less Than Royal Childhood

King George IV, whose only legitimate child had died in childbirth, was resentful of his brother's daughter. He begrudgingly allowed Victoria and her mother to move into an apartment at Kensington Palace, but would only approve a small allowance. The duchess’s brother, Prince Leopold (later King Leopold of Belgium), agreed to pay for Victoria's upbringing and education.

Tutors were hired to school Victoria in history, math, drawing, and languages. Raised by a German mother who spoke little English, Victoria spoke mostly German the first few years of her life, but readily learned both English and French.
In 1827, when Victoria was eight, her Uncle Frederick, the Duke of York, died, placing her one step closer to the throne.

A Scheming Pair

When newly widowed, Victoria's mother had turned for advice to John Conroy, a colleague of her late husband. In the years following the duke's death, the self-serving Conroy convinced the duchess that she should have herself declared Victoria's regent (an agent acting on behalf of an incapacitated or underage monarch) in the event that Victoria became queen while still a minor. In this way, Conroy - through the duchess - could essentially control the throne.

When King George IV (who loathed Conroy and the duchess) died in 1830, the pair believed they could easily persuade newly-crowned King William IV to name the duchess as Victoria's regent. But King William did not trust the duchess and refused her request. The duchess petitioned Parliament, winning approval as Victoria's sole regent in 1831.
The regency proved unnecessary. On June 20, 1837, a month after Victoria's eighteenth birthday, King William died, making Victoria queen of England.

The Young Queen

Weeks after assuming the throne, Queen Victoria moved to Buckingham Palace, where she began the business of ruling the nation. The young queen's composure and confidence impressed the prime minister and the Privy Council (a group of high government officials and advisers to a monarch).

The official coronation was held on June 28, 1838 amid great celebration. The public was enchanted by the new queen, who seemed more eager to please them than her predecessors had. A scandalous incident, however, would soon sway public opinion against her.
The "Lady Flora affair," as it came to be known, was the product of the young queen's immaturity and lack of discretion. Victoria, among others, had noticed that her mother's lady-in-waiting, Flora Hastings - an unmarried woman - appeared to have a bulging abdomen. Queen Victoria jumped to the conclusion that Lady Flora was pregnant, and began to make comments about her to various members of her staff. The rumor circulated beyond palace walls.
Within months, Lady Flora was gravely ill. When she died of an apparent abdominal tumor, the queen was blamed for having started the rumors that had brought dishonor upon a dying woman. The public was outraged; many of her detractors actually booed the queen when she went out in public.
It would take an engagement and marriage for Queen Victoria to regain her reputation.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert: Courtship and Marriage

Victoria's Uncle Leopold had long favored his German nephew Prince Albert - first cousin to Victoria - as the perfect candidate for marriage to the queen. When the prince and Victoria had met two years earlier, she had been impressed by Albert's looks and demeanor. Upon meeting with him a second time in October 1839, Victoria seemed smitten. Within days, she proposed to him (protocol would not allow him to propose to her), and the engagement was announced.

Even before the wedding a debate arose as to what title Prince Albert should hold. Queen Victoria preferred "King Consort," so that Albert could rule by her side, but members of Parliament were opposed to giving that power to a foreigner. Parliament decided to award the prince no rank or title whatsoever; he was simply made a British subject. Prince Albert was immensely disappointed, and the queen was furious, but could not oppose the decision.
The wedding was held on February 10, 1840. Despite rainy weather, large crowds lined the streets to watch the procession from Buckingham Palace. Later, the crowd cheered as the newly-married couple rode past in their carriage.

The Royal Offspring

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert welcomed the birth of their first child, Princess Victoria in November 1840. However, the queen was not happy that she'd become pregnant so soon after the wedding, and often complained in her journal about the difficulties of motherhood.

Queen Victoria gave birth to a male heir, Albert ("Bertie"), a year later. Between 1843 and 1857, the queen had seven more children, completing her family of five daughters and four sons. All survived to adulthood, a rare outcome at a time when many children did not survive infancy.
The queen's fourth son Leopold, born in 1853, was diagnosed at an early age with hemophilia, a genetically-transmitted bleeding disorder. He died in his thirties of the disease. Through the marriages of Victoria's children, hemophilia later re-emerged in several European royal families, most notably in the son of Czar Nicholas II of Russia and his wife Alexandra (Victoria's granddaughter). It was later determined that Queen Victoria and two of her daughters (as well as Alexandra) were carriers of the gene, which was passed on to their sons.

Prince Albert's Role

Prince Albert enjoyed being a father and found that having children had necessitated that he take on more responsibilities in the royal household. Queen Victoria increasingly relied upon him for advice, and he welcomed this new role. The prince was widely praised for organizing palace finances and eliminating wasteful spending.

Prince Albert earned the admiration of the British public following an assassination attempt upon the queen in 1840. When a gunman shot at the royal carriage, Albert acted quickly, pushing his wife to the carriage floor to avoid the bullet. (Queen Victoria would survive seven assassination attempts.)
After initial reservations about Albert's capabilities, Parliament appointed him regent in July 1840 during the queen's pregnancy. As regent, Prince Albert would be in charge of the heir if Queen Victoria were to die in childbirth, or otherwise. The prince was not awarded the title of "prince consort" until 1857.

War and Rebellion

The British became involved in the Crimean War from 1854 to 1856. Most of the fighting took place in Russian-held Crimea, where bitter cold and disease took as many lives as battle wounds. The queen, lacking any power in military situations, felt compelled to help. She organized relief efforts, knitted socks and mittens, and visited soldiers in hospitals. In her official capacity, Queen Victoria wrote letters of condolence to war widows.

British presence in India stirred up a rebellion of Indian soldiers, called "sepoys," in 1857. The uprising resulted in the deaths of hundreds of European civilians. When the rebellion was finally subdued by British troops, all of India came under the control of the Crown of England. Queen Victoria proudly referred to India as a "jewel of her crown." She was proclaimed Empress of India in 1877, when Parliament passed the Royal Titles Act.

The Death of Prince Albert

Queen Victoria endured the darkest year of her life in 1861, beginning with the death of her mother in March. Later in the year, her oldest son, Bertie - first in line to the throne - created a scandal by becoming romantically involved with an actress. Prince Albert traveled to Cambridge to chastise his son, despite feeling weak and feverish. He returned to Windsor Castle, where his condition deteriorated over the next few weeks. Prince Albert died on December 14, 1861 from probable stomach cancer.

A widow at forty-two, the queen was devastated. Faced with her official duties as well as the care of her children, she felt incapable of carrying on. Queen Victoria became a recluse, avoiding public events and social engagements and even refused foreign visitors.
Victoria's children suffered as well. They had lost their father; now their mother, too, seemed to abandon them in her grief. Some of the younger children became depressed and withdrawn, and Bertie became the object of his mother's anger. The queen blamed the twenty-one-year-old prince for his father's death. She felt that her son's misbehavior had compelled Prince Albert to make the trip to Cambridge, worsening his illness.
The public and Parliament began to lose patience with the queen, who neglected her duties and remained in mourning for more than three years.

Queen Victoria and John Brown

Desperate to help the grieving queen, the royal physician suggested that she go horseback riding to improve her health. He sent for the groom from the queen's stables in Scotland. John Brown arrived in early 1865.

The handsome thirty-nine year old sported a kilt and had a straightforward, somewhat rough way of talking with the queen. She responded well to him and began venturing out in public for the first time in years. Although it was clear that the queen was in better spirits since Brown's arrival, he was unpopular with both the queen's family and the public. Rumors abounded that the two were having an affair, but no proof has ever been found to support that notion.
John Brown remained the queen's servant until 1883, when he died of a streptococcal infection.

Later Years

Over the years, Queen Victoria regained her popularity by making more of an effort to attend public functions and by becoming involved in charitable causes. She kept close contact with an ever-changing roster of prime ministers, always ready with an opinion on the issues of the day.

The queen celebrated her Diamond Jubilee in 1897, marking sixty years as monarch. She was proud of the many jubilee biographies that were written about her, several of which described her as a virtuous woman who set a good example.
Queen Victoria died of a stroke on January 22, 1901 at the age of 81. Her eldest son, Albert, succeeded her as King Edward VII.

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Thomas Edison:-

Who Was Thomas Edison?

Thomas Edison is regarded as one of history's most influential inventors, whose contributions to the modern era transformed the lives of people the world over. Edison is best known for having invented the electric light bulb, the phonograph, and the first motion-picture camera; however, in all, Edison held an astonishing 1,093 patents. In addition to his inventions, Edison built his famous laboratory in Menlo Park, which is considered the forerunner of the modern-day research facility. Despite Thomas Edison's incredible productivity, some consider him a controversial figure and have accused him of profiting from the ideas of other inventors. Dates: February 11, 1847 -- October 18, 1931
Also Known As: Thomas Alva Edison, "Wizard of Menlo Park"
Famous Quote: "Genius is one percent inspiration, and ninety-nine percent perspiration."

Childhood in Ohio and Michigan

Thomas Alva Edison, born in Milan, Ohio on February 11, 1847, was the seventh and last child born to Samuel and Nancy Edison. Since three of the youngest children did not survive early childhood, Thomas Alva (known as "Al" as a child and later as “Tom”) grew up with one brother and two sisters. Edison's father, Samuel, had fled to the U.S. in 1837 to avoid arrest after having openly rebelled against British rule in his native Canada. Samuel eventually resettled in Milan, Ohio, where he opened a successful lumber business. Young Al Edison grew into a very inquisitive child, constantly asking questions about the world around him. His curiosity got him into trouble on several occasions. At three years old, Al climbed a ladder to the top of his father's grain elevator, then fell in as he leaned over to look inside. Fortunately, his father witnessed the fall and rescued him before he was suffocated by the grain. On another occasion, six-year-old Al started a fire in his father's barn just to see what would happen. The barn burned to the ground. An enraged Samuel Edison punished his son by giving him a public whipping.
In 1854, the Edison family moved to Port Huron, Michigan. That same year, seven-year-old Al contracted scarlet fever, an illness that possibly contributed to the future inventor's gradual hearing loss.
It was in Port Huron that eight-year-old Edison started school, but he only attended for a few months. His teacher, who disapproved of Edison's constant questions, considered him somewhat of a mischief-maker. When Edison overheard the teacher refer to him as "addled," he became upset and ran home to tell his mother. Nancy Edison quickly withdrew her son from school and decided to teach him herself. While Nancy, a former teacher, introduced her son to the works of Shakespeare and Dickens as well as to scientific textbooks, Edison's father also encouraged him to read, offering to pay him a penny for each book he completed. Young Edison absorbed it all.

A Scientist and Entrepreneur

Inspired by his science books, Edison set up his first lab in his parents' cellar. He saved his pennies to purchase batteries, test tubes, and chemicals. Edison was fortunate that his mother supported his experiments and didn't close down his lab after the occasional small explosion or chemical spill. Edison's experiments didn't end there, of course; he and a friend created their own telegraph system, crudely modeled upon the one invented by Samuel F. B. Morse in 1832. After several failed attempts (one of which involved rubbing two cats together to create electricity), the boys finally succeeded and were able to send and receive messages on the device.
When the railroad came to Port Huron in 1859, 12-year-old Edison persuaded his parents to let him get a job. Hired by the Grand Trunk Railroad as a train boy, he sold newspapers to passengers on the route between Port Huron and Detroit. Finding himself with some free time on the daily trip, Edison convinced the conductor to let him set up a lab in the baggage car. The arrangement did not last long, however, for Edison accidentally set fire to the baggage car when one of his jars of highly flammable phosphorus fell to the floor.
Once the Civil War began in 1861, Edison's business really took off, as more people bought newspapers to keep up with the latest news from the battlefields. Edison capitalized upon this need and steadily raised his prices. Ever the entrepreneur, Edison bought produce during his layover in Detroit and sold it to passengers at a profit. He later opened his own newspaper and produce stand in Port Huron, hiring other boys as vendors. By 1862, Edison had started his own publication, the weekly Grand Trunk Herald.

Edison the Telegrapher

Fate -- and an act of bravery -- handed Edison a most welcome opportunity to learn professional telegraphy, a skill which would help determine his future. In 1862, as 15-year-old Edison waited at the station for his train to change cars, he spotted a young child playing on the tracks, oblivious to the freight car heading straight for him. Edison leapt onto the tracks and lifted the boy to safety, earning the eternal gratitude of the boy's father, station telegrapher James Mackenzie. To repay Edison for having saved his son's life, Mackenzie offered to teach him the finer points of telegraphy. After five months of studying with Mackenzie, Edison was qualified to work as a "plug," or second-class telegrapher. With this new skill, Edison became a traveling telegrapher in 1863. He stayed busy, often filling in for men who had gone off to war. Edison worked throughout much of the central and northern United States, as well as parts of Canada. Despite unglamorous working conditions and shabby lodgings, Edison enjoyed his work. As he moved from job to job, Edison's skills continually improved. Unfortunately, at the same time, Edison realized that he was losing his hearing to the extent that it might eventually affect his ability to work at telegraphy.
In 1867, Edison, by now 20 years old and an experienced telegrapher, was hired to work in the Boston office of Western Union, the nation's largest telegraph company. Although he was at first teased by his co-workers for his cheap clothes and countrified ways, he soon impressed them all with his rapid messaging abilities.

Edison Becomes an Inventor

Despite his success as a telegrapher, Edison longed for a greater challenge. Eager to advance his scientific knowledge, Edison studied a volume of electricity-based experiments written by 19th-century British scientist Michael Faraday. In 1868, inspired by his reading, Edison developed his first patented invention -- an automatic vote recorder designed for use by legislators. Unfortunately, although the device performed flawlessly, he could not find any buyers. (Politicians didn't like the idea of locking in their votes immediately without the option of further debate.) Edison resolved to never again invent something for which there was no clear need or demand. Edison next became interested in the stock ticker, a device that had been invented in 1867. Businessmen used stock tickers in their offices to keep them informed of changes in stock market prices. Edison, along with a friend, briefly ran a gold-reporting service that used the stock tickers to transmit gold prices into subscribers' offices. After that business failed, Edison set about improving the performance of the ticker. He was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with working as a telegrapher.
In 1869, Edison decided to leave his job in Boston and move to New York City to become a full-time inventor and manufacturer. His first project in New York was to perfect the stock ticker that he had been working on. Edison sold his improved version to Western Union for the enormous sum of $40,000, an amount that enabled him to open his own business.
Edison established his first manufacturing shop, American Telegraph Works, in Newark, New Jersey in 1870. He employed 50 workers, including a machinist, a clockmaker, and a mechanic. Edison worked side-by-side with his closest assistants and welcomed their input and suggestions. One employee, however, had captured Edison's attention above all others -- Mary Stilwell, an attractive girl of 16.

Marriage and Family

Unaccustomed to courting young women and hampered somewhat by his hearing loss, Edison behaved awkwardly around Mary, but he eventually made it clear that he was interested in her. After a brief courtship, the two married on Christmas Day, 1871. Edison was 24 years old. Mary Edison soon learned the reality of being married to an up-and-coming inventor. She spent many evenings alone while her husband stayed late at the lab, immersed in his work. Indeed, the next few years were very productive ones for Edison; he applied for nearly 60 patents. Two notable inventions from this period were the quadruplex telegraph system (which could send two messages in each direction simultaneously, rather than one at a time), and the electric pen, which made duplicate copies of a document.
The Edisons had three children between 1873 and 1878: Marion, Thomas Alva, Jr., and William. Edison nicknamed the two eldest children "Dot" and "Dash," a reference to the dots and dashes from the Morse code used in telegraphy.

The Laboratory at Menlo Park

In 1876, Edison erected a two-story building in rural Menlo Park, New Jersey, conceived for the sole purpose of experimentation. Edison and his wife bought a house nearby and installed a plank sidewalk connecting it to the lab. Despite working close to home, Edison often became so involved in his work, he stayed overnight in the lab. Mary and the children saw very little of him. Following Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone in 1876, Edison became interested in improving the device, which was still crude and inefficient. Edison was encouraged in this endeavor by Western Union, whose hope it was that Edison could create a different version of the telephone. The company could then make money from Edison's telephone without infringing upon Bell's patent. Edison did improve upon Bell's telephone, creating a convenient earpiece and mouthpiece; he also built a transmitter that could carry messages over a longer distance.

Invention of the Phonograph

Edison began to investigate ways in which a voice could not only be transmitted over a wire, but recorded as well. In June 1877, while working in the lab on an audio project, Edison and his assistants inadvertently scratched grooves into a disc. This unexpectedly produced a sound, which motivated Edison to create a rough sketch of a recording machine, the phonograph. By November of that year, Edison's assistants had created a working model. Incredibly, the device worked on the first try, a rare outcome for a new invention. Edison became an overnight celebrity. He had been known to the scientific community for some time; now, the public at large knew his name. The New York Daily Graphic christened him "the Wizard of Menlo Park." Scientists and academics from around the world praised the phonograph and even President Rutherford B. Hayes insisted upon a private demonstration at the White House. Convinced that the device had more uses than as a mere parlor trick, Edison started a company devoted to marketing the phonograph. (He eventually abandoned the phonograph, however, only to resurrect it decades later.)
When the chaos had settled down from the phonograph, Edison turned to a project that had long intrigued him -- the creation of an electric light.

Lighting the World

By the 1870s, several inventors had already begun to find ways to produce electric light. Edison attended the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 to examine the arc light exhibit displayed by inventor Moses Farmer. He studied it carefully and came away convinced that he could make something better. Edison's goal was to create an incandescent light bulb, which was softer and less glaring than arc lighting. Edison and his assistants experimented with different materials for the filament in the light bulb. The ideal material would withstand high heat and continue to burn for longer than just a few minutes (the longest time they had observed up until then). On October 21, 1879, the Edison team discovered that carbonized cotton sewing thread exceeded their expectations, staying lit for nearly 15 hours. Now they began the work of perfecting the light and mass-producing it.
The project was immense and would require years to complete. In addition to fine-tuning the light bulb, Edison also needed to consider how to provide electricity on a large scale. He and his team would need to produce wires, sockets, switches, a power source, and an entire infrastructure for delivering power. Edison's power source was a giant dynamo -- a generator that converted mechanical energy into electric energy.
Edison decided that the ideal place to debut his new system would be downtown Manhattan, but he needed financial backing for such a grand project. To win investors over, Edison gave them a demonstration of electric light at his Menlo Park lab on New Year's Eve, 1879. Visitors were enthralled by the spectacle and Edison received the money he needed to install electricity to a portion of downtown Manhattan.
After more than two years, the complex installation was at last completed. On September 4, 1882, Edison's Pearl Street Station delivered power to a one square mile section of Manhattan. Although Edison's undertaking was a success, it would be two years before the station actually made a profit. Gradually, more and more customers subscribed to the service.

Alternating Current Vs. Direct Current

Soon after the Pearl Street Station had brought power to Manhattan, Edison became caught up in the dispute over which type of electricity was superior: direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC). Scientist Nikola Tesla, a former employee of Edison's, became his chief rival in the matter. Edison favored DC and had used it in all of his systems. Tesla, who had left Edison's lab over a pay dispute, was hired by inventor George Westinghouse to build the AC system which he (Westinghouse) had devised. With most of the evidence pointing to AC current as the more efficient and economically feasible choice, Westinghouse chose to support AC current. In a shameful attempt to discredit the safety of AC power, Edison staged some disturbing stunts, purposely electrocuting stray animals -- and even a circus elephant -- using AC current. Horrified, Westinghouse offered to meet with Edison to settle their differences; Edison refused.
In the end, the dispute was settled by consumers, who preferred the AC system by a margin of five to one. The final blow came when Westinghouse won the contract to harness Niagara Falls for the production of AC power.
Later in life, Edison admitted that one of his biggest mistakes had been his reluctance to accept AC power as superior to DC.

Loss and Remarriage

Edison had long neglected his wife Mary, but was devastated when she died suddenly at the age of 29 in August 1884. Historians suggest that the cause was probably a brain tumor. The two boys, who had never been close to their father, were sent to live with Mary's mother, but twelve-year-old Marion ("Dot") stayed with her father. They became very close. Edison preferred to work from his New York lab, allowing the Menlo Park facility to fall into ruin. He continued to work on improving the phonograph and the telephone.
Edison married again in 1886 at the age of 39, after proposing in Morse code to eighteen-year-old Mina Miller. The wealthy, educated young woman was better suited to life as the wife of a famous inventor than had been Mary Stilwell. Edison's children moved with the couple to their new mansion in West Orange, New Jersey. Mina Edison eventually gave birth to three children: daughter Madeleine and sons Charles and Theodore.

West Orange Lab

Edison built a new laboratory in West Orange in 1887. It far surpassed his first facility at Menlo Park, comprising three stories and 40,000 square feet. While he worked on projects, others managed his companies for him. In 1889, several of his investors merged into one company, called Edison General Electric Company, the forerunner of today's General Electric (GE). Inspired by a series of groundbreaking photos of a horse in motion, Edison became interested in moving pictures. In 1893, he developed a kinetograph (to record motion) and a kinetoscope (to display the moving pictures). Edison built the first motion picture studio on his West Orange complex, dubbing the building the "Black Maria." The building had a hole in the roof and could actually be rotated upon a turntable in order to capture the sunlight. One of his best-known films was The Great Train Robbery, made in 1903.
Edison also became involved in mass-producing phonographs and records at the turn of the century. What had once been a novelty was now a household item and it became very lucrative for Edison.
Fascinated by the discovery of X-rays by Dutch scientist William Rontgen, Edison produced the first commercially-produced fluoroscope, which allowed real-time visualization inside the human body. After losing one of his workers to radiation poisoning, however, Edison never worked with X-rays again.

Later Years

Always enthusiastic about new ideas, Edison was thrilled to hear about Henry Ford's new gas-powered automobile. Edison himself attempted to develop a car battery that could be recharged with electricity, but was never successful. He and Ford became friends for life, and went on yearly camping trips with other prominent men of the time. From 1915 until the end of World War I, Edison served on the Naval Consulting Board -- a group of scientists and inventors whose goal it was to help the U.S. prepare for war. Edison's most important contribution to the U.S. Navy was his suggestion that a research laboratory be built. Eventually the facility was built and led to important technical advances that benefited the Navy during World War II.
Edison continued to work on several projects and experiments for the remainder of his life. In 1928, he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, presented to him at the Edison Laboratory.
Thomas Edison died at his home in West Orange, New Jersey on October 18, 1931 at the age of 84. On the day of his funeral, President Herbert Hoover asked Americans to dim the lights in their homes as a way of paying tribute to the man who had given them electricity.

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Jane Goodall:-

(Chimpanzee Researcher and Activist)

Who Is Jane Goodall?

Jane Goodall is a renowned British primatologist and ethologist, who expanded our understanding of chimpanzees and the scientific world’s way of conducting research in the wild. Best known for her decades of living among the chimps of the Gombe Stream Reserve in Africa, she is also well known for her efforts toward conservation and activism on behalf of animals and the natural environment. Dates: April 3, 1934 –
Also Known As: Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall, V.J. Goodall, Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, Dr. Jane Goodall

Growing Up

Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall was born in London, England, on April 3, 1934. Her parents were Mortimer Herbert Morris-Goodall, a businessman and race-car driver, and Margaret Myfanwe “Vanne” Joseph, a secretary when the pair married in 1932, turned housewife, who would later become a novelist under the name Vanne Morris Goodall. A younger sister, Judy, would complete the Goodall family four years later. With war declared in England in 1939, Mortimer Morris-Goodall enlisted. Vanne moved with her two young daughters to her mother’s home in the seaside town of Bournemouth, England. Jane saw little of her father during the war years and her parents divorced in 1950. Jane continued to live with her mother and sister at her grandmother’s home.
From her very earliest years, Jane Goodall loved animals. She received a stuffed-toy chimpanzee named Jubilee from her father when she was a toddler and endlessly carried it with her (she still has the well-loved and worn Jubilee today). She also had a menagerie of living pets including dogs, cats, guinea pigs, caterpillars, snails, and a hamster.
Along with an early love of animals, Goodall seemed fascinated by them as well. As a young child, she kept a wildlife journal detailing observations from such research as hiding out for hours in the henhouse to witness how hens lay eggs. Another story reports she brought a pocketful of earth and worms into her bed to start a colony under her pillow to observe the earthworms. In both of these instances, Goodall’s mother did not scold, but encouraged her young daughter’s interest and enthusiasm.
As a child, Goodall loved to read The Story of Dr. Dolittle by Hugh Lofting and Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burrough. Through these books she developed a dream to visit Africa and study the abundance of wildlife there.

Fortuitous Invitation and Meeting

Jane Goodall graduated from high school in 1952. With limited funds for further education, she enrolled in secretarial school. After some time working as a secretary and then as an assistant for a filmmaking company, Goodall received an invitation from a childhood friend to come for a visit. The friend was living in Africa at the time. Goodall abruptly quit her job in London and moved back home to Bournemouth where she secured a job as a waitress in an effort to save money for fare to Kenya. In 1957, Jane Goodall sailed to Africa. Within weeks of being there, Goodall started work as a secretary in Nairobi. Shortly thereafter, she was encouraged to meet Dr. Louis Leakey, famed archeologist and paleontologist. She made such a positive first impression that Dr. Leakey hired her on the spot to replace his departing secretary at the Coryndon Museum.
Soon thereafter, Goodall was invited to join Dr. Leakey and his wife, Dr. Mary Leakey (an anthropologist), on a fossil digging expedition at Olduvai Gorge in the Serengeti National Park. Goodall readily accepted.

The Study

Dr. Louis Leakey wanted to complete a longitudinal study of chimpanzees in the wild to obtain possible clues of human evolution. He asked Jane Goodall, who had no advance education, to oversee such a study at the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve at Lake Tanganyika in what is now known as Tanzania. In June 1960, Goodall, along with her mother as a companion (the government refused to allow a young, single woman to travel alone in the jungle), entered the reserve to observe wild chimps in their natural environment. Goodall’s mother remained about five months but was then replaced by Dr. Leakey’s assistant. Jane Goodall would stay in the Gombe Reserve, off and on, conducting research for more than 50 years.
During her initial months at the reserve, Goodall had difficulty observing the chimps as they would scatter as soon as they detected her. But with persistence and patience, Goodall was shortly granted access to the chimpanzees’ daily behaviors.
Goodall took careful documentation of physical appearances and mannerisms. She recorded individual chimps with names, which at the time was not practice (scientists at the time used numbers to name research subjects so as not to personify the subjects). Within the first year of her observations, Jane Goodall would make two very important discoveries.

Discoveries

The first discovery came when Goodall witnessed the chimps eating meat. Prior to this discovery, chimpanzees were thought to be herbivores. The second came a short time later when Goodall observed two chimps strip leaves off a twig and then proceed to use the bare twig to “fish” for termites in a termite mound, which they were successful at doing. This was an important discovery, because at the time, scientists thought only humans made and used tools. Over time, Jane Goodall would go on to observe the chimps stalking and hunting small animals, large insects, and birds. She also recorded acts of violence, use of stones as weapons, warfare, and cannibalism among the chimps. On the lighter side, she learned that chimps have the ability to reason and problem-solve, as well as have a complex social structure and system of communication.
Goodall also found that chimpanzees demonstrate a range of emotions, use touch to comfort one another, develop significant bonds between mother and offspring, and maintain generational attachments. She recorded the adoption of an orphaned chimp by an unrelated adolescent male and saw chimps demonstrate affection, cooperation, and helpfulness. Due to the study’s longevity, Goodall witnessed the life stages of chimpanzees from infancy to death.

Personal Changes

After Goodall’s first year at the Gombe Reserve and her two major discoveries, Dr. Leakey advised Goodall to obtain a Ph.D. so she would have the ability to secure additional funding and continue the study on her own. Goodall entered the ethology doctoral program at Cambridge University in England without an undergraduate degree and during the next few years would split her time between classes in England and continuing research at Gombe Reserve. When the National Geographic Society (NGS) provided funding for Goodall’s research in 1962, they sent Dutch photographer Hugo van Lawick to supplement the article Goodall was to write. Goodall and Lawick soon fell in love and were married in March 1964.
That fall, NGS approved Goodall’s proposal for a permanent research center at the reserve, which allowed the ongoing study of chimpanzees by other scientists and students. Goodall and van Lawick lived together at the Gombe Research Center, although both continuing their independent work and travelled as needed.
In 1965, Goodall completed her Ph.D., a second article for National Geographic Magazine, and starred in a CBS television special, Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees. Two years later, on March 4, 1967, Jane Goodall gave birth to her only child, Hugo Eric Louis van Lawick (nicknamed Grub), who would be raised in the African jungle. She also published her first book, My Friends the Wild Chimpanzees, that year.
Over the years, the traveling demands of both their careers seemed to take its toll and in 1974, Goodall and van Lawick divorced. A year later, Jane Goodall married Derek Bryceson, the director of the Tanzania National Park. Unfortunately, their union was cut short when Bryceson died five years later from cancer.

Beyond the Reserve

With the Gombe Stream Research Center growing and a need for fundraising increasing, Goodall began to spend more time away from the reserve during the 1970s. She also spent time writing, with her internationally successful book, In the Shadow of Man, released in 1971. In 1977, she founded the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education, and Conservation (known simply as the Jane Goodall Institute). This nonprofit organization promotes the conservation of primate habitat and the well-being of chimpanzees and other animals, as well as fostering positive relationships among all living things and the environment. It continues today, making an extra special effort to reach young people, who Goodall believes will be more responsible leaders of tomorrow with conservation education.
Goodall also started the program Roots & Shoots in 1991 to assist young people with community projects that are attempting to make the world a better place. Today, Roots & Shoots is a network of tens of thousands kids in more than 120 countries.
Another global program was started by the Jane Goodall Institute in 1984 to improve the lives of captive chimps. ChimpanZoo, the largest research study of chimpanzees in captivity ever undertaken, observes captive chimps’ behavior and compares it to that of their counterparts in the wild and makes recommendations for improvements for those in captivity.

From Scientist to Activist

With the release of her lengthy book, The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior, which detailed her 25 years of research at the reserve, Goodall attended a large conference in Chicago in 1986 that brought scientists together from around the world to discuss chimpanzees. While at this conference, Goodall developed a deep concern for their shrinking numbers and disappearing natural habitat, as well as the inhumane treatment of chimpanzees in captivity. Since that time, Jane Goodall has become a dedicated advocate for animal rights, species conservation, and habitat protection, particularly for chimpanzees. She travels more than 80 percent of each year, speaking publically to encourage individuals to be responsible caretakers of the natural environment and animals.

Messenger of Peace

Jane Goodall has received a number of recognitions for her work; among them are the J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize in 1984, the National Geographic Society Centennial Award in 1988, and in 1995 she was given the status of Commander of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II. Additionally, as a prolific writer, Jane Goodall has published numerous well-received articles and books about chimpanzees, her life with them, and conservation. In April 2002, Goodall was named a UN Messenger of Peace by Secretary-General Kofi Annan for her commitment to creating a safer, more stable, and harmonious natural world. She was re-appointed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2007.
Jane Goodall continues her work with the Jane Goodall Institute promoting conservation education and awareness for the natural environment and its animals. She travels yearly to the Gombe Stream Research Center and though she is no longer involved in the day-to-day field research of the longest unbroken study of an animal group, she still enjoys time with the chimpanzees in the wild.

 

 

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