Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931), US inventor. Edison is famous for inventing or improving devices such as the phonograph and the electric light bulb. He founded several laboratories and companies, and filed over 1000 patents. He also founded the journal Science, in 1880, which is now the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Photographed by John E. Garabrant. Published in The Epic of Industry (1926), volume five of The Pageant of America: A Pictorial History of the United States, which was a 15-volume series commemorating 150 years since the founding of the USA in 1776.