Thomas A. Edison

Dubbed the 'Wizard of Menlo Park' during his own lifetime, and considered by some the "ancestral deity" of General Electric, Edison was a major contributor to the age of electronics. Renowned for his work on the incandescent light bulb and phonograph, his ingenuity also touched devices such as the stock ticker, mimeograph machine and telephone transmitter. Edison's New Jersey labs in Newark, Menlo Park and West Orange were think tanks extraordinaire, where creative minds worked together on key developments in early motion picture technology.