Thomas Edison
An inventor with one thousand and ninety-three American patents to his name: the phonograph, a working incandescent lamp, the kinetoscope, a system for lighting cities. He devised not only things but a way of devising them — the industrial laboratory at Menlo Park, where invention first became an organised business.
Born in Milan, Ohio, on 11 February 1847 at 03:00 local mean time: standard time came to the United States only in 1883. The hour is given consistently in references, but it rests on family tradition rather than a record.