Bolivar Telegraph Operator Makes Good!

Who was this man?

As a young man he stayed at the Bolivar Hotel and worked in Bolivar and Grand Junction, Tennessee as a telegraph operator. He became a telegraph operator after he saved three-year-old Jimmie MacKenzie from being struck by a runaway train. Jimmie's father, station agent J.U. MacKenzie of Mount Clemens, MI, was so grateful that he trained him as a telegraph operator. As an inventor, this man obtained his last patent (1,093) at age 83. Considered America's greatest inventor and dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park," he founded the company we know today as General Electric.

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 - October 18, 1931) was an American inventor, scientist and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors in history, holding 1,093 U.S. patents in his name as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. He is credited with numerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications. These included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power generation, recorded music and motion pictures. His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his early career as a telegraph operator!