Nine Views on Thomas Alva Edison By ReadWorks

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1 Nine Views on Thomas Alva Edison Nine Views on Thomas Alva Edison By ReadWorks I was filling out the paperwork for one of his patents when I heard a muffled smacking noise. Then another one, two seconds later, then another. This went on for 15 minutes before my curiosity got the better of me. I followed the noise to his workshop, and when I peered in through the small window in the door, I saw Thomas Alva Edison sitting at his desk, smacking himself in the forehead with his palm. He continued without interruption for the next hour and a half. When he first hired me, he insisted I show up to work in my Sunday best. His laboratory, he said, was nothing less than a church. Thomas Alva Edison was the sweetest man I ever knew. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. If we wanted to walk to a friend s house for tea on a Sunday afternoon, we had to leave 30 minutes early, because Thomas would stop to smell any bright flower that caught his eye, and stop to chat with every little boy or girl who laughed or smiled, and trade comments about the weather with the old folks. I remember the War of Currents. Direct current versus alternating current, DC vs. AC. Of course, Thomas Alva Edison stood to make a fortune if DC won. And of course, AC turned out to be much better. Safer, cheaper, easier to use. But Thomas believed in the power of direct current with the passion of a true believer. And so he set up a number of public experiments. For months, he would be frantic. He worked all his contacts in the newspapers and magazines. He worked politicians, business people. He thought that the entire nation was curious about the superior form of power distribution. He lit up light bulbs, and no one cared. He lit up whole displays, and no one cared. He blew up potatoes. No one cared. Finally, he got it into his head what a genius he was, at publicity if nothing else that the best way to promote DC 1

2 Nine Views on Thomas Alva Edison was to spread the rumor that AC was more powerful, so powerful, in fact, that it was deadly. To prove it, he held a public exhibition in which he electrocuted two dogs, one by direct current and one by alternating current. Both died. Thomas Alva Edison had 14 pairs of socks. No more, no less. If one pair wore out, he immediately replaced it. Always 14. I guess he was absentminded. For example, he was terrible with names. Just awful. I saw him go blank on the name of a man he had worked with for eight years. But here's the thing he gave everyone nicknames. And he never, never forgot a nickname. His nickname for me was pillow. I have no idea why. Fish fascinated him. Could the rumor be true? Is Thomas Alva Edison's last breath in a glass tube in Mr. Henry Ford's possession? Did Mr. Ford really ask Mr. Edison s son to hold a tube up against his father s mouth and then cap it as quick as he could? My boy was three years old. Three years. Innocent, you know. Totally without blame. Perfect, the way very small children are. I was in my office by the station, working at my desk. I thought he was with his mother, who was across the street, having dinner. And she thought he was with me. But Jimmie, my boy, was with neither of us. He had wandered off. Wandered off toward the tracks. I wasn't there, so I couldn't swear that this was exactly how it happened, but multiple people eyewitnesses described it this way: Jimmie waddling along, happy as a clam, with no idea that this train was barreling down toward him. He was on the tracks! Just walking right down the middle! And the train was coming down hard, and it would have killed him, no doubt about it, if that young man hadn't swooped out of nowhere and snatched Jimmie from the very jaws of death. To repay that man, I taught him how to use a telegraph. Soon after, he got a job as a telegraph operator. He was only 14 years old. His name was Thomas Alva Edison. 2

3 Name: Date: 1. What is Thomas Alva Edison doing at the beginning of the story? 2. The title of the text is "Nine Views on Thomas Alva Edison." The text has nine paragraphs. How do the paragraphs support the title? 3. Read this sentence from the text. Thomas Alva Edison was the sweetest man I ever knew. What evidence from the story supports this statement? 1

4 4. One of the views provided relates to the "War of Currents." What was the War of Currents? 5. What is the main idea of this story? 6. Read these sentences. "I wasn't there, so I couldn't swear that this was exactly how it happened, but multiple people eyewitnesses described it this way: Jimmie waddling along, happy as a clam, with no idea that this train was barreling down toward him. He was on the tracks! Just walking right down the middle! And the train was coming down hard, and it would have killed him, no doubt about it, if that young man hadn't swooped out of nowhere and snatched Jimmie from the very jaws of death." What does the phrase jaws of death refer to? 2

5 7. What word or phrase best completes the sentence? Thomas Alva Edison had trouble remembering names;, he never forgot nicknames. 8. What can be inferred about Thomas Alva's personality based on the information provided about the War of Currents? 9. Explain whether any of the views on Thomas Alva Edison contradict another view. Use information from the text to support your answer. 10. How many narrators does this story have? Support your answer with evidence from the text. 3