As a boy in Milan, Ohio, Edison watched covered wagons carry pioneers westward. By the time Edison died in 1931, Charles Lindbergh had made the first solo flight over the Atlantic Ocean in an airplane.
Between 1847 and 1931, the U.S. changed a lot. It went from a largely rural and agricultural society to an urban, industrialized one. Inventive advances in transportation, communication, and manufacturing made it happen. Edison may have been the most productive inventor of his age. But he wasn’t the only one. Here are some other people’s inventions.
