As a boy in Milan, Ohio, Edison wondered at the sight of covered wagons carrying pioneers westward. By the time Edison died in 1931, Charles Lindbergh had made the first solo transatlantic flight in an airplane.
Between 1847 and 1931, the United States was transformed 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 prolific inventor of his age, but he wasn’t the only one. Here are some other people’s inventions.
