Albany lies along the Great Southern Railway and the South Western and Albany highways to Perth-Fremantle, 240 miles (386 km) northwest. The town serves an area of wine growing and dairy, beef, lamb, fruit, and potato farming.
Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. (1804â1896, born in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia) and Nancy Matthews Elliott (1810â1871, born in Chenango County, New York).
After an aborted attempt to go to Brazil and work as a telegrapher, Edison found himself in Boston in the spring of 1868. He found a job in the Western Union office and began frequenting the Court Street factory of Charles Williams, Jr., a telegraph manufacturer. This factory was a meeting place for experimenters, and Edison was able to buy equipment and exchange ideas with the others.