Thomas Edison
In 1876 Edison used the money from his inventions to start his own laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. In 1877~78, he invented there the carbon microphone, which made the sound for Alexander Graham Bell's new telephone invention louder. In 1877, Edison invented the phonograph, the first machine that could record and play sound. The phonograph made him internationally famous. However, a new discovery proved that the French inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville invented sound recording before Edison. In 1879, Edison made a light bulb that lasted longer. Another invention, the electric power distribution network, lasted even longer.