The code for Milan is 02

1 codice ( segreto); cifrario: to write a message in code, scrivere un messaggio in codice; cifrare un dispaccio; to break (o to crack) the enemy's secret code, decifrare il codice segreto del nemico

2 codice ( classificatorio): bar code, codice a barre; postal code, codice di avviamento postale; code number, numero di codice

3 (telef., = dialling code) prefisso (teleselettivo); indicativo interurbano: The code for Milan is 02, il prefisso di Milano è 02

4 (comput.) codice; codifica: code conversion, conversione di codice; code converter, convertitore di codice; code checking, controllo della codifica; binary code, codice binario

5 (scient.) codice: (biol.) genetic code, codice genetico; (ling.) code switching, il passare da un codice a un altro; cambiamento di codice

6 (telegr.) codice: Morse code, il codice Morse

7 (leg. stor.) codice: the Napoleonic Code, il Codice Napoleonico

8 (leg.) testo unico; codice; regolamento: penal code (o criminal code) codice penale; the Highway Code, il codice della strada; building code, regolamento edilizio; sanitary code, regolamento d'igiene

9 codice (comportamentale): code of honour, codice dell'onore; moral code, codice morale; code of conduct (o of behaviour) codice di etica professionale; deontologia; dress code, norme su come vestire in cerimonie e altre occasioni speciali; code of ethics, codice etico; code of practice, deontologia professionale; autodisciplina; prassi

● code address, indirizzo in codice □ code book, cifrario; (telef.) elenco (o guida) dei prefissi teleselettivi; (naut.) codice dei segnali □ code-breaker, decodificatore, decrittatore □ code clerk, addetto ai cifrari □ (naut.) code flag, intelligenza; pennello; bandiera da segnalazione □ code language, linguaggio cifrato □ code name, nome in codice; nome convenzionale □ (aeron.) code-sharing, accordo tra due compagnie aeree che permette a ciascuna di inserire il proprio codice di identificazione sui voli dell'altra linea; code-sharing □ (comput.) code snippet, frammento di codice; snippet □ (edil.) to bring up to code, mettere in regola con le normative edilizie.

A v. t.

1 cifrare; mettere in cifra: a coded message, un messaggio cifrato

2 (fig.) dire in modo velato; dire in cifra; dire tra le righe; sottintendere: coded criticism, critiche velate

3 assegnare un numero di codice a

4 (comput.) scrivere codice; programmare; codificare: coded characters, caratteri codificati

B v. i. (biol.)

1 – to code for, rappresentare il codice genetico di

2 – to code for, portare il codice genetico di.

break [breɪk]

(verb: preterite broke, past participle broken)

1. noun

   a. (in conversation, programme, line) interruption f ; (in journey) arrêt m ; (at work) pause f ; (at school) pause f, récréation f

• to take a break ( = few minutes) faire une pause ; ( = holiday) prendre des vacances ; ( = change) se changer les idées

• six hours without a break six heures d'affilée

• after the break ( = advertisements) après la pause (publicitaire)

• a break in the clouds une éclaircie

• a break in the weather un changement de temps

• he spoke of the need for a break with the past il a dit qu'il fallait rompre avec le passé

► to make a break

• to make a break for it prendre la fuite

• he made a break for the door il s'est élancé vers la porte

   b. [of bone] fracture f

   c. (literary) at break of day au point du jour

   d. ( = luck, opportunity) (inf) chance f

• he's had all the breaks il a eu toutes les veines (inf)

• she got her first big break in "Sarafina" elle a percé dans « Sarafina »

• give me a break! (inf) ( = leave me alone) fichez-moi la paix ! (inf)

   e. (Snooker) série f

• to have a break of serve (Tennis) faire le break

2. transitive verb

   a. casser ; [+ skin] écorcher

• to break sth in two casser qch en deux

• to break one's leg/one's neck se casser la jambe/le cou

• the bone is not broken il n'y a pas de fracture

• to break open [+ door] enfoncer ; [+ lock, safe] fracturer

• to break ground on a new building (US) commencer à construire un nouveau bâtiment

• to break new or fresh ground innover

• to break one's back se casser la colonne vertébrale

• to break the back of a task (British) faire le plus dur d'une tâche

• to break sb's heart briser le cœur de qn

• to break one's heart over sth avoir le cœur brisé par qch

• to break a record battre un record

   b. [+ promise] manquer à ; [+ treaty] violer

• to break the law enfreindre la loi

• to break a vow rompre un serment

   c. [+ courage, spirit, strike] briser

• to break sb ( = demoralize) briser qn ; ( = ruin) ruiner qn

• television can make you or break you la télévision peut soit vous apporter la gloire soit vous briser

• to break sb of a habit faire perdre une habitude à qn

• to break a habit se débarrasser d'une habitude

• it won't break the bank (inf) cela ne va pas te (or nous or les etc) ruiner

   d. [+ silence, spell] rompre

• to break sb's serve prendre le service de qn

• to break one's journey faire une étape (or des étapes)

   e. [+ fall] amortir

   f. [+ news] annoncer

• try to break it to her gently essayez de le lui annoncer avec ménagement

3. intransitive verb

   a. (se) casser ; [bone] se fracturer

• to break in two se casser en deux

   b. [clouds] se dissiper

   c. [storm] éclater ; [wave] déferler

   d. [news, story] éclater

   e. ( = weaken, change) [health] se détériorer ; [voice] (boy's) muer ; (in emotion) se briser ( with sous le coup de ) ; [weather] se gâter

• he broke under torture il a craqué sous la torture

• his spirit broke son courage l'a abandonné

   f. [dawn] poindre ; [day] se lever

   g. ( = pause) faire une pause

• we broke for lunch nous avons fait une pause pour le déjeuner

   h. (set structures)

► to break even rentrer dans ses fonds

► to break free se libérer

► to break loose [person, animal] s'échapper ; [boat] rompre ses amarres

► to break with sb rompre avec qn

4. compounds

► break-even point noun seuil m de rentabilité

► break-in noun cambriolage m

► break-up noun [of friendship] rupture f ; [of empire, group of states] démantèlement m ; [of political party] scission f

• since the break-up of his marriage depuis qu'il est séparé de sa femme

► break away intransitive verb

(from captor) s'échapper

• to break away from a group se séparer d'un groupe► break down

1. intransitive verb

   a. [vehicle] tomber en panne ; [argument] s'effondrer ; [resistance] céder ; [negotiations] échouer

• after negotiations broke down... après l'échec m des négociations...

   b. ( = decompose) se décomposer ( into en)

   c. ( = weep) fondre en larmes

2. separable transitive verb

   a. ( = demolish) démolir ; [+ door] enfoncer ; [+ opposition] briser

   b. [+ accounts] détailler ; [+ sales figures, costs] ventiler ; [+ substance] décomposer

► break in

1. intransitive verb

   a. ( = interrupt) interrompre

   b. ( = enter illegally) entrer par effraction

2. separable transitive verb

   a. [+ door] enfoncer

   b. [+ engine, car] roder

• it took a month to break in my new shoes cela a pris un mois avant que mes nouvelles chaussures se fassent

► break into inseparable transitive verb

   a. ( = enter illegally) [+ house] entrer par effraction dans

• to break into a safe fracturer un coffre-fort

   b. [+ savings] entamer

   c. [company] to break into a new market percer sur un nouveau marché

   d. to break into song se mettre à chanter

• to break into a run se mettre à courir

► break off

1. intransitive verb

   a. [piece, twig] se casser net

   b. ( = stop) s'arrêter ( doing sth de faire qch)

• he broke off in mid-sentence il s'est arrêté au milieu d'une phrase

2. separable transitive verb

   a. ( = snap off) casser

   b. ( = end) [+ relationship, negotiations] rompre

► break out intransitive verb

   a. [war, fire] éclater

• to break out into a sweat suer ; (from fear) commencer à avoir des sueurs froides

   b. ( = escape) s'échapper (of de)

► break through

1. intransitive verb

( = succeed) percer

2. inseparable transitive verb

[+ defences, obstacles] faire tomber

► break up

1. intransitive verb

   a. [ice] craquer ; [ship in storm] se disloquer ; [partnership] cesser ; [empire] effondrer

• their marriage broke up ils se sont séparés

• to break up with sb rompre avec qn

   b. [crowd] se disperser ; [meeting] prendre fin

• the schools break up tomorrow (British) les cours se terminent demain

   c. [phone line] couper

• you're breaking up je ne te capte plus

   d. (US = laugh) (inf!) se tordre de rire

2. separable transitive verb

   a. [+ chocolate] casser en morceaux

• to break up the soil casser les mottes de terre

   b. [+ coalition] briser ; [+ empire] démembrer

• to break up a marriage briser un couple

• to do sth to break up one's day faire qch pour faire une coupure dans la journée

   c. [+ crowd, demonstration] disperser

• police used tear gas to break up the demonstration la police a utilisé du gaz lacrymogène pour disperser les manifestants

   d. (US = make laugh) (inf!) donner le fou rire à

* * *

1) ( fracture) fracture f

2) ( crack) fêlure f

3) ( gap) ( in wall) brèche f; (in row, line) espace m; (in circuit, chain) rupture f; (in conversation, match) pause f; ( in performance) entracte m; ( in traffic) trou m, espace m

4) Radio, Television page f de publicité

5) ( pause) gen pause f; School récréation f

6) ( holiday) vacances fpl

7) fig ( departure) rupture f ( with avec)

8) (colloq) ( opportunity) chance f

9) ( dawn)

10) ( escape bid)

11) Sport ( in tennis) break m; (in snooker, pool)

transitive verb (prét broke; pp broken)

1) ( damage) casser [chair, eggs, rope, stick, toy]; casser [plate, window]

2) ( rupture) briser [seal]

3) ( interrupt) [person] rompre [silence]; [shout, siren] déchirer [silence]; couper [circuit]; rompre [monotony, spell, ties, links] ( with avec)

4) ( disobey) enfreindre [law]; ne pas respecter [embargo, terms]; violer [treaty]; désobéir à [rule]; briser [strike]; rompre [vow]; manquer [appointment]

5) (exceed, surpass) dépasser [speed limit, bounds]; battre [record]; franchir [speed barrier]

6) ( lessen the impact of) couper [wind]; [branches] freiner [fall]; [hay] amortir [fall]

7) fig ( destroy) [troops] briser [rebellion]; briser [person, resistance, will]

8) ( ruin) ruiner [person]

9) ( tame) débourrer [young horse]

10) ( in tennis)

11) ( decipher) déchiffrer [code]

12) ( leave)

13) ( announce) annoncer [news]; révéler [truth]

intransitive verb (prét broke; pp broken)

1) ( be damaged) [branch, chair, egg, string] se casser; [plate, window] se casser; [arm, bone, leg] se fracturer; [bag] se déchirer

2) ( separate) [clouds] se disperser; [waves] se briser

3) ( stop for a rest) faire une pause

4) ( change) [good weather] se gâter; [heatwave] cesser

5) ( begin) [day] se lever; [storm] éclater; [scandal, story] éclater

6) ( discontinue)

7) ( weaken)

8) ( change tone) [boy's voice] muer

•

- break away

- break down

- break even

- break free

- break in

- break into

- break off

- break out

- break through

- break up

break

A n

1 ( fracture) fracture f ;

2 ( crack) (in plate, plank, surface) fêlure f ;

3 ( gap) (in fence, wall) brèche f ; (in row, line) espace m ; (in circuit, chain, sequence) rupture f ; (in conversation, match) pause f ; ( in performance) entracte m ; (in traffic, procession) trou m, espace m ; a break in the clouds une éclaircie ; a break in transmission une interruption dans la retransmission ;

4 Radio, TV ( also commercial break) page f de publicité ; we're going to take a break now tout de suite, une page de publicité ;

5 ( pause) gen pause f ; Sch récréation f ; to take a break faire une pause ; I walked/worked for six hours without a break j'ai marché/travaillé pendant six heures sans m'arrêter ; to have a break from work arrêter de travailler ; to take ou have a break from working/driving ne plus travailler/conduire pendant un temps ; to take ou have a break from nursing/teaching arrêter le métier d'infirmière/d'enseignant pendant un temps ; I often give her a break from looking after the kids je m'occupe souvent des enfants pour qu'elle se repose ; give us a break ○ ! fiche-nous la paix ○ ! ;

6 ( holiday) vacances fpl ; the Christmas break les vacances de Noël ; a weekend break in Milan un week-end à Milan ;

7 fig ( departure) rupture f (with avec) ; a break with tradition/the past une rupture avec la tradition/le passé ; it's time to make a ou the break ( from family) il est temps de voler de ses propres ailes ; ( from job) il est temps de passer à autre chose ;

8 ○ ( opportunity) chance f ; her big break came in 1973 1973 a été l'année de sa veine ○ ; he gave me a break il m'a donné ma chance ; a lucky break un coup de veine ○ ; a bad break des déboires mpl ; to give sb an even break donner sa chance à qn ;

9 ( dawn) at the break of day au lever du jour, à l'aube f ;

10 ( escape bid) to make a break for it ○ ( from prison) se faire la belle ○ ; to make a break for the door/the trees se précipiter vers la porte/les arbres ;

11 Print line break fin f d'alinéa ; page break changement m de page ; paragraph break fin f de paragraphe ;

12 ( in tennis) ( also service break) break m ;

13 (in snooker, pool) ( first shot) it's your break c'est à toi de casser ; ( series of shots) to make a 50 point break marquer une série de 50 points ;

14 Mus ( in jazz) break m.

B vtr ( prét broke ; pp broken)

1 ( damage) casser [chair, eggs, rope, stick, toy] ; casser, briser [glass, plate, window] ; casser [machine] ; to break a tooth/a nail/a bone se casser une dent/un ongle/un os ; to break one's leg/arm se casser la jambe/le bras ; to break one's back lit se casser la colonne vertébrale ; I nearly broke my back moving the piano fig j'ai failli me briser les reins en déplaçant le piano ; to break one's neck lit avoir une rupture des vertèbres cervicales ; somebody is going to break their neck on those steps fig quelqu'un va se casser la figure sur ces marches ○ ; she broke the bottle over his head elle lui a cassé la bouteille sur la tête ;

2 (split, rupture) briser [seal] ; couper [sentence, word] ; the skin is not broken il n'y a pas de plaie ; not a ripple broke the surface of the water pas une ride ne troublait la surface de l'eau ; to break surface [diver, submarine] remonter à la surface ; the river broke its banks la rivière a débordé ;

3 ( interrupt) [person] rompre [silence] ; [shout, siren] déchirer [silence] ; couper [circuit, current] ; rompre [monotony, spell] ; rompre [ties, links] (with avec) ; to break one's silence sortir de son silence (on à propos de) ; to break sb's concentration déconcentrer qn ; we broke our journey in Milan nous avons fait un arrêt à Milan ; the tower breaks the line of the roof/of the horizon la tour rompt la ligne du toit/de l'horizon ; to break step rompre le pas ;

4 ( disobey) enfreindre [law] ; ne pas respecter [embargo, blockade, conditions, terms] ; violer [treaty] ; désobéir à [commandment, rule] ; briser [strike] ; rompre [vow] ; manquer [appointment] ; he broke his word/promise il a manqué à sa parole/promesse ;

5 (exceed, surpass) dépasser [speed limit, bounds] ; battre [record, opponent] ; franchir [speed barrier] ; briser [class barrier] ;

6 ( lessen the impact of) couper [wind] ; [branches] freiner [fall] ; [hay] amortir [fall] ;

7 fig ( destroy) [troops] briser [rebellion] ; briser [person, resistance, determination, will] ; to break sb's spirit saper le moral de qn ; to break sb's hold over sb débarrasser qn de l'emprise de qn ; discussions which aim to break this deadlock des discussions qui visent à nous sortir de cette impasse ; to break a habit se défaire d'une habitude ;

8 ( ruin) ruiner [person] ; this contract will make or break the company ( financially) ce contrat fera la fortune ou la ruine de l'entreprise ; this decision will make or break me ( personally) cette décision sera mon salut ou ma perte ;

9 Equit débourrer [young horse] ;

10 ( in tennis) to break sb's serve faire le break ;

11 Mil casser [officer] ;

12 ( decipher) déchiffrer [cipher, code] ;

13 ( leave) to break camp lever le camp ;

14 ( announce) annoncer [news] ; révéler [truth] ; to break the news to sb apprendre la nouvelle à qn ; break it to her gently annonce-lui la nouvelle avec douceur.

C vi ( prét broke ; pp broken)

1 ( be damaged) [branch, chair, egg, handle, tooth, string] se casser ; [plate, glass, window] se briser ; [arm, bone, leg] se fracturer ; [bag] se déchirer ; china breaks easily la porcelaine se casse facilement ; the vase broke in two/into a thousand pieces le vase s'est brisé en deux/en mille morceaux ; the sound of breaking glass le bruit de verre brisé ;

2 ( separate) [clouds] se disperser ; [waves] se briser (against contre ; on, over sur) ;

3 Sport [boxers] se séparer ; ‘break! ’ ( referee 's command) ‘break!’ ;

4 ( stop for a rest) faire une pause ;

5 ( change) [good weather] se gâter ; [drought, heatwave] cesser ; [luck] tourner ;

6 ( begin) [day] se lever ; [storm] éclater ; [scandal, news story] éclater ;

7 ( discontinue) to break with sb rompre les relations avec qn ; to break with a party/the church quitter un parti/l'église ; to break with tradition/convention rompre avec la tradition/les conventions ;

8 ( weaken) their spirit never broke leur moral n'a jamais faibli ; to break under torture/interrogation céder sous la torture/l'interrogation ;

9 ( change tone) [boy's voice] muer ; her voice breaks on the high notes sa voix s'éraille dans les aigus ; in a voice breaking with emotion d 'une voix brisée par l'émotion ;

10 (in snooker, pool) casser.

■ break away:

▶ break away

1 ( become detached) [island, shell] se détacher (from de) ; to break away from [group, person] rompre avec [family, party, organization] ; [state] se séparer de [union] ; [animal] se détacher de [herd] ; [boat] rompre [moorings] ;

2 ( escape) échapper (from à) ;

3 Sport [runner, cyclist] se détacher (from de) ;

▶ break away [sth], break [sth] away enlever [outer shell, casing].

■ break down:

▶ break down

1 ( stop functioning) [car, elevator, machine] tomber en panne ; we broke down on the main street nous sommes tombés en panne sur la grand-rue ;

2 ( collapse) fig [alliance, coalition] éclater ; [negotiations] échouer ; [contact, communication] cesser ; [law and order] se dégrader ; [argument] ne pas tenir debout ; [system] s'effondrer ; [person] s'effondrer, craquer ; he broke down under the strain il a craqué sous la pression ;

3 ( cry) fondre en larmes ;

4 ( be classified) [cost findings, statistics] se décomposer (into en) ; the cost of the repair breaks down as follows le prix de la réparation se décompose ainsi ;

5 ( decompose) [compound] se décomposer (en into) ;

6 ( confess) ( under interrogation) céder ;

▶ break [sth] down, break down [sth]

1 ( demolish) lit enfoncer [door] ; démolir [fence, wall] ; fig faire tomber [barriers] ; vaincre [opposition, resistance, shyness] ;

2 ( analyse) ventiler [budget, cost, expenses, statistics] ; décomposer [word] (into en) ; décomposer [data, findings] (into par) ; décomposer [argument] ;

3 ( cause to decompose) décomposer [compound, gas] (into en) ; [enzyme, catalyst] dissoudre [protein, starch] ; [gastric juices] dissoudre [food].

■ break even Fin rentrer dans ses frais.

■ break forth littér [sun, water] jaillir (from de).

■ break free:

▶ break free [prisoner] s'évader ; to break free of se couper de [family] ; échapper à [captor].

■ break in

1 ( enter forcibly) [thief] entrer (par effraction) ; [police] entrer de force ; the burglar broke in through a window le cambrioleur est entré par une fenêtre ;

2 ( interrupt) interrompre ; ‘I don't want to go,’ he broke in ‘je ne veux pas y aller,’ a-t-il interrompu ; to break in on sb/sth interrompre qn/qch ;

▶ break [sth] in débourrer [young horse] ; assouplir [shoe] ; to break in one's glasses s'habituer à ses lunettes ;

▶ break [sb] in accoutumer [qn] au travail [recruit, newcomer] ; to break sb in gently donner le temps à qn de s'accoutumer au travail.

■ break into:

▶ break into [sth]

1 ( enter by force) entrer dans [qch] (par effraction) [building] ; forcer la portière de [car] ; forcer [safe, till] ; her car was broken into sa voiture a été cambriolée ;

2 ( start to use) entamer [new packet, new bottle, banknote, savings] ;

3 ( encroach on) empiéter sur [leisure time, working day] ; couper [morning, day] ;

4 ( begin to do) to break into song/cheers se mettre à chanter/acclamer ; to break into peals of laughter éclater de rire ; to break into a run/gallop se mettre à courir/au galop ;

5 ( make headway) [company] s'implanter sur [market] ; [person] s'introduire dans [job market] ; [person] percer dans [show business].

■ break loose [dog, horse] s'échapper (from de).

■ break off:

▶ break off

1 ( snap off) [end, mast, tip] se casser ; [handle, piece] se détacher ;

2 ( stop speaking) s'interrompre ; she broke off to answer the phone elle s'est interrompue pour répondre au téléphone ;

3 ( pause) faire une pause, s'arrêter ;

▶ break off [sth], break [sth] off

1 ( snap) casser [branch, piece, segment, mast] ;

2 ( terminate) rompre [engagement, relationship, contact, negotiations, ties] ; interrompre [conversation] ; they decided to break it off (relationship, engagement) ils ont décidé de rompre ; to break off doing arrêter de faire.

■ break out:

▶ break out

1 ( erupt) [epidemic, fire] se déclarer ; [fight, panic, riot, storm] éclater ; [rash] apparaître ; to break out in a rash ou in spots [person] avoir une éruption de boutons ; [face] se couvrir de boutons ; to break out in a sweat se mettre à transpirer ;

2 ( escape) [prisoner] s'évader ; to break out of s'échapper de [cage, prison] ; sortir de [routine, vicious circle] ; se libérer de [chains, straitjacket].

■ break through:

▶ break through [army] faire une percée ;

▶ break through [sth] percer [defences, reserve] ; franchir [barrier, cordon] ; se frayer un passage à travers [crowd] ; traverser [mur] ; [sun] percer [clouds].

■ break up:

▶ break up

1 ( disintegrate) lit [wreck] se désagréger ; fig [empire] s'effondrer ; [alliance] éclater ; [group, family, couple] se séparer ; their marriage/relationship is breaking up leur mariage/relation va mal ;

2 ( disperse) [crowd] se disperser ; [cloud, slick] se disperser ; [meeting] se terminer ;

3 GB Sch schools break up on Friday les cours finissent vendredi ; we break up for Christmas on Tuesday pour Noël, nous finissons mardi ;

▶ break [sth] up, break up [sth] ( split up) disperser [demonstrators] ; démanteler [spy ring, drugs ring] ; séparer [team, couple] ; désunir [family] ; briser [alliance, marriage] ; démembrer [empire] ; diviser [sentence, word] (into en) ; morceler [land] ; [diagrams] aérer [text] ; mettre fin à [party, fight, demonstration] ; break it up! ( stop fighting) ça suffit maintenant!

SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building, Automotive engineering, Electricity, Electronics and information technology, Metallurgy, Photography, film and optics, Public utilities, Recording, Telecommunications

[br]

[br]

[br]

He was the son of Samuel Edison, who was in the timber business. His schooling was delayed due to scarlet fever until 1855, when he was 8½ years old, but he was an avid reader. By the age of 14 he had a job as a newsboy on the railway from Port Huron to Detroit, a distance of sixty-three miles (101 km). He worked a fourteen-hour day with a stopover of five hours, which he spent in the Detroit Free Library. He also sold sweets on the train and, later, fruit and vegetables, and was soon making a profit of $20 a week. He then started two stores in Port Huron and used a spare freight car as a laboratory. He added a hand-printing press to produce 400 copies weekly of The Grand Trunk Herald, most of which he compiled and edited himself. He set himself to learn telegraphy from the station agent at Mount Clements, whose son he had saved from being run over by a freight car.

At the age of 16 he became a telegraphist at Port Huron. In 1863 he became railway telegraphist at the busy Stratford Junction of the Grand Trunk Railroad, arranging a clock with a notched wheel to give the hourly signal which was to prove that he was awake and at his post! He left hurriedly after failing to hold a train which was nearly involved in a head-on collision. He usually worked the night shift, allowing himself time for experiments during the day. His first invention was an arrangement of two Morse registers so that a high-speed input could be decoded at a slower speed. Moving from place to place he held many positions as a telegraphist. In Boston he invented an automatic vote recorder for Congress and patented it, but the idea was rejected. This was the first of a total of 1180 patents that he was to take out during his lifetime. After six years he resigned from the Western Union Company to devote all his time to invention, his next idea being an improved ticker-tape machine for stockbrokers. He developed a duplex telegraphy system, but this was turned down by the Western Union Company. He then moved to New York.

Edison found accommodation in the battery room of Law's Gold Reporting Company, sleeping in the cellar, and there his repair of a broken transmitter marked him as someone of special talents. His superior soon resigned, and he was promoted with a salary of $300 a month. Western Union paid him $40,000 for the sole rights on future improvements on the duplex telegraph, and he moved to Ward Street, Newark, New Jersey, where he employed a gathering of specialist engineers. Within a year, he married one of his employees, Mary Stilwell, when she was only 16: a daughter, Marion, was born in 1872, and two sons, Thomas and William, in 1876 and 1879, respectively.

He continued to work on the automatic telegraph, a device to send out messages faster than they could be tapped out by hand: that is, over fifty words per minute or so. An earlier machine by Alexander Bain worked at up to 400 words per minute, but was not good over long distances. Edison agreed to work on improving this feature of Bain's machine for the Automatic Telegraph Company (ATC) for $40,000. He improved it to a working speed of 500 words per minute and ran a test between Washington and New York. Hoping to sell their equipment to the Post Office in Britain, ATC sent Edison to England in 1873 to negotiate. A 500-word message was to be sent from Liverpool to London every half-hour for six hours, followed by tests on 2,200 miles (3,540 km) of cable at Greenwich. Only confused results were obtained due to induction in the cable, which lay coiled in a water tank. Edison returned to New York, where he worked on his quadruplex telegraph system, tests of which proved a success between New York and Albany in December 1874. Unfortunately, simultaneous negotiation with Western Union and ATC resulted in a lawsuit.

Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for a telephone in March 1876 while Edison was still working on the same idea. His improvements allowed the device to operate over a distance of hundreds of miles instead of only a few miles. Tests were carried out over the 106 miles (170 km) between New York and Philadelphia. Edison applied for a patent on the carbon-button transmitter in April 1877, Western Union agreeing to pay him $6,000 a year for the seventeen-year duration of the patent. In these years he was also working on the development of the electric lamp and on a duplicating machine which would make up to 3,000 copies from a stencil. In 1876–7 he moved from Newark to Menlo Park, twenty-four miles (39 km) from New York on the Pennsylvania Railway, near Elizabeth. He had bought a house there around which he built the premises that would become his "inventions factory". It was there that he began the use of his 200- page pocket notebooks, each of which lasted him about two weeks, so prolific were his ideas. When he died he left 3,400 of them filled with notes and sketches.

Late in 1877 he applied for a patent for a phonograph which was granted on 19 February 1878, and by the end of the year he had formed a company to manufacture this totally new product. At the time, Edison saw the device primarily as a business aid rather than for entertainment, rather as a dictating machine. In August 1878 he was granted a British patent. In July 1878 he tried to measure the heat from the solar corona at a solar eclipse viewed from Rawlins, Wyoming, but his "tasimeter" was too sensitive.

Probably his greatest achievement was "The Subdivision of the Electric Light" or the "glow bulb". He tried many materials for the filament before settling on carbon. He gave a demonstration of electric light by lighting up Menlo Park and inviting the public. Edison was, of course, faced with the problem of inventing and producing all the ancillaries which go to make up the electrical system of generation and distribution-meters, fuses, insulation, switches, cabling—even generators had to be designed and built; everything was new. He started a number of manufacturing companies to produce the various components needed.

In 1881 he built the world's largest generator, which weighed 27 tons, to light 1,200 lamps at the Paris Exhibition. It was later moved to England to be used in the world's first central power station with steam engine drive at Holborn Viaduct, London. In September 1882 he started up his Pearl Street Generating Station in New York, which led to a worldwide increase in the application of electric power, particularly for lighting. At the same time as these developments, he built a 1,300yd (1,190m) electric railway at Menlo Park.

On 9 August 1884 his wife died of typhoid. Using his telegraphic skills, he proposed to 19-year-old Mina Miller in Morse code while in the company of others on a train. He married her in February 1885 before buying a new house and estate at West Orange, New Jersey, building a new laboratory not far away in the Orange Valley.

Edison used direct current which was limited to around 250 volts. Alternating current was largely developed by George Westinghouse and Nicola Tesla, using transformers to step up the current to a higher voltage for long-distance transmission. The use of AC gradually overtook the Edison DC system.

In autumn 1888 he patented a form of cinephotography, the kinetoscope, obtaining film-stock from George Eastman. In 1893 he set up the first film studio, which was pivoted so as to catch the sun, with a hinged roof which could be raised. In 1894 kinetoscope parlours with "peep shows" were starting up in cities all over America. Competition came from the Latham Brothers with a screen-projection machine, which Edison answered with his "Vitascope", shown in New York in 1896. This showed pictures with accompanying sound, but there was some difficulty with synchronization. Edison also experimented with captions at this early date.

In 1880 he filed a patent for a magnetic ore separator, the first of nearly sixty. He bought up deposits of low-grade iron ore which had been developed in the north of New Jersey. The process was a commercial success until the discovery of iron-rich ore in Minnesota rendered it uneconomic and uncompetitive. In 1898 cement rock was discovered in New Village, west of West Orange. Edison bought the land and started cement manufacture, using kilns twice the normal length and using half as much fuel to heat them as the normal type of kiln. In 1893 he met Henry Ford, who was building his second car, at an Edison convention. This started him on the development of a battery for an electric car on which he made over 9,000 experiments. In 1903 he sold his patent for wireless telegraphy "for a song" to Guglielmo Marconi.

In 1910 Edison designed a prefabricated concrete house. In December 1914 fire destroyed three-quarters of the West Orange plant, but it was at once rebuilt, and with the threat of war Edison started to set up his own plants for making all the chemicals that he had previously been buying from Europe, such as carbolic acid, phenol, benzol, aniline dyes, etc. He was appointed President of the Navy Consulting Board, for whom, he said, he made some forty-five inventions, "but they were pigeonholed, every one of them". Thus did Edison find that the Navy did not take kindly to civilian interference.

In 1927 he started the Edison Botanic Research Company, founded with similar investment from Ford and Firestone with the object of finding a substitute for overseas-produced rubber. In the first year he tested no fewer than 3,327 possible plants, in the second year, over 1,400, eventually developing a variety of Golden Rod which grew to 14 ft (4.3 m) in height. However, all this effort and money was wasted, due to the discovery of synthetic rubber.

In October 1929 he was present at Henry Ford's opening of his Dearborn Museum to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the incandescent lamp, including a replica of the Menlo Park laboratory. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and was elected to the American Academy of Sciences. He died in 1931 at his home, Glenmont; throughout the USA, lights were dimmed temporarily on the day of his funeral.

[br]