text: "Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an inventor and businessman who developed many important devices. "The Wizard of Menlo Park" was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production to the process of invention. Edison is considered the most prolific inventor, holding 1,093 patents in his name. Some of these inventions were not completely original but improvements of earlier patents (most famously the Light Bulb), and were actually works of his numerous employees. Edison was sometimes criticized for not sharing the credit, but it was understood by his experimenters that all work was the property of their employer. Nevertheless, Edison received patents worldwide, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Edison started the Motion Picture Patents Company, which was a conglomerate of nine major film studios (commonly known as the Edison Trust)."