Thomas Edison had begun his career as…

Thomas Edison had begun his career as an inventor in Newark, New Jersey, with the automatic repeater and his other improved telegraphic devices.

The quadruplex telegraph had been Edison's first big financial success.

After his demonstration of the telegraph, Edison was not sure that his original plan to sell it for four thousand to five thousand dollars was right, so he had asked Western Union to make a bid.

The company had offered ten thousand dollars (two hundred and two thousand dollars in 2010), which he had gratefully accepted.

Edison's major innovation is the first industrial research lab, which is built in Menlo Park, New Jersey with the funds from the sale of his quadruplex telegraph.