Thomas Edison 164th birthday on Google

[phonophan79]

Thomas Edison, the American inventor, has been commemorated on his 164th birthday by a Google doodle displaying some of his greatest inventions.

In the image, which replaces the usual multicoloured Google logo on its homepage, diagrams of some of Thomas Edison's greatest inventions are used to represent the characters in the company's name.

Clicking on the montage, which includes the electric lightbulb, the phonograph and the motion picture camera, takes web users to a search results page for Edison.

It is visible to users across the world, including those in Britain, France, Germany, India and Canada.

Edison is known for his remarkable contribution to modern life, especially in the field of communications, and held more than 1,000 patents in America.

His inventions included electrical power, recorded music, motion pictures, a stock ticker and an electric car battery.

The doodle is the latest example of the search engine altering its well-known logo to commemorate special events, anniversaries and birthdays.

It appeared just days after a similar image was used to celebrate the 183rd birthday of the science fiction writer Jules Verne.

Doodles have also been produced for the birthdays of Andy Warhol, Louis Braille, HG Wells, Michael Jackson, Samuel Morse and Roald Dahl.

Google is estimated to have used more than 900 doodles since 1998, including almost 300 last year, though many of these would only have been visible in certain countries.

[WDC]

Great technical art. I was quite happily surprised when I got to Google this morning.

Edison's birthday was also just mentioned by Garrison Keillor in the Writer's Almanac on NPR. I liked the order of mentioning his most important inventions with the phonograph being the first.

http://download.publicradio.org/podcast ... 211_64.mp3
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

[phonophan79]

Get your Thomas Edison tie in honor of his 164th birthday.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 0350004TE5