Thomas Edison

About Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison, ranked #65 by MIT's Pantheon project for his profound global influence, was a prolific inventor whose work fundamentally reshaped modern life. Holding over 1,000 patents, his most transformative contributions include the practical incandescent light bulb and the phonograph, along with critical developments in motion pictures and electric power systems that powered the Second Industrial Revolution.

Edison commands significant, though potentially inflated, modern attention. His 1.9 million Wikipedia views in 2025 place him in an 'overattention' category, registering a +3x gap relative to his historical importance rank. For context, he garners substantially more attention than figures of comparable historical weight, such as Louis XIV (#42), who received only 213K views, suggesting a modern preference for tangible, technological icons over figures from earlier political or monarchical eras.

However, the momentum suggests a slight cooling; his annual view count dropped by -14.7% year-over-year, and quarter-over-quarter momentum from Q1 to Q3 fell by -21%. This indicates that while Edison remains a heavily-searched historical titan, the peak of modern curiosity surrounding his legacy may be receding.