Thomas Edison was one of the most prolific inventors who ever lived. Among his thousand-plus patents were designs for the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and an early movie camera. But he got his start in the telegraph industry, working as a telegraph operator in Port Huron, Michigan, and then in other U.S. cities throughout the 1860s. When his first two children (Marion and Thomas, Jr.) were born the following decade, he nicknamed them “Dot” and “Dash,” a reference to Morse code. Edison later had a third child, William Leslie, who also grew up to be an inventor—but as far as we know, he never got a catchy nickname.
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