Thomas Edison, Static Hero Full Art card from Lost Chapters — Full Art: Thomas Edison, Static Hero

Thomas Edison, Static Hero: Gold Character

Thomas Edison (1847 to 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who earned 1,093 U.S. patents. He invented the phonograph in 1877, developed a practical incandescent lamp and the electrical system to power it, and opened the Pearl Street power station in New York in 1882.

Cost: 7 crystals
Type: Character · Inventor
Power / Health: 5 / 6
Color: Gold (Inventors & Industry)
Rarity: Ultra-Rare (Legacy)
Set: Liberty & Lightning (Set 1)

On play: Build 1 Lightbulb Token.

Whenever you play an Item, Build 1 Lightbulb Token.

Illuminating opportunist with 1,093 patents and one brilliant marketing strategy.

Real history

The real history

Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio, and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. He had little formal schooling and taught himself by reading. As a teenager he sold newspapers on trains, learned telegraphy and worked as a telegraph operator before turning to invention.

In 1876 he set up a research laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. It was an early model for the industrial research labs that came later. There, in 1877, he built a tinfoil phonograph, the first machine that could record sound and play it back, and it made him famous around the world.

Edison did not just want a light bulb; he wanted a complete electric system. In 1879 his lamp with a carbonized thread filament burned for more than 13 hours, and he showed off electric light at Menlo Park that December. In 1882 his Pearl Street station in lower Manhattan began operating, which the National Park Service calls the first commercial power station.

Edison's system used direct current (DC), which could only reach customers close to a power plant. George Westinghouse backed alternating current (AC), which could travel much farther. In the rivalry that followed, Edison argued loudly that AC was dangerous. AC won out. Westinghouse underbid General Electric to light the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, and AC from Niagara Falls reached Buffalo in 1896. By then Edison's electric companies had merged into General Electric, which no longer carried his name.

Edison moved to a larger lab in West Orange, New Jersey, in 1887 and kept inventing for decades. He died on October 18, 1931.

Sources

Edison Biography, Thomas Edison National Historical Park, National Park Service
Thomas Edison, National Inventors Hall of Fame
The War of the Currents: AC vs. DC Power, U.S. Department of Energy
Kids and Youth, Thomas Edison National Historical Park, National Park Service

Checked against these sources on October 2, 2026. Spot a mistake? Report an error. How we check facts.

Game lore (invented)

In the game's story

In the game's invented story, Edison lands in Marginalia three weeks after Tesla and sighs when he learns his old rival is already there. He sets up a workshop in an empty granary in Dogear Crossing, hires a crowd of Marginalian assistants and starts inventing so fast that he worries the Inkbinders. He electrifies the granary, builds a phonograph and charges a copper to stand under his lightbulb in the market square.

In Lost Chapters' frame story, history's heroes fall into an invented world called Marginalia. That story is fiction; the history on this page is real.

How the card plays

Edison costs 7 crystals and is a 5/6 Ultra-Rare Inventor with the Legacy tag. When he arrives, Build 1 Lightbulb Token, a 0/1 that draws you a card when it is destroyed. After that, every Item you play Builds another Lightbulb Token.

That second line turns him into a card engine for an Item deck. Play him first, then follow with cheap Items so each one leaves a Lightbulb behind. The Lightbulb is the best example: it Builds a Lightbulb itself, so with Edison out it makes two. Finished Product also rewards a stream of Items. With Nikola Tesla, Father of Electricity on your field, Edison costs 1 less and gets +1/+1 as a Legacy character. Keep an eye on your field limit of 5.

Playable in decks led by Nikola Tesla, and by any Traveler Leader whose colors include Gold.
In the Tesla starter deck (1 copy). Deck code: LC2-BV8BYAFhAWICYwFkAWUCZgFnAWgBaQFqAWsCbAFtAm4BbwFwAXEBcgFzAnQBdQF2AXcBeAJ5AnoBewF8AX0BfgF_AXiK
A deck holds up to 3 copies of this card.

Questions about Edison

Did Thomas Edison invent the light bulb?

He invented a practical one. His carbon-filament lamp was demonstrated in 1879 and received U.S. Patent No. 223,898, and he built a system of dynamos and wiring around it so that many lamps could each be switched on or off on its own.

How many patents did Edison have?

The National Park Service counts 1,093 U.S. patents, which is the number on his card's flavor text.

Card art

The standard version of Thomas Edison, Static Hero. The Full Art above is a rare version that can appear in packs.

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