Thomas Edison lost the first job. For the next five years he went around the country from job to job. At last Edison went to New York. He had little money. He could not buy enough food to eat. He had no place to sleep. For many days Edison looked for work. He was hungry. At last he found work fixing machines. He could fix the old machines. He also made new ones. The head man liked Edison ’ s new machines. He was going to give Edison $ 40,000 for them. Edison would now have money to do what he wanted. Thomas Edison was then 23. He used the money to build a shop in New Jersey. He had many people working for him. But he worked more than any of them. He rested very little. Soon he was making more than 40 new things at one time. In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell made a telephone. But it could carry voices only a little way. Edison wanted to make a better telephone. He soon made one. It could carry voices a long way.