In addition to inventing things, how else did Edison and his company contribute to technological progress?

In his 84 years, Thomas Edison acquired a record number of 1,093 patents (singly or jointly) and was the driving force behind such innovations as the phonograph, the incandescent light bulb and one of the earliest motion picture cameras. He also created the world's first industrial research laboratory.

this article will :

the first forms of writing came from them in the form of pictographs around 3100 bc.