@altschmerz Edison genuinely "invented" only one thing in his entire life, and that was the word "hello" for use when answering the telephone, as he believed it to be clearer and more distinct than "Ahoy, ahoy" the phrase recommended, by Alexander Graham Bell and even then it was an adaption of Hallu a hunting call which was also the name of a card game he feared might be trademarked or patented.
He tried to patent the word hello, but was refused on the ground that you cannot patent a word.
Everything else claimed as an invention by edison was either reverse engineered and changed slightly by his team of underpaid workshop engineers or was stolen.

EDIT
There was also the word Hullo used in Victorian English which is an expression of questioning surprise meaning "What is this that I have discovered" but is likely unconnected as it is not common in contemporaneous American literature.