  When people think of great inventors and scientists, few first think of those with any form of handicap, yet, many prominent people of yesteryear and today had some sort of disability. Thomas Edison, Stephen Hawking, FDR, and many more people had some sort of disability, yet overcame their obstacles and worked for the betterment of society as a whole. One man who exemplifies this is Thomas Elmer Moon. Thomas Moon was born on January 16, 1889. He studied engineering at Tufts University and University of Pennsylvania, but never actually received a degree. He also served in WWI, rising through the ranks from private to captain in 1919. Moon served in the Ordinance Department. Following the war, he went to work, working for General Electric and then Western Electric. Moon was a well-respected engineer. At Western Electric, he was a development engineer at their Hawthorne, Illinois plant. It was at this plant that many worker studies were conducted. The Hawthorne Plant at one point employed over 45,000 employees. The studies looked at worker productivity, quality control, and work environment. It was during these studies in the 1920s, that Moon worked at the plant. Several of his lectures covered issues dealing with work environments and productivity. His lectures in the 1920s were supplemented by motion pictures, a relatively uncommon teaching aid during that day and age. Following his going blind at the age of 56 in 1945, Moon retired, but was encouraged back into work by his wife Marguerite. It was then that Thomas went on to invent an improved soldering iron, selling it to manufactures. In the 1940s, hoping to advance eye care, he founded the Marguerite Barr Moon Foundation, working to raise the capital on his own. The foundation was named after his wife, who passed away in 1955. Through this foundation, his greatest achievement was born— the Moon Trephine.
 In his personal life, he served in WWI serving in an ordinance division and teaching various military courses. He also ran and won a seat on his local school board in the 1940s. Thomas Moon lost his wife Marguerite in 1953 and he lost his son in 1957 when he died in a car crash, after a drunk driver hit the car he was in. He also had two daughters, and in 1966, T. Elmer Moon moved to Norfolk, Virginia living the rest of his life with one of his daughters. In T. Elmer Moon’s free time, he greatly enjoyed playing chess. As an engineer at Western Electric, the company proudly reported his accomplishments in various chess tournaments. During his playing career, he battled against Grandmaster Capablanca and was able to concede a draw; only one other competitor out of a field of 30 accomplished this feat. Moon won the “Shipley prizes. . . [and] half year’s subscription to the Bulletin.”[5] He was also able to draw chess master Frank Marshall as well. Many of his chess matches were correspondence chess matches and in his later years, the games were played over the telephone.  T. Elmer Moon settled in his room. He would borrow books recorded on record and reels from the government to do his research. And chess board is set up for his chess games by mail.  Although largely forgotten today, Thomas Elmer Moon was an important part of U.S. history. A soldier, inventor, and family man, T. Elmer Moon refused to allow any perceived handicap to keep him from succeeding in life. Thanks to him, eye surgery has become safer than it was decades ago. Moon passed away on February 22, 1976.
[1] Charles S. Brown, “Thomas Elmer Moon History and its Echos in the Present” Braille Monitor (Baltimore, MD: National Federation of the Blind, July 1986). [2] “Blind Engineer To Get Medal For Eye Machine,” Elizabethan Star, August 4, 1961. [3] Charles S. Brown, “Thomas Elmer Moon History and its Echos in the Present” Braille Monitor (Baltimore, MD: National Federation of the Blind, July 1986). [4] “Blinded Man’s Aids to Blind Earn a Medal,” Sunday News, July 30, 1961. [5] American Chess Bulletin, vol. 15 (New York: H. Helms, November 1918). Written by Josh Yohe
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