Aronson is remembered today for his memoirs, which were published long after his death in a book titled A Jewish Life under the Tsars,[1] which he wrote in Hebrew.
Aronson was born in the town of Serednik (now Seredžius) in the province of Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire, to a poor, rural family.
His early successes were such that he soon moved his business to the Russian capital, St. Petersburg, where factory owners and investors might be interested in his inventions.
However, despite several revolutionary inventions, he never achieved commercial success, due to an unfriendly business climate and the antisemitic practices of the Tsarist government.
His inventions included several machines for mass-producing cigarettes, a clockwork calculator, a prototype for a movie camera, and the microdiorama.