Thomas Edison

Born in 1847, Edison was not able to speak until he was four years old. As a teenager, he worked on the Grand Trunk Railroad, selling candy and newspapers. His hearing impairment might have begun when a baggage master struck him as punishment for a fire caused during a chemical experiment.

While still in his teens, Edison learned Morse code to work in a telegraph office. By 1863, he had become a traveling telegraph operator, substituting for those who had joined the Signal Corps during the Civil War. At just twenty, he developed his first invention—a device that recorded fast incoming telegraph messages and played them back slowly for easier understanding. He also figured out how to transmit multiple messages simultaneously over a single line, which helped telegraph companies avoid installing additional wires as traffic increased.

Major users of telegrams at the time included railroads (which I previously wrote about), news agencies, and stock market firms. Stock prices were represented as dots and dashes on narrow paper tapes, which Edison believed could be converted into audible words. This inspiration led him to record "Mary Had a Little Lamb" onto a tin foil cylinder, marking the beginning of the recording industry.

The Invention Process

How did Edison create? Edward Dickerson, a lawyer for the telegraph company Western Union, once remarked that Edison possessed

> “a remarkable kaleidoscopic brain. He turns that head of his and these things come out as in a kaleidoscope, in various combinations, most of which are profitable.”

Edison himself famously stated:

> “Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.”

At the Edison National Historic Site, Ranger Carmen shared with our tour group that Edison was undeterred by failures. He remarked:

> “Negative results are just what I want. They’re just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t.”

Through trial and error, coupled with Edison's creative vision, he developed inventions that continue to drive our world and stimulate our minds.

Edison's productivity was astounding. He claimed to make a small discovery every ten days and a significant invention every six months. In total, he held a world record of 1,093 patents, which included:

• 200 for the phonograph,
• 425 related to the incandescent light bulb, the fluorescent electric lamp, and the distribution system for lighting homes and businesses,
• 145 for nickel-iron-alkaline storage batteries,
• 185 for multiple transmitting telegraph systems,
• patents for an electric pen,
• for the kinetoscope (which evolved into movie projectors),
• for a system of wireless telegraphy between trains and stations, as well as a similar system for ship-to-shore communications,
• for the electric safety miner’s hat,
• and for synthetic rubber.

Subdividing the Light

Let's focus on one of his most significant inventions—electrical lighting. The concept of artificial electricity isn't new. Ancient Greeks noted an unusual attractive charge when rubbing amber. In the 17th century, William Gilbert coined the term “elektron”, derived from the Greek word for amber, to describe static electricity. Early electrical innovators began storing electricity in water-filled glass containers known as Leyden jars. In 1746, Pieter van Musschenbrock encountered a shock from such a jar, which knocked him to the ground. In 1831, Englishman Michael Faraday discovered that rotating wire between magnetic poles generated an electrical charge, leading to the creation of the first electrical generators. He devised “dynamos,” which were the first magneto-electrical induction generators. Leyden jars then stored the electrical energy produced by these dynamos for future use.

During that time, gas lamps lit buildings and streets but posed fire hazards. Throughout the 19th century, innovators like Alessandro Volta, Humphrey Davy, and Joseph Swan experimented with incandescent lighting, yet their bulbs either burnt out quickly or were not commercially feasible. Edison's challenge in making incandescent lighting accessible was twofold:

• First, he needed to establish a safe network for transmitting dangerous electrical currents from generators throughout a city and into often wooden structures.
• Second, he had to perfect a low-wattage incandescent light bulb. In 1878, he carbonized a thin cotton thread, secured it to platinum posts within a glass bulb, sealed it to create a vacuum, and passed a current through it. This effort succeeded, as the bulb emitted light for hours using minimal electricity.

With a viable light bulb, Edison aimed to “subdivide the light” for homes and businesses.

Already a celebrated figure due to his earlier accomplishments with telegraphs and sound recordings, Edison prepared to unveil his latest invention. On New Year’s Eve in 1879, crowds flocked to his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, to witness forty lamps illuminating the facility and its grounds. Biographer Mark Essig captured the moment:

> “To modern eyes, it would have seemed a rather modest display. But those assembled were among the first people in the world to see the marvelous glow of incandescent light. No flame, no flicker, no soot, no fumes — just pure steady light.”

To safely electrify a city, Edison needed to construct a dependable electrical generator and a distribution framework consisting of wires, conductors, and insulators. Utilizing his Menlo Park campus, the electrical team experimented with various generators. They also coated copper wires with different types of insulation, strung them on poles, and transmitted electricity through the system. After several months of trial and error, Edison successfully activated the Menlo Park system on November 2, 1880. He then turned his attention to illuminating New York City.

Edison selected a fifty-one square block area of lower Manhattan centered around Wall Street to demonstrate that he could achieve commercial success with electricity. He installed generators at a station on Pearl Street and buried his transmission lines underground, which led to delays and incurred substantial costs.

On September 4, 1882, the generators at Pearl Street station came to life, and the lights illuminated the offices of Drexel, Morgan, and Company, one of Edison's key financial supporters. Incandescent lighting rapidly spread throughout New York City and beyond, transforming the nighttime landscape with the warm glow of light bulbs.

The Invention Factory at West Orange

In 1887, buoyed by his successful lighting enterprise, Edison relocated to a larger laboratory factory in West Orange, New Jersey, which is now preserved by the National Park Service. The primary three-story lab building features a library, heavy machine shop, and supply room on the ground floor; a precision machine shop and experimental rooms on the second floor; and a recording studio and additional experimental spaces on the third floor. Today, visitors can view many of the actual machines and materials utilized by Edison and his team.

Edison once stated:

> “To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.”

The stock room was filled with both commonplace and unique items that served as inspiration for his creativity. During my tour, NPS Ranger Carmen noted that it contained everything from human hair and a rhinoceros horn to metal tools and platinum.

Or, as Edison humorously put it, it held:

> “everything from elephant hide to a Senator’s eyeball.”

On the main floor, overhead belts powered by a generator connected various machines still present—lathes, drills, saws, and grinders—that manufactured anything from ladies' watches to locomotives. Another section of the first floor housed a chemical lab with glass vials and tubes for concocting artificial rubber.

On the second floor, precision machinery produced the delicate components of movie projectors, phonographs, and other devices. The third floor was dedicated to sound. One room housed a Steinway piano surrounded by phonographs and early recording devices, including cylinders and disks for sound recording. Concurrently, another room featured an array of megaphones for amplifying sound from phonographs, with the largest megaphone measuring eight feet in length.

As I strolled past display cases filled with phonographs, movie projectors, a miner’s safety cap with a light, a bag of Portland cement, and numerous other inventions from Edison's mind, I realized that these items represented the first jukeboxes, prototypes for electric violins and guitars, the original movie projectors, and even (with some imagination) the first I-Pods. Most of the electrical devices that are essential to our daily lives today bear the imprint of Edison's creativity.

Family Life of the Edisons

Edison's inventions brought him wealth. In 1886, he purchased Glenmont, a twenty-nine-room residence in West Orange, for himself and his fiancée, Mina Miller. His first wife, Mary Stilwell Edison, had passed away several years prior.

The four-story Queen Anne mansion, acquired for $125,000 (approximately $3 million today), features arched windows, several tall brick chimneys, multiple large porches surrounding the ground floor, and steeply pitched roofs with gables. Set on 13.5 acres (5.5 hectares), Glenmont included a barn, cow shed, chicken yard, garage, greenhouse, gardens, and additional structures.

Family life at Glenmont was vibrant. While courting, Thomas taught Mina Morse Code for secret communication. Legend has it that he proposed to her by tapping the message onto her palm. Mina inherited two step-sons and a stepdaughter from this marriage, while also having three more children with Edison. Despite his expanding family, Edison worked ninety-five hours a week and occasionally forgot important dates like birthdays and anniversaries. His dedication to invention drove him.

Early Motion Pictures

Edison had a keen interest in moving pictures. Nestled in a corner of the Thomas Edison NHP is Black Maria, the first movie studio in the United States. This unconventional building was set on a turntable to follow the sun's path for optimal lighting, highlighting Edison's groundbreaking work in filmmaking. In 1888, Edison and his team filed their first patent for a camera featuring a revolving shutter—a large and cumbersome prototype of the 35 mm motion picture camera.

To showcase these films, Edison's West Orange team marketed Kinetoscopes, small wooden cabinets that allowed individual viewers to marvel at rapid sequences of images, such as short clips of galloping horses or train robberies. Eventually, others began projecting movies onto screens, rendering Kinetoscope cabinets outdated.

The Invention Corporation

Beyond his inventions, Edison transformed the way inventors operated. Biographer Paul Israel noted that

> “As he invented a system of electric lighting, Edison was simultaneously reinventing the system of invention.”

Edison established a corporate model that turned his inventions into commercially viable consumer products produced in his adjacent factory. During our tour, Ranger Carmen mentioned that at its peak, 10,000 individuals were employed at the lab and factory, adding:

> “It was the Silicon Valley of its day.”

Edison Versus Nikola Tesla

As a businessman, Edison engaged in cutthroat practices. For instance, his electrical system utilized direct current (DC), which he deemed safer due to its lower voltage for transmitting power from generator to consumer. Nikola Tesla, one of Edison's former protégés, championed an alternating current (AC) system. AC can distribute substantial amounts of energy over extensive networks, unlike DC, which only powered a radius of about a mile (1.6 km) from the dynamos.

Tesla eventually left Edison's lab to start his own company, which became part of Westinghouse Corporation, a direct competitor to Edison. Unwilling to accept competition, Edison sought to undermine the AC system, arguing it was too dangerous, using the electric chair as an example.

As the demand for electricity surged, AC emerged as a more effective means of transmitting power over long distances; however, most household devices operate on DC, necessitating conversion for the electricity entering our homes and businesses. The small black boxes on the cords of our appliances and devices serve as these converters.

Ironically, despite being a pioneer in generating electricity from coal, Edison acknowledged the need for alternative energy:

> “We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature’s inexhaustible sources of energy — sun, wind, and tide. I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”

While progress has been made in alternative energies, we are still dismantling that fence.

The Inheritance of West Orange

Edison passed away on October 18, 1931. That day, his family locked his library desk, which remained untouched until the centennial of his birth in 1947. The laboratory continued to conduct research and development until 1935, after which it was closed, leaving everything inside undisturbed. Mina lived at Glenmont until her death in 1947.

Following Mina's passing, the family donated the buildings and holdings to the NPS. When cataloging the site, the NPS discovered over 400,000 items, ranging from the rhinoceros horn in the stock room to large machinery in the main building, phonographs, movie cameras, and over 5,000,000 pages of documents. However, they did not find a senator’s eyeball.

Edison revolutionized our world, from incandescent lights to groundbreaking consumer products like recorded music and films. He laid the foundation for our electronic society, and the effects of his diverse inventions continue to shape our era. Edison's work and that of others helped propel the United States to a position of global leadership in communication, industry, and innovation.

They crafted our 20th Century.

Historic Places Visited

Thomas Edison National Historical Park

References

• Essig, Mark. Edison and the Electric Chair: A Story of Light and Death. London: Walker Books, 2005.
• Israel, Paul. Edison, A Life of Invention. New York: Wiley, 2000.
• Josephson, Matthew. Edison: A Biography. New York: Wiley, 1992.
• Richardson, Laura Seargeant. “The Kaleidoscope Mind: Some Easy Ways to Teach Creativity,” The Atlantic, November 26, 2011.