Flicking a light switch is something we do each and every morning without the slightest thought.
Thomas Alva Edison in his studio at Menlo Park, New Jersey.
However it took 77 years from the time the first light bulb was invented in 1802 to 1879 when Thomas Edison patented an incandesent light bulb boasting a carbonized bamboo filament that could last over 1200 hours.
This discovery marked the beginning of commerically manufactured light bulbs and in 1880, Thomas Edison’s company, Edison Electric Light Company begain marketing its new product.
I made it a point during the Barclays Championship to learn more about the person the city of Edison was named – the great Thomas Alva Edison.
It was just some 10 minutes from the Plainfield course to Menlo Park where Edison had lived and worked from 1876 to 1882 and a period of his best creativity.
Edison was born on February 11, 1847 and before he passed away in October 18, 1931 Edison invented 1,093 items while his list of US patents number 2,332 and run over several pages on Wikipedia starting with an electronically ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote recorder to a design for a phonograph cabinet.
His favouite invention was the phonograph and this was one of the many, many highlights in the visit to Menlo Park and that was to see and listen to a number of recordings on an Edison phonograph.
And special thanks to museum host Chuck in allowing those present to delight in hearing a number of working Edison phonographs and with one featuring a ‘dancing Uncle Sam’ – see video hereunder.
Edison developed many other devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb.
Indeed, Christie Street, Edison and where the museum is located was the first street in the world to be illuminated by electrical power and that was on New Year’s Eve 1879 when Edison ‘turned night into day’ and amazing some 3,000 elegantly dressed people travelled by special train from Manhatton to Menlo Park unknown what celebration was in stall.
Across the road from the museum is a plaque detailing his invention in 1880 of the first electric train in America.
In 1877, Edison invented the first device in the world to reproduce sound – the phonograph. The first recorded words of the human voice were: “Mary had a little lamb and its fleece was white as son, and everywhere that Mary went the sheep was sure to go.”
At the same time Edison invented and developed the carbon microphone used in all telephones and public address through to the 1920s and along with the Bell receiver until the 1980s.
On a couple of occasions, Edison was able to turn failure into success. During the 1890s, he built a magnetic iron-ore processing plant in northern New Jersey that proved to be a commercial failure. Later, he was able to salvage the process into a better method for producing cement. On April 23, 1896, Edison became the first person to project a motion picture, holding the world’s first motion picture screening at Koster & Bial’s Music Hall in New York City.
Edison, who nick-named two of his children ‘Dot’ and ‘Dash’, is credited with designing and producing the first commercially available fluoroscope, a machine that uses x-rays to take radiographs.
He also inventor a voting ‘yes’ and ‘no’ recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, the design of a battery and lamp used in the mining industry, recorded music and motion pictures.
Thomas Edison 1901 – the leading inventor of the age.
The Edison Memorial Tower and Edison Center.
Thomas Edison Center, Edison, New Jersey.
Edison’s film studio made close to 1,200 films. The majority of the productions were short films showing everything from acrobats to parades to fire calls including titles such as Fred Ott’s Sneeze (1894), The Kiss (1896), The Great Train Robbery (1903), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1910), and the first Frankenstein film in 1910.
Edison was honoured in countless ways including the US Navy naming the USS Edison (DD-439), a destroyer, in his honor in 1940. The ship was decommissioned a few months after the end of World War II. In 1962, the Navy commissioned USS Thomas A. Edison (SSBN-610), a fleet ballistic missile nuclear-powered submarine.
Christie Street, Edison NJ – the first street in the world to be electrically illuminated. (Bernie’s Jeep parked left in photo)
More recently, on February 11, 2011, on Thomas Edison’s 164th birthday, Google‘s homepage featured an animated Google Doodle commemorating his many inventions. When the cursor was hovered over the doodle, a series of mechanisms seemed to move, causing a lightbulb to glow.
Some of Edison’s best quotes include:-
* Thanks to www.wikipedia.com for much of the above information
