In 1925, Edison's neighbor, Henry Ford, asked for permission to move the Fort Myers laboratory to Dearborn, Michigan. He intended to make it part of the historic village he was assembling there. Edison agreed but due to opposite from Mina Edison and the town of Fort Myers, the laboratory was not removed until 1928. At that time, it was dismantled piece by piece and sent to Ford's Greenfield Village.
To replace the laboratory, Mina Edison ordered the construction of an office. The small paneled room and its private garden were completed with the Edisons arrived in 1929. The presented them to her husband as a birthday gift.
When assisting the Navy in World War I, Edison realized the importance of war-time rubber supplies. He decided to find a source of domestic rubber in the event that foreign sources were cut off in a future conflict. As early as 1923, Edison shipped Mexican milkweed plants to Fort Myers for experiments.
In 1927, Edison received financial backing from Harvey Firestone and Henry Ford. They formed the Edison Botanic Research Corporation which built this laboratory in 1928. With their support, the investor used a special hybrid of goldenrod to product small quantities of rubber. In this laboratory, Edison tested a large variety of plants and finally focused on goldenrod, a common weed growing to an average height of 3 to 4 feet and which yielded five percent latex. Edison was able to grow goldenrod to a height of 12 feet, yielding 12 percent latex. Domestic rubber production was never achieved on a large scale, but the experimentation continued years after Edison's death.
underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.
") are described as follows: