BGuthrie Photos: NJ -- Edison NHS (Laboratory)

NJ -- Edison NHS (Laboratory):

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. EDISON_110528_0010.JPG: Before West Orange: Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, on February 11, 1847. By the age of 14 he was selling candy and newspapers on the Grand Trunk Railroad, which ran through Port Huron to Detroit. He learned Morse code and telegraphy from a local stationmaster and later worked as a telegrapher throughout the Midwest and upper South. Edison settled briefly in Boston, where he made improvements in telegraphic equipment for Western Union and other companies. He then moved to New York City and set up a series of companies with a variety of partners. By 1870 he had established a workshop in Newark NJ. On Christmas Day 1871, he married Mary Stilwell, a worker in the ship. In 1876, he bought land in Menlo Park, NJ, and built a larger laboratory and workshop. There Edison and his colleagues invented the phonograph and developed a practical incandescent lamp as well as the electric power system required to illuminate it. Edison moved to New York City to supervise the installation of his electric lighting system. Mary died in 1884, and Edison remarried two years later. He bought Glenmont, a home for his new bride, in West Orange, NJ, about 12 miles from Manhattan. Here he built his last and largest laboratory.
2. EDISON_110528_0054.JPG: Cot where Mr. Edison snatched a few hours sleep during periods of continuous work at the laboratory.
3. EDISON_110528_0061.JPG: "He turns that head of his and these things come out as in a kaleidoscope, in various combinations, most of which are patentable." -- Edward Dickerson, Western Union attorney, describing Thomas Edison The Starting Point: This library, which also served as Edison's office, was a constant resource for experimenters working on a new project. Edison understood that research was essential to innovation, so he filled the shelves with books and journals from around the world on scientific and technical topics. Here the staff could read everything written about the subject at hand, examine related patents, and learn about the latest scientific theories. What is a Patent? A patent gives inventors the right to exclude others, for a limited period of time, from using, making, or selling their inventions without permission. In exchange for this right, inventors are required to disclose detailed information about their inventions. To qualify for a patent, the invention must be new and useful. Patent holders can make a profit by making or selling their invention or by letting others use it for a fee. Edison held 1,093 US patents -- more than anyone else to date. Reginald Fessenden: Once Edison decided to make the young electrician into a chemist, Fessenden had to refresh his knowledge of chemistry. "I have had lots of chemists," Edison explained, "but none of them can get results." In 1890, Edison promoted the 24-year-old to Chief Chemist over other trained professionals. Fessenden later became an inventor himself, noted as the first person to transmit voices and music over radio waves, in 1906.
4. EDISON_110528_0077.JPG: It all depends on what information you consider important -- Name the members of the All-American football eleven for 1920? And given the college yell of the winning team. Who discovered the toddle and if so why? Name and whistle the chorus of the latest jazz sensation ... Amazing ignorance!
5. EDISON_110528_0099.JPG: Edison the Man "I always invented to obtain money to go on inventing." -- Thomas A Edison When Edison died in 1931, son Charles locked his father's rolltop desk. It was reopened in 1947 by Mina Edison, Thomas's widow, at a ceremony marking Edison's 100th birthday. Labels on the desk's pigeonholes offer some clues about Edison's interests. Pet projects, like "Cement" and "Storage Battery" have homes, while "Money" and "Financial" slots represent the practical side of business. One label, however, captures the essence of Edison's success: "New Things." The Edison Sons: Charles Edison was born in 1890 and began working for his father in 1914. He became president of Thomas A Edison, Incorporated in 1926 and ran the company until it was sold in 1959. Theodore, born in 1898, started working as a lab assistant after graduating from MIT in 1923, eventually becoming technical director of research and engineering. With Mina watching his health, and sons Charles and Theodore in the business, Edison was able to continue experimenting until several months before his death at age 84.
6. EDISON_110528_0102.JPG: Edison the Business "My ambition is to build up a great industrial works in the Orange Valley starting in a small way and gradually working up -- the laboratory supplying the perfected invention models pattern[s] & fitting up necessary special machinery in the factory for each invention." -- Thomas A Edison, draft letter to John Hood Wright, c August 1887 Edison surrounded the West Orange laboratory with factories that produced a steady stream of products based on his inventions; profits provided the funds for more inventing. By 1915, the factories employed about 10,000 people and the lab 150 under the organizational name of Thomas A Edison, Incorporated. The laboratory and its surrounding factories evolved into a corporation run by professional managers who presided over an international business with specialized departments governing advertising, accounting, purchasing, and legal matters. Frank Dyer: Frank Dyer first became involved in Edison's patent affairs in 1897. An attorney, business manager, and inventor, he was soon in charge of all Edison's legal matters. Dyer held positions in many Edison companies; National Phonograph, Bates Manufacturing, Edison Manufacturing, Edison Storage Battery, and others. Dyer played a role in unifying the various Edison companies into one -- Thomas A Edison, Incorporated -- 1911.
7. EDISON_110528_0148.JPG: To Thomas Alva Edison In grateful recognition of your eminent service in the creation and development of the motion picture, the hereunto subscribed members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invite you to accept the distinction of being The First Honorary Member of the Academy to which you were elected October 15, 1929. You can read some of the signatures. Immediately below the proclamation are the names "Mary Pickford" and "Charlie Chaplin". Look too for DW Griffith, Noah Berry, Jeanie Macpherson, George M Cohan, Sid Grauman, Gloria Swanson, Lillian Gish, Jesse Lasky, Cecil B Demille, Darryl Zanuck, Douglas Fairbanks, etc.
8. EDISON_110528_0157.JPG: Stockroom "Everything one can think of, from a packet of needles or a tooth-pick, to a sledge-hammer or a sewing machine, can here be found. You turn in amazement to Mr. Edison and his eyes twinkle as he replies to your unspoken query. 'I have tried,' says he, 'to gather together here samples of every material to be found in the habitable world, and I think I have succeeded." -- "Edison , His Work and His Work-Shop," Horace Townsend, Cosmopolitan, April 1889, page 601. Nuts and Bolts: Edison filled this room from floor to ceiling with supplies that his experimenters, or muckers, might need -- everything from nuts and bolts to exotic materials like elephant hide or rhinoceros horn. At a time before the invention of synthetics, the experimenters used only natural materials in their work. Edison stocked everything imaginable so that experiments would never be delayed while waiting for a delivery of, say, shark's teeth or Spanish licorice. During the blizzard of 1888, trapped experimenters Reginald Fessenden and Jonas Aylsworth survived for three days by eating some of the more appetizing supplies. Who are the Muckers? Muckers are the men Edison employed to carry out the various experiments that were essential to the invention process. Some were experts in chemistry, others in electricity or mechanics. They would fill out requests for tools and materials from the stockroom and return them when finished to ensure that supplies would be on hand when needed by the next mucker.
9. EDISON_110528_0178.JPG: Heavy Machine Shop "I will have the best equipped & largest laboratory extant, and the facilities incomparably superior to any other for rapid & cheap development of an invention ... -- in fact there is no similar institution in existence... We can build anything from a lady's watch to a locomotive." -- Thomas A Edison, draft letter to J Hood Wright, c August 1897 Experiments to Build On: Skilled machinists worked in this shop, using these large machine tools to make and repair machine parts. The shop was for experimental work, not manufacturing. Sometimes they made parts for inventions and lab experiments. Other times they made machines for Edison's nearby factories, which turned the new inventions into manufactured products for sale. The foreman of the shop used this desk as he tracked incoming work orders and finished jobs going out. He ordered materials and assigned tasks to the machinists. What are Machine Tools? Machine tools is the term for lathes, drill presses, planers, and other metalworking tools such as those in this room. You could say that machine tools are machines used to make other machines. Machinists are people trained to use these tools.
10. EDISON_110528_0233.JPG: The Noise of Invention "We... are standing in the lower machine shop amid a bewildering roar of whirling wheels and swiftly speeding leather bands. Grimy workmen are hammering and chipping grotesque looking castings of iron and steel.... while all around others are directing the movements of enormous machines." -- Horace Townsend, "Edison, His Work and His Work Shop," Cosmopolitan, April 1889, page 605 Powering Things: The sound of whirring leather belts and the ring of metal on metal once filled this shop. A steam engine in the adjacent Building 6 Power House spun the two belt-driven lineshafts, mounted overhead on ceiling brackets near the outer walls. Other leather belts ran from the line shafts to the machine tools on the floor, where the machinists could engage or disengage them to start and stop the machines. The steam engine was replaced by two large electric motors in 1910. Making Things: Across the center aisle is a large flatbed metal planer, purchased in 1887. Its 12-foot bed could hold large pieces of steel, which workers could then shave down, or plane, to precise thickness. Moving Things: Down the center aisle running the length of the shop are two rails mounted on posts with a traveling crane crossing between them. The crane has a chain hoist, which could lift up to six tons (that's 12,000 pounds!). Workers used the crane and hoist to lift heavy machines or parts and then move them to where they were needed. Drilling Things: To the right of the planer is a radial drill press, which was installed in 1888. It was used by machinists to bore holes in metal that were the exact size, location, and angle specified. Floorboards would be removed to accommodate very large pieces. Other tools in the shop include presses, milling machines, metal shapers, lathes, and grinders.
11. EDISON_110528_0256.JPG: Making Tools Patterns and Castings: Machinists constructed the three machines in front of you during the 1910s or 1920s in this shop. Then workers moved them down the street to the Edison Phonograph Works, where they were used to mass-produce disc photograph records. Each machine is made of several metal parts. Simple-shaped parts, like rods, sheets, or plates, were cut from solid stock. Complex-shaped parts had to be cast. Casting a part required a wood pattern cut by craftsmen in the Laboratory Building 3 Pattern Shop. Then the wood pattern was sent to an off-site foundry, where skilled laborers used the pattern to form a mold and then poured hot liquid metal into it. When a cast-metal part went back to the lab, machinists in this shop cut it to exact dimensions and attached it to a new machine. What Is A Foundry? A foundry is a factory or shop that produces castings. In a foundry, molten metal is poured into a mold and allowed to cool. Once solid, it is released from the mold to make a fabricated part called a casting.
12. EDISON_110528_0293.JPG: Precision Machine Shop "[Edison was] most considerate, and never found fault with the work, merely, when things were going wrong, explaining what should be done to make them go right." -- Reginald Fessenden, experimenter, in "The Inventions of Reginald Fessenden" Perfecting the Product: The experimental machinists who worked here created prototypes to test which ideas worked best. They also built working models and explored ways to improve existing Edison products. The work was precise -- hence the name of the shop. The room was open and flexible so it could change as projects changed. The machines in this shop and the heavy machine shop downstairs gave Edison and his staff the ability to work on a variety of inventions. The tools in the heavy machine shop allowed Edison to develop large-scale projects such as ore milling equipment in the 1890s. Tools in the precision machine shop were used to build prototypes for smaller inventions, including the photograph and the storage battery. What Is a Prototype? A prototype is a full-scale working model. Edison's experimenters would keep making changes until a prototype was perfected. This became the basis for commercial production. John Ott: Machinist and experimenter John Ott worked with Edison at Newark and Menlo Park. At West Orange, he became superintendent of all the machinists. Ott was also a good draftsman, often drawing up plans for special equipment. He held 22 patents related to work he conducted for Edison. One of Edison's closest friends, Ott died the day after Edison died.
13. EDISON_110528_0327.JPG: From Idea to Product "I am experimenting upon an instrument which does for the eye what the photograph does for the ear, which is recording and reproduction of things in motion, and in such a form as to be both cheap, practical, and convenient. This apparatus I call a Kinetoscope 'moving view.' " -- Thomas A Edison, Patent Caveat, October 8, 1888 A New Era of Entertainment: On this floor, inside a temporary room, behind a locked door, the motion picture camera was invented -- and with it a new era of entertainment. Edison was inspired by Eadweard Muybridge's zoopraxiscope, a revolving disc of photos that gave the illusion of motion. In 1888, he assigned William Dickson to research photographic and optical elements for the new machine -- but only in his spare time. Edison himself worked on the mechanics and he partners with Eastman Kodak to develop the film. By 1891, they had developed a camera, called the Kinetograph, and a peephole viewer called the Kinetoscope. Kinetoscopes became popular in public arcades showing, of course, Edison films. Sound, projection, and feature films came later, but it all started right here. William Kennedy Laurie Dickson: William Dickson was a jack-of-all-trades. He worked on several projects, including ore milling, while serving as the lab's official photographer. His photography skills made him a natural choice for Edison's moving picture project. Dickson achieved many successes, one being the first moving picture with synchronized sound. He wanted to develop a projection system, but Edison dragged his feet. Frustrated, Dickson left in 1895, taking his notes and knowledge with him. Edison considered it a great betrayal.
14. EDISON_110528_0338.JPG: The Crossroads of Innovation "The way to do it is to organize a gang of one good experimenter and two or three assistants, appropriate a definite sum yearly to keep it going... have every patent sent to them and let them experiment continuously." -- Thomas A Edison, letter to Sigmund Bergmann, December 14, 1910 Inventing things required a constant flow of people, material, information, and ideas through the laboratory, and the precision machine shop was often at the crossroads. The elevator lifted supplies and lowered trash. Temporary walls went up and came down as projects changed. There was so much foot traffic that the Chief Engineer had another stairway installed here in 1914. For any given project, an experimenter might need: * Drawings from the drafting room * Compounds from the chemical lab * Metal alloys from the metallurgical lab * Electrical equipment from the galvanometer lab * Parts from the pattern shop, the machine shop, or the blacksmith shop * Another set of hands, or fresh ideas What is a galvanometer? A galvanometer is a sensitive instrument used to detect and measure small electrical currents. Edison's researchers conducted electrical and physics experiments in a separate galvanometer lab, which held not only galvanometers but other testing equipment like ammeters, voltmeters, thermometers, and tachometers. Some of the motors, meters, switches, and other apparatus built and tested there were used in the prototypes built in this room.
15. EDISON_110528_0342.JPG: Drafting Room Putting Ideas on Paper: A sketch makes it easy to share an idea with others who have the skills to build the actual device. In the lab's early days, some experimenters could do it all: generate an idea, draw a model, and build it. As the scale of Edison's projects grew, a simple sketch was no longer enough. For example, in 1901 Edison needed a 150-foot-long kiln built for his cement business. How would the parts fit together? What should they be made of? Detailed drawings could help answer questions like these. This former experimental from was changed into a drafting room, where rough sketches were turned into large-scale, measured drawings. Drafting became part of a new Engineering and Experimental Department in 1911. The Process: (1) Draftsmen work from sketches and notes to create large-scale, measured drawings. (2) The foreman orders materials and assigns the project to a team of experimenters and/or machinists. (3) The team builds and tests a prototype, making sketches and notes about any changes needed. (4) The draftsmen revise the drawings based on sketches and notes. (5) The process is repeated until everyone is satisfied, including Thomas Edison. (6) The foreman has blueprints made form the final drawings to use for production.
16. EDISON_110528_0361.JPG: Room 12 "Often Edison may be seen here in animated conference with a group of his assistants; but its chief distinction lies in it being one of his favorite haunts... Within its walls have been settling many of the perplexing problems and momentous questions that have brought about great changes in electrical and engineering arts." -- Frank Dyer and TC Martin, "Edison, His Life and Inventions," 1910 Edison preferred this cluttered but plain experimental room over his more ornate library office. A 1910 biography described how Edison used this personal lab: "the door is always open, and often he can be seen seated at a plain table in the centre of the room, deeply intent on some of the number of problems in which he is interested... Always at hand will be found one or two of the laboratory note-books, with frequent entries or comments in the handwriting which once seen is never forgotten." At one time, a smaller room was partitioned off within, probably for his secret experiments. Fred Ott: Edison's personal experimental machinist, Fred Ott, had an office near Edison's private lab. Like his older brother John, Fred had worked with Edison in Newark and at the Menlo Park lab, long before the West Orange lab opened. He assisted Edison with many projects, but is best known as the subject of the first film ever copyrighted. Commonly known as "Fred Ott's Sneeze," the short publicity film was made here in 1894. Something of a joker, Ott didn't mind hamming it up for the camera and later enjoyed claiming he was the first movie star.
17. EDISON_110528_0377.JPG: Music Room "They make another mistake and think that because a singer is good on the stage he will be good on the phonograph. This is not the case, because the phonograph exaggerates the tremolo which is present in nearly every voice." -- Thomas A. Edison, letter to Thomas Graf, managing director of the Edison phonograph division in Berlin, Germany, 1911 Birth of an Industry: The sounds that echoed within these walls and down the hall were more than just music. They were the wails of the newborn recording industry. Visitors in the 1880s and 1890s often heard strange noises coming from this room, as the staff made experimental recordings on wax cylinders to discover what techniques produced the best sound quality. Recording techniques weren't yet sensitive enough to require a soundproof room, so musicians sometimes made master recordings here -- recordings that Edison reproduced for sale. By the 1910s, the phonograph was becoming part of daily life and Edison had lots of competition. This room became what in today's music industry is called the Artist & Repertoire department. Clarence Hayes: Edison hired Clarence Hayes, a vocalist and bookkeeper, in 1912 to manage the Music Room. As Edison evaluated music and artists for release on Diamond Disc records, Hayes organized the inventor's comments and passed them along to the recording studio, record pressing plant, and advertising department. Hayes described Edison's method: "It never matters to him whether they are big artists or not, you know. If he thinks a certain record is rotten, he says it is rotten, and that goes."
18. EDISON_110528_0394.JPG: Quality Sound "A visitor to this upper floor of the laboratory building... hears from all sides the sounds of vocal and instrumental music constantly varying in volume and timbre, due to changes in the experimental devices under trial." -- Frank Dyer and TC Martin, "Edison, His Life and Inventions," 1910 Edison's staff experimented with these horns in the music room to see what size and shape worked best. In the early days of the phonograph, horns were used for both recording and playback. During recording, the horn literally funneled the sound waves to the recording stylus. When playing back a recording, the horn acted as an amplifier, making the sound louder. Theo Wangemann: Theo Wangemann could be called the world's first music recording engineer. While working for Edison from 1888 to 1893, he experimented with phonograph recordings to improve both vocal and instrumental musical records. The German immigrant was an accomplished pianist who had studied with Hermann Helmholtz, a physicist known for his research on musical sound waves. He rejoined the Music Room staff in 1902, conducting experimental work with these and other phonograph horns.
19. EDISON_110528_0422.JPG: Edison's Phonographs His Favorite Invention: In 1877, inspired by his work on the telephone and a recording telegraph, Edison thought he could make a device that recorded and reproduced the human voice. Using a hand-cranked cylinder wrapped with heavy tinfoil, Edison bellowed the nursery rhyme "Mary Had A Little Lamb" into his new device. When his own voice crackled back, he heard the beginning of an industry. He wasn't certain what the market or the uses would be, but he did know it was his favorite invention. He called it the phonograph. Edison attempted to improve the tinfoil phonograph at Menlo Park but failed to produce a commercial machine and turned his attention to the electric light. In the 1880s, inventors at Alexander Graham Bell's Washington DC laboratory developed their own cylinder recording machine called the graphophone. The threat of competition prompted Edison to resume work on the phonograph shortly before he built the West Orange Laboratory. Its Evolution: As Edison and his experimenters labored to improve the new machine, they also puzzled over how to make money with it. In 1887, shortly before coming to West Orange, Edison abandoned the fragile tinfoil record for the wax cylinder, a more permanent and practical recording medium. The phonograph was marketed to businessmen to record letters. Edison's early dictating phonographs were not profitable, but the phonograph was later used to provide entertainment. The "coin-in-slot" phonograph -- similar to a jukebox -- was a moneymaker. In the late 1880s and early 1890s, people flocked to public arcades, where they dropped a nickel per song. By the late 1890s, many families were buying home phonographs -- not to make their own recordings, but to play prerecorded music and comedy. The phonograph business was growing and it became a primary focus of Edison's research. The Competition: Emile Berliner invented the disc-playing gramophone in 1888. His seven-inch discs were cheaper and easier to produce. In the late 1890s, Eldridge R Johnson, a Camden, NJ machinist, introduced some technical improvements. By 1901, he obtained control over Berliner's patents and started the Victor Talking Machine Company. In 1906, the Victor Company introduced the disc-playing Victor Victrola. With its horn curled up instead of beautiful wooden cabinet, it looked more like furniture than a machine. Edison believed cylinders sounded better and would win in the marketplace. But people bought so many disc machines and records that in 1912 he introduced his own brand, the Diamond Disc. Sales faltered as radio became popular during the 1920s. Edison ceased manufacturing an entertainment phonograph in 1929.
20. EDISON_110528_0430.JPG: The First Phonograph, 1877: The first time anyone ever recorded sound and played it back was when Edison used this machine to record "Mary Had a Little Lamb." It recorded sound waves as indentations on a sheet of tinfoil.
21. EDISON_110528_0438.JPG: Recording Telegraph, 1877: This machine predates the phonograph. Edison called it "the father of the phonograph." It recorded incoming telegraph messages by indenting code signals on a paper disc, and then retransmitted them, which inspired Edison to do something similar with sound.
22. EDISON_110528_0445.JPG: Improved Tinfoil Phonograph, 1878: In April 1878, Edison took a phonograph of this design to Washington DC, and demonstrated it at the White House for President Rutherford B Hayes. It's called the Brady Model because it appears in a famous photograph of Edison taken at Mathew Brady's studio in Washington DC.
23. EDISON_110528_0464.JPG: Earliest Known Edison Wax Cylinder Phonograph, 1887: After devoting several years solely to incandescent lighting, Edison returned to the development of phonographs with this model. Based on new improvements from inventor Alexander Graham Ball's Volta Laboratory, this design used a wax cylinder record instead of a tinfoil record.
24. EDISON_110528_0473.JPG: Wax Cylinder Phonograph, 1888: This is the second design of Edison's wax cylinder phonograph and the first major prototype to come out of the West Orange lab. Edison and his assistant Ezra Gilliland demonstrated the improved phonograph at a meeting of the Electric Club in New York City on May 19, 1888.
25. EDISON_110528_0479.JPG: Military, or Portable, Phonograph, 1889: This unique wax cylinder phonograph is miniature in size but fully functional in design. It is unclear whether the "military" designation meant it was intended for use by the military or by reporters covering a war. Edison carried it under his arm as he boarded a ship to go to the Paris Exposition in 1889.
26. EDISON_110528_0487.JPG: Water-Powered Phonograph, 1890: Edison used several power sources to operate his earliest phonographs -- hand treadles, foot treadles, electric motors -- before he developed a reliable spring motor. This phonograph ran on a stream of water from a hose.
27. EDISON_110528_0493.JPG: Coin-Slot Phonograph, c 1896: Entrepreneurs placed Edison's phonograph in arcades, saloons, and other public spaces. Customers dropped a nickel in the slot and put on the eartubes to hear a song or a comic monologue.
28. EDISON_110528_0497.JPG: Recording Phonograph, c 1910s: Edison's recording experts used this phonograph for cutting wax cylinder records. A large flywheel helped turn the master record accurately; a technician inspected the sound groove with a microscope to evaluate the quality of the master recording.
29. EDISON_110528_0510.JPG: Sound-Effect Devices: Many techniques for creating sound effects were pioneered in early phonograph recording studios and developed later in radio and the movies. Sound-effect devices used in Edison's recording studio include: (1) sleigh bells, (2) wood clacker, (3) tambourine, (4) tin pan noisemaker, (5) coconut shells for sounds imitating horses' hooves, (6) shoe sole on wood block for imitating slaps or footfalls.
30. EDISON_110528_0515.JPG: Stroh Violin and Viola, c 1901: Because stringed instruments did not record well, inventor Augustus Stroh designed these specifically for phonograph recording. The instruments' horns amplified the music and directed it toward the recording horn. Edison's recording technician William A Hayes purchased several in Europe.
31. EDISON_110528_0542.JPG: Kinetophone Sound Film System, 1913: The Kinetophone attempted to synchronize recorded sound with motion pictures. A projector at the back of the theater was connected by pulley to a phonograph at the front with operators communicating by intercom, but it proved too complicated for most theater owners to operate. Components include: (1) Kinetoscope (the projector), (2) Kinetophonograph and horn (the phonograph), (3) Kinetophone accessories (the telephone intercom and other parts).
32. EDISON_110528_0547.JPG: Record-Evaluation Phonograph, c 1915: Edison evaluated Diamond Disc records using this phonograph. The custom-designed cover of the horn compartment folds down to become a desktop. The exposed horn allowed him to lean close to compensate for his hearing loss.
33. EDISON_110528_0554.JPG: Prototype Automatic Record Changer Phonograph, 1927: This prototype was designed for Edison's long-play disc, a 12-inch record with 20 minutes a side. The machine could play a set of discs continuously for hours; its raw appearance is typical of a laboratory working model.
34. EDISON_110528_0564.JPG: Cine-Music Phonograph and Horn, c 1928: Edison's son Theodore designed this electrically powered and amplified long-playing record system to accompany silent films. But before it got to market, Warner Brothers introduced Vitaphone Talking Pictures, the first practical system joining motion pictures with synchronized sound.
35. EDISON_110528_0587.JPG: 1886-1890s Making a Bright Idea Brighter: "After a thing is perfected and commercially introduced so as to show there is money it it, half a dozen parties start to infringe it... it will be several years before I can get a final decision, and in the meantime they make money, and when I do get a decision it is probable that no damages can be collected." -- Transcription of an interview with Edison, "Cincinnati Inquirer," c 1888 Inventing a successful incandescent electric lamp at Menlo Park in 1879 was only the beginning. Machinery to produce the lamps had to be invented, manufactured, and installed. A system to generate and distribute electricity had to be developed, then workers trained and customers found. By the mid-1880s, Edison had organized a group of companies to do this. Faced with competition from other electrical manufacturers, including George Westinghouse and Elihu Thomson, Edison was forced to improve every element of the system continually. Otherwise, his competitors would win in the marketplace. Edison led the West Orange experimenting team, which included a glassblower, a lamp tester, several experimenters, and, when needed, chemists. Their work included: finding better natural materials for filaments; coating filaments to improve their performance; developing and improving materials for filaments; reducing the costs of making lamps; and improving manufacturing techniques. In April 1889, Edison's various electric manufacturing companies were consolidated into one firm, Edison General Electric. In 1892, Edison General Electric merged with another electrical manufacturing firm, Thomson-Houston, to become General Electric. Edison no longer had a direct involvement in the company and focused his work on the phonograph, motion pictures, and ore milling. What is a filament? A filament is a very slender natural or synthetic fiber. It's the part of an incandescent lightbulb that glows when current passes through it. Inventors had devised electric lamps before Edison, but the filaments burned out too quickly to be practical. Edison's first successful filament was made of carbon and lasted 40 hours, but he soon discovered a filament derived from bamboo that lasted 1,200 hours.
36. EDISON_110528_0597.JPG: 1890: A Doll That Talks: "Edison's phonograph doll. The greatest wonder of the age. A French jointed doll, reciting in a childish voice one of a number of well-known nursery rhymes." -- Advertisement for Schwarz's Toy Bazaar, 1890 One of Edison's first attempts to market the phonograph was as a simple novelty to amuse children. Charles Batchelor, an Edison employee, with two daughters of his own, suggested this idea. A tiny wax cylinder phonograph inside his "talking doll" played a childlike voice reciting nursery rhymes -- or at least it was supposed to. Over 3,000 of the toys were manufactured at Edison Phonograph Works. But the fragile mechanisms broke too easily for commercial success, and Edison ultimately shut down the operation, later admitting that "the voices of the little monsters were exceedingly unpleasant to hear." Edison's talking doll featured a bisque head imported from Germany. Wooden hands and feet were attached to a heavy metal body that held the phonograph mechanism. By turning a crank in the doll's back, a child could make the doll talk.
37. EDISON_110528_0614.JPG: 1899: A New Kind of Battery: Edison began experimenting on the storage battery in the summer of 1899. He was convinced that he could develop an improvement over existing lead-acid batteries, which were heavy, messy, and inefficient. Edison anticipated a large market for the new type of storage battery, particularly for use in electric automobiles. He promised a storage battery that would make electrics more competitive with gasoline-powered cars: inexpensive, high power relative to weight, quick charging and low maintenance, with a long range. In 1901, after thousands of experiments, he developed a nickel-iron storage battery. The publicity campaign began immediately. Edison's reputation drew many potential customers, despite a skeptical press. Edison batteries reached the market in 1903 but proved unsatisfactory. He ceased production in 1904 at considerable financial loss. He felt that his name and reputation were at stake. Edison finally delivered a reliable battery in 1910, but by that time gasoline vehicles were cheaper and better than ever. Ultimately, Americans turned away from electrics. The battery company prospered nonetheless by selling the new battery for other uses, ranging from railroad signaling to mining to submarines. Storage batteries rely on an electrochemical reaction that allows them to be charged and then discharged many times without becoming exhausted. Primary batteries, however, depend on a different type of chemical reaction that eventually destroys the electrodes; thus they can't be recharged.
38. EDISON_110528_0615.JPG: 1900s and Beyond: Cement: A Success Built on Failure: "The only way to keep ahead of the procession is to experiment. If you don't, the other fellow will. When there's no experimenting, there's no progress. ... If anything goes wrong, experiment until you get to the very bottom of the trouble." -- Thomas A Edison to William Mason, chief engineer of the Cement Works, Stewartsville, NJ. (Mason later applied some of the lessons he learned in the development of masonite.) For much of the 1890s, Edison had practically lived at his innovative Ogden ore-milling plant. Its most successful product wasn't iron ore but a by-product of rock-crushing -- sand. Edison's sand was finer and dryer than others, and cement companies bought all he could produce. Edison decided to apply his ore-milling technology to making portland cement. More durable and uniform than natural cement, it was becoming a major building material. In 1899, Edison formed the Edison Portland Cement Company. The West Orange staff redesigned the ore-crushing machinery to make a product finer than the industry standard. The key to good cement, however, was properly roasting the mixture of ground limestone and cement rock. Edison and his staff designed a 150-foot-long rotary kiln, larger and more efficient than available kilns. By 1907, the company was producing fine cement and competitors were adopting Edison's efficient, high-production kiln. The company became one of the nation's largest, although -- in part because of the huge sums spent in development -- it wasn't profitable until 1922. Portland cement isn't a brand name. It's a type of artificial cement developed in England in 1824, so named because it resembled a building stone from the Isle of Portland. Natural cement is produced by burning a naturally occurring mixture of lime and clay. Because its ingredients are mixed in nature, its properties are inconsistent.
39. EDISON_110528_0630.JPG: 1927-1931: One Last Experimental Campaign: In 1927, Edison was 80 years old, almost totally deaf, and beginning a major research campaign to find an alternative source of natural rubber. British colonies in Asia provided nearly 70 percent of the world's rubber production, while American's used about 70 percent of it -- mostly in the auto industry -- leaving the US vulnerable to price increases or shortages. Edison embarked on a search for a domestic source of rubber that matured quickly and was easily harvested. Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone, the tire manufacturer, subsidized their friend's research. Soon Edison had nine acres at his Florida home planted in latex-bearing vines, plants, shrubs, and trees. Eventually he acquired, crossbred, and tested over 17,000 plant samples. Goldenrod had the characteristics Edison sought. Two years of crossbreeding increased its rubber yield from 4 to 12 percent and produced a taller, hardier plant. Edison got as far as producing prototype automobile tires made of natural rubber from his hybrid goldenrod plants, but he died in October 1931 before a finished product was market-ready. In time, other researchers developed synthetic materials suitable for tired. Natural rubber comes from latex-bearing plants like rubber trees. The raw materials for synthetic rubber are derived from petroleum and coal. The chemical composition of their by-products is then changed until the material exhibits properties similar to those of natural rubber.
40. EDISON_110528_0639.JPG: 1870s - 1940s: The Museum Collection: "I shall never rest till every article, book or paper has been so indexed and cross indexed that its whereabouts are known.... and the result will be a peace of mind and a certainty of getting what one is looking for, similar to that felt by the possessor of a safe deposit box." -- William Bayley, Vault Service to JW Robinson, January 17, 1921 The collections at the Laboratory and Glenmont are unusual because they are housed in their original locations, not assembled from numerous donors as are the collections in many museums. Documents, which can be easily linked to the artifacts they describe, are invaluable for scholarly research into all areas of Thomas Edison's business and family life. Staff also use the collections to create and improve museum exhibits and educational programs. Some of the 400,000 artifacts include prototypes and commercial Edison products, laboratory furnishings and equipment, and the personal items used by the Edison family at their home, Glenmont. The archival collection (approximately 5 million documents) contains 3,500 laboratory notebooks; business and personal correspondence; blueprints for products and factory buildings; 60,000 historical photographs; 48,000 sound recordings on both cylinders and discs; family papers; and library materials including Edison's technical and scientific reference books, serials, trade journals, booklets, and sheet music. This is the largest body of Edison-related material in existence, the product of Edison's 60-year career as inventor, manufacturer, businessman, and private citizen.
41. EDISON_110528_0677.JPG: Metallurgical Laboratory (closed to the public) -- Building 4: Metals were vital to Thomas Edison – from iron, copper, and various alloys used in new inventions to gold for plating phonograph record molds. Here in the metallurgical laboratory, workers collected, assayed, and evaluated the metals used for Edison's projects. In the 1890s Edison employees experimented with the magnetic extraction of iron from low-grade ore. But by 1900, discovery of high-grade ore deposits dashed Edison's hopes of making a profit from milling New Jersey's low-grade ores. After losing millions, Edison stated, "Well, it's all gone, but we had a . . . good time spending it!" Later, Building 4 was put to non-metallurgical uses. Experiments in sound recording and phonograph record supplication were conducted in this building before 1903. By 1912 much of the experimental work concentrated on the diamond disc phonograph.
42. EDISON_110528_0692.JPG: Pattern Shop -- Building 3: Within this building carpenters shaped wood models, or patterns. From these wooden pieces, Edison and his employees made the parts for working models, specialized machinery, and other devices. The skilled workers in the Pattern Shop and other shops linked the ideas of the laboratory to the mass-production of the factories. The front of Building 3 once stored chemical supplies. In the Blacksmith Shop (Building 7, to your left) workers forged parts for inventions and laboratory machinery. With his resources at West Orange, Edison claimed he could "build anything from a lady's watch to a Locomotive . . . . Inventions that formerly took months & cost a large sum can now be done [in] 2 or 3 days with very little expense."
43. EDISON_110528_0696.JPG: Chemistry Laboratory -- Building 2: In 1887 this building was one of the best-equipped chemistry laboratories in the world. Within its walls, Thomas Edison and his chemists experimented on everything from phonograph records to rubber. "Grand science, chemistry," Edison once said, "I like it best of all the sciences." Beginning in the late 1890s, Edison and his staff worked for more than a decade to develop a practical storage battery for electric automobiles. After thousands of experiments, they produced a nickel-iron-alkaline battery by 1909. Although not practical for electric autos, Edison's durable battery was used in industry, mining, and railroad applications.
44. EDISON_110528_0710.JPG: The Courtyard: This open space between the laboratory buildings served many purposes: delivery area, test site, motion picture set, photograph backdrop, greeting area, and parking lot. Activities here changed almost daily. The laboratory buildings surrounding the courtyard once bustled with groups of assistants working on various inventions. Thomas Edison directed these projects toward a single end – organized, systematic research to produce "inventions useful in various arts."
45. EDISON_110528_0720.JPG: Making Movies: In 1893 the Black Maria became the world's first building constructed as a motion picture studio. This odd-shaped structure was designed to keep sunlight on the stage while Edison's film pioneers made kinetoscope films. Although most filming took place around noon, the Black Maria could use available sunlight at all hours. During filming, the angled roof was opened using pulleys to allow sunlight in the studio. The entire building rested on a pivot and wood track. As the sun's angle changed during the day, Edison's movie makers periodically stopped filming to push the Black Maria around a few feet to keep sunlight on its stage.
46. EDISON_110528_0738.JPG: Visit Glenmont: In 1886, Thomas A Edison purchased the 29-room Queen Anne-style mansion as a wedding present for his second wife, Mina Miller. He was the second owner of Glenmont, which was originally built for Henry C. Pedder, a confidential clerk from New York City. Notable architect Henry Hudson Holly designed the mansion within Liewellyn Park in 1880 and then worked with New York City decorating firm Pottier and Stymus to furnish the interior spaces. Most of the original furnishings remain, including ornate furniture, animal skins, oriental rugs, imported statuary and paintings, and girfs to the inventor from all around the world. Located less than a mile from here, Glenmont was used to entertain Edison's clients. Dignitaries and musical artists would visit the home for dinner or stay the night after visiting the Lab or nearby Edison manufacturing plants. Some of the noteworthy guests were Orville Wright, Helen Keller, Charles Lindbergh, George Eastman, Harvey Firestone, and Henry Ford. Originally interred in nearby Rosedale Cemetery, Thomas and Mina Edison were buried on the Glenmont grounds in 1963 at the request of their children.
47. EDISON_110528_0747.JPG: The Main Gate: From 1887 to 1931 Thomas A. Edison, his laboratory employees, and invited guests entered the laboratory complex through this gate and arch. Guards and a tall picket fence (replaced by this chain-link fence in 1917) prevented sightseers and competitors from wandering the grounds. The wooden gatehouse to your left was added in 1890, three years after Edison built his red-brick laboratory buildings. Behind the gatehouse, building 1 served as the physics laboratory until 1892 when vibrations from streetcars on Main Street upset the delicate instruments. Ahead, Building 5 housed a stockroom, machine shops, and Edison's personal library-office.
48. EDISON_110528_0752.JPG: The truck of the second commercial electric railroad locomotive, built by Tho's A. Edison and operated with freight and passenger cars, over three miles of railroad, at Menlo Park, NJ in 1882.
49. EDISON_110528_0756.JPG: The truck of the second commercial electric railroad locomotive, built by Tho's A. Edison and operated with freight and passenger cars, over three miles of railroad, at Menlo Park, NJ in 1882.
50. EDISON_110528_0758.JPG: Thomas A Edison Industries: Thomas Edison was not just an inventor – he was a businessman running an industrial empire. Around the laboratory, Edison built large factories where thousands of employees mass-produced his inventions for the public. Edison understood the importance of capital: "I always invented to obtain money to go on inventing." The imposing six-story concrete structure to your right was completed in 1914 to produce storage batteries and is the last surviving Edison factory building; the others were demolished in the 1960s and 1970s. At its peak in 1918-19, Thomas A. Edison, Inc. employed about 10,000 workers in West Orange.
51. EDISON_110528_0762.JPG: The Laboratory Complex: Building 5, the largest of the laboratory buildings, extends 250 feet along Lakeside Avenue. Henry Hudson Holly, architect of Thomas Edison's home, planned this single, three-story building. But Holly's building proved too small for Edison's plans and four one-story structures were built with the main building in 1887. To an Edison associate, the complex was like "Heaven . . . certainly one of the finest in the world and the finest in the States." Over the years, structures were added to Edison's laboratory complex. The first brick factories gave way to larger concrete factories like the one behind you. Smaller buildings were built and demolished to meet changing needs. Through all the changes, Edison's 1887 buildings have remained intact.
52. EDISON_110528_1021.JPG: This building is a replica of the original "Black Maria," the world's first motion picture studio. Dedicated to the memory of Thomas Alva Edison the founder of the motion picture industry. September 22, 1954
53. EDISON_110528_1057.JPG: Edison Cement Slab from the first concrete highway in New Jersey. Built in 1912 buy the State Highway Department.
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Wikipedia Description: Edison National Historic Site
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The Edison National Historic Site preserves Thomas Edison's laboratory and residence, Glenmont, in West Orange, New Jersey. For more than forty years, the laboratory had a major impact on the lives people worldwide. Out of the West Orange laboratories came the motion picture camera, improved phonographs, sound recordings, silent and sound movies and the nickel-iron alkaline electric storage battery.

The area was designated as Edison Home National Historic Site on December 6, 1955 and was redesignated as Edison Laboratory National Monument on July 14, 1956. On September 5, 1962, the 21 acre site once again became a United States National Historic Site overseen by the National Park Service. In 2002, the group They Might Be Giants released a song called "The Edison Museum" about this site.

Except for Glenmont, the Edison National Historic Site is currently closed to visitors due to major rehabilitation work on buildings within the site. This project was expected to be completed sometime in 2007, but as of February 2008 the labratory is still closed. The site is located about 5 miles (8 kilometers) west of Newark, New Jersey, just off of Interstate 280 on Main Street.
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Directly Related Pages: Other pages with content (NJ -- Edison NHS (Laboratory)) directly related to this one: [Display ALL photos on one page]:
- 2003_NJ_EdisonNHS: NJ -- Edison NHS (Laboratory) (4 photos from 2003)
Generally-Related Pages: Other pages with content (NJ -- Edison NHS (Glenmont)) somewhat related to this one: [Display ALL photos on one page]:
- 2011_NJ_Glenmont: NJ -- Edison NHS (Glenmont) (158 photos from 2011)
Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [Industry] [Park (National Park Service)]
2011 photos: Equipment this year: I mostly used the Fuji S100fs camera as well as two Nikon models -- the D90 and the new D7000. Mostly a toy, I also purchased a Fuji Real 3-D W3 camera, to try out 3-D photographs. I found it interesting although I don't see any real use for 3-D stills now. Given that many of the photos from the 1860s were in 3-D (including some of the more famous Civil War shots), it's odd to see it coming back. Trips this year: Civil War Trust conferences (Savannah, GA, Chattanooga, TN), New Jersey over Memorial Day for my birthday (people never seem to visit New Jersey -- it's always just a pit stop on the way to New York. I thought I might as well spend a few days there. Despite some nice places, it still ended up a pit stop for me -- New York City was infinitely more interesting), my 6th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco). Ego strokes: Author photos that I took were used on two book jackets this year: Jason Emerson's book "The Dark Days of Abraham Lincoln's Widow As Revealed by Her Own Letters" and Dennis L. Noble's "The U.S. Coast Guard's War on Human Smuggling." I also had a photo of Jason Stelter published in the Washington Examiner and a picture of Miss DC, Ashley Boalch, published in the Washington Post. Number of photos taken this year: just over 390,000.
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Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].