Existing comment:
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. |