Edison was a pretty cool guy, but he was also a bit of an obsessive genius. There is a little bed in his library that he would often use on overnight thinking sessions. He was constantly coming up with new things that could make life easier or, more often, would come totally out of left field and invent something we didn't know we wanted. When he was just a kid in Michigan, he started selling candy and vegetables, and soon became a relative expert at the telegraph. He'd amassed quite a fortune for himself by the time he moved to New Jersey, and he used his wealth to fuel inventing, and used the revenues from his inventions to fund more inventions.
Despite his total genius, he was a weird dude. Since childhood he had a severe hearing impairment, so he often felt awkward in social situations, unable to engage in much conversation. While he was working on prototypes of the gramophone, his horrid taste in music became clear; he often enjoyed shrill vocals and dissonant music because he could actually hear it. He was also stubborn - he worked in his labs until a few months before his death at age 84, and his employees had a personal elevator installed for him so he wouldn't have to climb the stairs. He refused to use it, however (despite a sign on it reading, "For Mr. Edison Only"), and climbed the stairs instead.
I'll babble a few more facts as we go through pictures. Patrick and I went to Edison's Labs on June 20, 2010.
The thumbs-up!
The area around the big brick buildings (which include the machine shop, library, chemistry lab, blacksmith, etc - everything needed to create any invention known to man, basically) is very cool, and feels like you're stepping back in time to when it was a bustling factory.
36 more images below! Click any one to see it bigger in Photobucket.
While Edison's book collection has been maintained, the library also contains many artifacts and awards presented to him over the years.
The aforementioned bed.
Except for undeniably necessary renovations (including one hell of an air conditioning system - it was hot as hell out, but cool and comfortable inside!), the shops and buildings have been left virtually unchanged since they were used.
After Edison died, his employees and those close to him had the presence of mind to know that someone was going to care very much about the factory. So in 1931, when the factory stopped operations after Edison's death, the employees basically shut and locked all the doors and waited for someone to come forward to turn it into a museum. As a result, there are still old-school fans on the tables, the chemistry shop still has experiments on the lab tables, so on and so forth. It is incredibly cool, and it makes you really thankful that the workers had the foresight to realize that they were in a very important place.
The large machine shop
I am so glad I will never work anywhere that I need to know things like this.
Small machine shop
A side room where Edison reportedly liked to do a lot of his famous "thinking"
Chemistry shop
It was Father's Day when we went. There were a ton of people there, many of them fathers, sons and grandfathers. This is the group we were in that toured the chemistry shop.
Chemistry shop
Upstairs in the main building were the recording rooms.
This 1905 gramphone still works, and they did a demonstration while we were there.
This is the original recorder with which Edison famously recorded himself reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb."
While recording, Edison's cohorts found that it was difficult to direct the sound of stringed instruments to the horn; this violin was invented specifically for recording.
This whole exhibit is about recording and the gramophones.
This made me absolutely crack up. A short-lived toy was the talking doll. We were given audio tours, and listening to this stop gave you an example of what these dolls sounded like - it was so horrible and hair-curling that I started cracking up right in the middle of this quiet exhibit. Imagine some terrible mix of the littlest Hanson brother and Alvin and the Chipmunks, all mixed up and put through a mad distortion pedal, and you have an idea of this doll's voice. Once I read the description, it was even funnier:
A 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 the 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.'
I liked this logo. I want it on a tee shirt.
Looking out a window
Outside
This is the Black Maria, the first-ever movie studio!
It turned around on that track so that the ceiling could be opened up and the sun could be positioned correctly in order to light the scene.
The day we were at Edison's Labs, they were giving away their audio tours for free. They were usually $5, so not only did we get into the park for free (thanks to our NPS annual pass), but we got a free tour too. The tour was great - when you see an exhibit about which you would like to hear more, you punch in the number and hold it to your ear and it tells you everything you want to know.
Also part of Thomas Edison NHP is Glenmont, his home in West Orange, New Jersey. As I mentioned before, Edison was a pretty wealthy guy, and his house is really fantastic. You need to get separate tickets to tour the house, and it's actually part of what is now a private community of estates, so you need a special pass to show the gatekeeper at the community so you can get through to go to Glenmont.
Me in front of the house... I love having a wide-angle lens for historic house tours
Main parlor
Sitting room
They had one of those eye-lookie-things that help you see stereoscopic images in 3-D. Apparently most people can fiddle with their eyes and see the images in 3-D without one of these viewers, but I can't. I even own a few antique stereo cards and can't see them right.
Very cool chandelier in the dining room
Main staircase
This painting, according to our tour guide, depicts a young woman reading newspaper accounts of her own debutante ball the morning after the party. Also according to our tour guide, Mina Edison, Thomas's wife, thought the painting was very racy and didn't like it - but it was a gift to her husband so she displayed it.
Outside and in back of the house
This is his garage. A garage! It's bigger than most houses I think.
Since cars didn't have a reverse gear back in the day, the cars had to be driven onto this circular platform, rotated, and pushed into their appropriate spot in the garage.
One of these things was Edison's. One was not.
The greenhouse at Glenmont still grows plants, and how - check out this agave!
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