After some discussion the decision was made to visit Thomas Edison’s Laboratory and his home Glenmont, then go into the city later in the evening.
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Thomas Edison personified the age of invention, in the late 1800’s. He was best known for the phonograph and incandescent lamp but his greatest invention was a new way to invent: the industrial research and development laboratory. With his team of scientists he perfected his phonograph, developed motion pictures, a nickel –iron-alkaline storage battery and many other devices and technologies. In his lifetime Edison had more then 1,093 patents.
The West Orange Complex was ten times the size of his original Menlo Park location (we’ve seen the original Menlo lab that was moved to the museum Ford Museum in Detroit) and looked like a small college campus. Today many of the buildings used to develop his inventions stand with everything in the exact place it was left.
This building had once been the battery plant but was sold and is now to be developed into a shopping plaza, restaurants and apartments.
Edison was known to have only slept 4.5 hours nightly but he was notorious for taking short naps during the day, usually where he was sitting or working. His wife, Mina, did not think it was appropriate to be napping in the factory so she put a cot in his lab library.
We took the chemistry laboratory tour with the ranger and were quite impressed.
The lab is exactly as left when Edison died. All the chemicals used remain in the lab. It is said that you could smell the lab before you got to it. No one wore masks, goggles or safety equipment of any kind. No OSHA back then! It was like walking into a time warp or science fiction movie where everything was intact and it was like everyone just disappeared – which I guess they all have!!!!
Later we attended a talk on the phonograph, Edison’s favorite invention, because it worked after the first try!. The ranger was very informative and gave a great presentation.
We had tickets to Glenmont scheduled for 3 pm so had to get there for the tour. Glenmont Mansion is in a gated neighborhood so we had to have a special pass to get in with explicit instructions NOT to drive around the neighborhood after the tour was over. We learned that the neighborhood was also gated when Thomas Edison lived there. It was the first gated neighborhood of the time.
Just a glimpse of one of the homes we passed on the way to Glenmont.
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The Mansion was beautiful but of course no photography inside. We fell in love with the outside and the 13 acre parcel it sat on. The house was originally built and furnished by a bookkeeper who was embezzling money from his employer. At the time the house was valued at $250,000 – a lot of money for a bookkeeper. He was discovered and the company told him he could do one of two things, go to jail or sell them the house and furnishings for $1.00. He chose the latter, left town with his family and was never heard from again.
Mr. Edison was about to remarry (his first wife had died leaving him with three children to raise) and he bought the house fully furnished from the company for $125,000 as a wedding gift for his new wife.
The ranger told us that eighty percent of the furniture in the home is original. Three more children were born in the home and Mr. Edison lived in the home for over 40 years and died there. His wife was 17 years younger, eventually sold the home to the government with the understanding that she would live there until she passed and that the home would be turned into a museum. Of the six children only one daughter had children so the Edison family name ended with Thomas Edison.
It was a fairly large greenhouse but it looked like they were hadifficulty getting the plants and flowers to bloom.
We walked to the mansion and were immediately taken by the architectural beauty of the place. It had many different rooflines and angles and painted all in one color.
The home is going through renovation so the front door hadn’t been refurbished yet. The entire was home painted in a deep orange color that looked really nice.
Every angle of the home was spectacular and we certainly wouldn’t mind owning a home like Glenmont. Can only imagine the taxes on the place!
Mr. & Mrs. Edison were both buried on the grounds behind the home.
Unfortunately the garage that houses several of Edison’s cars was closed. Ron tried to get pictures through the windows but that didn’t work too well.
Love that Gatehouse!
After the tour of the mansion we went back to Edison’s Labs to finish touring there.
One of the many labs with all of the machinery locked in a time warp. Amazing to think that all remains just as it was left after Edison’s death in 1931.
As we toured the buildings we were amazed at the enormity of what Edison had accomplished in his lifetime. At one point he had over 10,000 workers and scientists developing ,discovering and moving the country forward technologically.
After touring the laboratories we took in the final ranger program of the day – The Black Maria – the world’s first motion picture studio. Although we couldn’t go inside we did get some interesting pictures.
The pictures didn’t come out too well. I guess the sun was casting odd shadows.
The timeline of Edison’s life and career is amazing and to think he was self-taught.
Back at the CG we debated on going into NYC but opted to call it a day. There were some dogs in the camper behind us that never stopped barking. We finally saw them and although really cute – very noisy under our bedroom. Oh, and the cage they were end hit the back of our bumper and scratched it!!!!
Did I mention there were also tent campers at Liberty as well. Yep, they set up a place for tents at $55.00 per night.
We had another great day and will heading back in to NYC on Sunday.
