Visiting Thomas Edison’s Laboratories & Office
What a fascinating tour we took of Thomas Edison’s laboratory and office in West Orange, New Jersey after we left Connecticut.
It is a national park, so if you have a parks pass 4 people can get in without paying the admission fee of $10 and children under 16 are free. This is one place that I think is a must see. You can tour at your own pace and/or listen in to their guides as they talk. The guides were very good, so enthused about their topic which showed in their talk.
Standing just outside of Thomas Edison’s library and offices/laboratories.
The library was 3 stories and was filled with all kinds of books. Edison didn’t want to have to go anywhere when researching a topic and so he made sure to have everything there.
Above the wooden clock you can see a large screen that Edison would pull down to show motion pictures on.
To the left of the eagle you can see some vertical slots. This is where the film projector was for playing films on the big screen.
Everything in his office, including everything on Edison’s desk,(they did turn the desk so visitors could see into it) was left exactly the way it was the day Edison died.
In his lifetime, Edison wrote 4,000 notebooks!
This is a terrible picture I know but I wanted you to see where Edison kept all his supplies for when they were working on inventions. The workers were not allowed in this fenced off area (and with barbed wire on the top of the fence to boot!) except for those authorized. You would come to the little window and tell them what you wanted and the workers would record what was taken in the books.
Because you didn’t know what material would work there was a wide variety of materials to choose from, as well as some quite unusual items like a tortoise shell and antlers.
In this area, the workers would make the machines that would manufacture whatever invention they were producing, be it phonographs, etc.
Area where the workers would wash up before heading home.
In this room, many experiments were done to see what worked best for recording.
Opera singers would come and sing and records would be recorded. Later on, instead of auditions being held here, the Edison company would travel to New York City and hold them there and this area became more of an office for those working the music part of Edison’s business.
Edison always used unknown opera singers because he wasn’t willing to pay as much as the well-known ones required.
Some of the many cylinders that were tried to see what produced the best sound.
There are several buildings on the premises but I believe only two are open to the public. This building was 3 stories tall.
Some of the other rooms in the laboratories…
Where the draftsmen would draw up designs.
Apparently, Edison spent a fair bit of time in this room.
At it’s peak, Edison employed 10,000 workers. Pretty amazing!
Tired workers… 😉
This was an excellent stop and one I highly recommend. I’m so glad we got to go.
I’ve read that Edison awoke from a coma a few days before he died and spoke these last words as he looked upward,
“It is very beautiful over there.”
