Sabkush Headlines: Behind the scenes with The Wizard of Menlo Park

Sabkush Headlines: Behind the scenes with The Wizard of Menlo ParkBehind the scenes with The Wizard of Menlo Park





Today, this is the Thomas Edison National Historic Park, but for decades, it was the laboratory complex where the great innovator and the many people he employed did their work. For a geek, it doesnt get much better than this. As part of Road Trip 2010, Im paying a visit to a complex that, when it was fully operational, comprised dozens of buildings and employed hundreds of people. And I have to say that, while Im no Edison scholar, this was definitely one of the stops I was most looking forward to. At its peak, the complex was 10 times the size of the research and development labs in Menlo Park, N.J., where Edison had first become famous by inventing the phonograph and electric-powered incandescent light bulb. But when Edison married his second wife, Mina Miller, he offered her a choice of a townhouse in New York City or a house in the country. She chose the country. That meant West Orange, a New Jersey town within sight of the Big Apple, would be home to this huge set of R&D and manufacturing facilities. Today, long after the death of both Edison and his wife, the property is run by the National Park Service, which last fall completed a six-year renovation that has opened up a vast new collection of artifacts to the general public. All told, the Park Service oversees an archive that includes more than 5 million documents; 400,000 items including prototypes and commercially produced models of Edisons inventions, lab furnishings, and equipment; as well as personal effects from the Edisons home; 48,000 sound recordings; and much, much more. It also maintains the Edisons home--known as Glenmont--in tony Llewellyn Park nearby. Movies Though Edison invented the phonograph and the light bulb in Menlo Park, that doesnt mean there was a lack of world-changing innovation coming out of the labs in West Orange. Quite the contrary. It was here that the "Wizard of Menlo Park" first developed the kinetograph and the kinetoscope, the first motion-picture camera and viewing system, and where he set up the worlds first movie studio. Edison set up shop here in 1887, and his intention was both to work on new inventions and to manufacture them as well. His goal? To create a sort of one-stop shop for innovation that didnt require farming out any of the work. Why bother, the thinking seems to have been, when it could all be placed under one roof? Well, if not one single roof, then at least on one set of grounds. The main part of the complex--"the Inventing Buildings"--consisted of a physics lab, a chemistry lab, a woodworking building, a metallurgical lab, and a set of research labs, machine shops, music recording facilities, a photography studio, and a drafting studio. At its peak, the complex had nearly 200 people doing research and development, and the adjacent factories employed 10,000 more. Edison and his companies churned out inventions and the resulting products here for 44 years. Touring the complex today, visitors will usually start in Building 5. Here was Edisons office, which also doubled as the complexs main library, as well as the place to show distinguished visitors his collection of "trophies," or prized possessions. Among those showpieces is the first Academy Award, which the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences gave Edison in 1929 for his lifetime of work on behalf of the film industry. Signed by luminaries like Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford, the award didnt come with a statue, but must have meant just as much as an Oscar does today. Stockroom In keeping with the idea of not having to go anywhere else at any point in the production process, Building 5 included a full-on stockroom, complete with just about any tool or piece of equipment anyone might need. Again, the concept was that someone could use the buildings library to research their design ideas, and then go to the stockroom to get the tools theyd need to build. Another important piece of this process was the pair of machine shops in the building. Downstairs is the heavy machine shop, filled with major lathes and presses and designed to craft big and, yes, heavy machinery and the like, including some of the machines that would be necessary to work on new inventions. Because Edison didnt want anyone to have to leave to do their work, his people often just built the equipment they needed for their production process, such as the device they built to put holes in phonograph records. The shop was also used for the production of some prototype or production products. Upstairs was the smaller precision machine shop, which had smaller lathes and presses and was used for more delicate work. Between the two shops, it was said, Edisons people could craft anything "from a locomotive to a ladys watch." On the third floor was the complexs music room, and here there is a collection of what has to be one of the most interesting phonograph horns around. It was also where many recordings were made, often with Edisons direct involvement. Its said that the inventor would listen to everything, and insisted on giving his approval for any recording that came out with his name on it.