While in Fort Meyers Florida this summer my wife and I happen to pass a road sign that said Edison Ford winter homes. We made a sharp right which ended in the parking lot of one of the most ingenious men’s home that ever lived. Edison’s inventions on display in the museum along with his home furnished the way it was until he died in 1931. Among his inventions:

1868 electrical vote recorder.

1869 Invented the universal stock ticker and the unison stop.

1872 Invented the monograph. Invented the automatic telegraph system. Invented paraffin paper. Invented the carbon rheostat.

1876 Invented the electric pen used for the first mimeographs.

1877 Invented the carbon telephone transmitter, making telephony commercially practical. This included the microphone used in radio.

1877 Invented the phonograph. This was Edison’s favorite invention. He sponsored the Edison Phonograph Polka to help popularize the new device.

1879 Discovered incandescent light. Radically improved dynamos and generators. Discovered a system of distribution, regulation, and measurement of electric current-switches, fuses, sockets, and meters.

1885 Discovered a system of wireless induction telegraph between moving trains and stations. He also patented similar systems for ship-to-shore use.

1891 Invented the motion picture camera.

1896 Invented the fluoroscope. Invented the fluorescent electric lamp.

1900 Invented the nickel-iron-alkaline storage battery.

1914 Invented the electric safety miner’s lamp.

1915 Conducted special experiments on more than 40 major war problems for the Navy Department. Edison served as Chairman of the Naval Consulting Board and did much other work on National Defense.

1927-1931 Tested 17,000 plants for rubber content as a source of rubber in war emergencies. A piece of vulcanized rubber was made from a Goldenrod strain he developed.

Sally and I were amazed to see the laboratory that has been maintained exactly the way it was in 1927-1931 for discovering a rubber source through the Goldenrod Plant. One of the most interesting parts of the tour for me was the acute friendship he had with Henry Ford. Edison had a stone walk built in front of his home. Each stone was contributed from a friend with their name on it to build the curved walkway to the front door.

I observed at least 100 stones including the one given by his best friend Henry Ford. Because one of his best friends was a botanist Edison had numerous plants from all over the world surrounding his bay side home. It was from these friendships and the team efforts that the inspiration for over 1000 patents emerged making him the greatest inventor of all time. Many of the plants helped Edison discover the best filament for the light bulb including the numerous bamboo plants he experimented with. I was also impressed for a man who became deaf at an early age he never let that interfere with his passion for discovery and adventure.

He always found a way and rarely made excuses.

– Gene Bedley