JFK+50: Volume 5, No. 2102
THOMAS ALVA EDISON DIED 85 YEARS AGOWest Orange, New Jersey (JFK+50) Eighty-five years ago today, October 18, 1931, the world's greatest inventor, Thomas Alva Edison*, died at his home here in West Orange of complications of diabetes.
Because Mr. Edison set up his invention laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, he was known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park".
Edison, who had 1039 patents registered with the United States Patent Office, invented the electric light, the phonograph, and the storage battery. He also developed a complete electrical distribution system for light and power.
It has been said about Thomas Alva Edison...
"He led no armies into battle, he conquered no countries, and he enslaved no peoples...Nonetheless, he exerted a degree of power the magnitude of which no warrior ever dreamed. His name still commands a respect as sweeping in scope and as world-wide as that of any other mortal - a devotion rooted deep in human gratitude and untainted by the bias that is often associated with race, color, politics, and religion."
*Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was born in Milan, Ohio and had little formal education. He went to work for the Detroit & Port Huron, Michigan Railroad in 1859 and eventually became an independent inventor.
Edison Commemorative Medal
Thomas A. Edison Battery Exhibit
US Department of the Interior
National Park Service
Edison National Historic Site
