After walking through the houses with our tour guide, we took off on our own to see Edison’s laboratories in one building and in one of Henry Ford’s specially made cars that allowed them to explore the U.S. This second building also had a timeline of Edison’s life and a display about Edison’s love of baseball in its early days.
But before we start with this later stage of Edison’s life, I wondered how these two men met and started their friendship. Here’s what AI had to say:
“Edison and Ford met in 1896 at a convention for the Edison Illuminating Company in New York. Ford, who admired Edison [and saw him as a hero and mentor], was able to show him his first gasoline-powered car, the quadricycle, his first horseless carriage prototype. Impressed, Edison encouraged him, saying, ‘Young man, that’s the thing; you have it! Keep at it!’ which began a lifelong friendship between the two inventors.”
Edison is known for the volume and diversity of his inventions that resulted in 1093 U.S. patents over his lifetime. As we’ve seen in him and his family, his life was full of witty remarks and homespun humor (like proposing to his wife in Morse Code and his daughter’s rules for the estate). Even today the name “Edison” represents ingenuity, and his light bulb has become the symbol for a good idea.
Edison described himself as “the busiest man in America” in a letter to a friend in December 1878.
vagabonds
In the winter of 1914, the Edisons invited the Fords and naturalist John Burroughs to Seminole Lodge (Edison’s home in Fort Myers) for the first time. The families, along with 3 local guides, took off to the Everglades in South Florida. It was a rough journey with rain and cold weather. After just 2 nights, they returned soaked and exhausted to Fort Myers.
In addition to camping, the 2 families attended carnivals, went boating and fishing, and enjoyed spring training baseball games while in Fort Myers. In the previous picture, Thomas Edison is at bat while Connie Mack plays catcher.
On motor excursions into Adirondack forest, Florida swamps, and Appalachian valleys, Ford, Edison, and Burroughs forged an unlikely friendship.
These men didn’t just stay in their laboratories. Henry Ford showed off his mechanical genius in 1918 when he designed the following truck that worked as a chuck wagon on wheels for their camping trip through the Adirondack Mountains and northeastern U.S.
The inline 4-cylinder, 20 horse power engine could reach a top speed of 45 mph. But because of the road conditions, it probably only reached 25-30 mph with gas mileage ranging from 13-21 miles per gallon.
To make room for the table and drawers, the battery, which was originally behind the back seat on the driver’s side, was moved to a specially designed battery box on the running board. For fresh water, Ford converted 2 Model T gas tanks into storage containers to hold fresh water. A water faucet is located along the vehicle’s right side.
By 1931 the vehicle was owned by Greenfield Village, part of the Henry Ford museum complex in Dearborn, Mi., that we’ve mentioned in previous posts. In the 1980s a private collector bought it and then sold it to the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in 1997. Restoration was completed in 2010.
final trip
The final trip in 1924 was an opportunity for Ford to share his recent purchase of the Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Ma., with his friends and their wives. As with previous trips, people in towns along the way enjoyed cheering them on. Along the way, President Calvin Coolidge joined them, demonstrating the importance of Edison, Ford, and Firestone in national politics throughout the 1920s.
Around the campfire, the men began to discuss a pursuit that would consume Edison’s energy until his death in 1931—cultivating an American source of rubber. More about this pursuit later in this post.
baseball‘s origins
So why is this exhibit in the museum? Here’s what AI has to say:
“The history of baseball at Edison’s Fort Myers estate is due to Thomas Edison’s love for the sport and his friendship with Connie Mack, the manager of the Philadelphia Athletics. The Athletics began their spring training in Fort Myers in 1925 at the nearby Terry Park, and Edison became a regular visitor, even participating in batting practice with players like Ty Cobb. He also hosted the team for a tour and refreshments at his winter estate, cementing a connection between the inventor and baseball in the city.”
Modern baseball is similar to the English game “Rounders” or Cricket and an American game called “Townball.” During the 1850s, many variations of the game were being played, but the New York and Massachusetts games were the most popular. [Interesting that this game became popular before the Civil War in the mid 1860s.]
New York’s version was closer to today’s game with its diamond-shaped field and the rule that players had to stay within the base paths while running.
In 1857, sixteen baseball clubs came together to establish America’s first professional sports association, the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP), which set guidelines such as 90 feet between bases, 9 player teams, and 9 inning games.
quest for rubber
In July 1927, the vagabonds formed the Edison Botanic Research Corporation (EBRC) with the goal of finding a quality source of rubber that could be planted, cultivated, and chemically processed in the case of war when other sources of rubber might not be available.
By the end of the project, 2222 different botanical species were examined and tested, including 17,000 individual plant specimens. Goldenrod was selected for showing the greatest potential for rubber extraction.
The EBRC operated until 1936 (5 years after Edison’s death), when the project was transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The lab that we’ll be seeing was built in 1928 as the headquarters for Edison and his staff.
Plants grown on the property were first dried outside and then taken into a room near the back of the lab that contained various grinding machines.
lay of the land
As Edison’s project progressed, acres of research beds and a variety of structures filled the surrounding landscape.
This research laboratory was designed to find a natural source of rubber that could be grown in the U.S. Divided into 6 sections, parts of the laboratory operated like an assembly line with critical tasks being performed in each area.
So what eventually happened to this research? According to AI: “Thomas Edison did not stop his quest for rubber from plants; rather, his research project was discontinued after his death and ultimately rendered obsolete by the parallel development of cheaper, more efficient synthetic rubber during World War II.”
Edison’s laboratories
After Henry Ford encouraged Edison to move his original laboratory to Greenfield Village, Edison built up the laboratories now on the grounds that are similar to his laboratories in Menlo Park, New Jersey, so he wouldn’t have to move equipment back and forth.
Each of these machines were connected by a belt to a central line shaft running the length of the building and powered by a 5-hosepower, alternating current (AC) motor.
The key to finding the perfect rubber plant was to identify those specimens with a high latex yield.
A dark room was needed to record the results of experiments so they could be repeated.
The communications center of the laboratory happened in the office. Edison and his staff wrote and received correspondence, weighed plant samples, drafted garden plots, and kept a research library and an extensive herbarium collection.
By selectively crossbreeding the plant, he was able to dramatically increase its size and the amount of rubber it could produce.
Are you absolutely amazed with what Thomas Edison, and his vagabond friends, achieved in his, and their, lifetime? I’m so glad this Estate has been maintained so we could learn about these men.
Now onto our family.
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