Page 164 - Green Butterfly Book 2

Date:
When twenty-six years of age, he married a young lady of Newark, Miss Mary Stillwell. Three years later he moved to Menlo Park. This was twenty-four miles from New York. It was not a pleasant place, but he hoped to work there in quiet. He had so many visitors that he could not work. He said, “I think I shall fix a wire to my gate, and connect it with a battery so that it will knock everybody over that touches it.” But he was really kind. He would smile pleasantly, and explain patiently to anyone who wished to know about his inventions.
At Menlo Park he built a great laboratory; this was filled with batteries and machinery. Here the entire world came to see his wonderful talking machine; it is called a phonograph.
Edison with his phonograph.
Photograph taken by Matthew Brady in 1877.
But his crowning discovery is the electric light bulb.
Some gentlemen of New York put one hundred thousand dollars into Mr. Edison’s hands. They told him to experiment until he could make a light which everyone would be glad to use. Many had tried to do this and had not succeeded. The difference between his and other light bulbs was that this one lasted for hours. It is said that he tried two thousand substances for the arch in his glass globe before he found one which suited him.
unit
9
162
http://www.goldminemag.com/article/vinyl-record-day- attempting-to-gain-momentum