• Heavy Machine Shop

    Thomas Edison

    National Historical Park New Jersey

Where Modern America Was Invented

Thomas Edison’s home and laboratory are a step back in time, when machines were run by belts and pulleys and music was played on phonographs.  Where to the passerby, the buildings betray little evidence of the industries they once started.  Discover where America’s greatest inventor changed our world forever.

Did You Know?

Fluoroscope

Clarence Madison Dally an employee of Thomas Edison at his West Orange research labs volunteered to work on the newly discovered x-rays. Using a fluoroscope, made of a fluoride gas filled light and two pieces of cardboard to focus the x-rays, Dally would expose himself to high concentrations of radiation eventually leading to radiation poisoning. After Dally’s death when Edison was asked about x-rays he would respond with “Don’t ask me about x-rays. I am afraid of them.”