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[Frank DeWitt]

Menlo park gives us a hint about where you live...

JR

Never been there, But It is on my list.  It is about 6 hrs away from my home.  I have just always admired Edison.

[Mike Sokol]

I was trying to make a humorous and literate reference.

Everybody play nice, please. Or I'll unleash the Lightning Bolt of Destiny (or whatever...)

[Mike Sokol]

Inside the lobby of the Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls Ontario . . the "Teslatron" fountain.

I think I want to live there. Way too cool...

[Al Keltz]

Two more, one from the Canada side, Tesla is standing on an AC electric motor which he patented.

The other is out side of "The Cave Of the Winds" attraction.

[Josh Millward]

In a completer swerve OT, I've been to Organ Stop Pizza in Tempe, AZ a few times. It's an incredible Wurlitzer organ with every time of drum, violin, xylophone, horn, and pipe organ noise maker you can imagine under direct control of the organist.

Yeah, it's totally steampunk and anti-electrical, but it's a great mechanical show very close to Phoenix, AZ.

Along those same lines you may want to explore the Tampa Theatre in downtown Tampa, FL.

Similar concept with noisemakers all over the theater and the organ rises up through the stage.

[Tim McCulloch]

In a completer swerve OT, I've been to Organ Stop Pizza in Tempe, AZ a few times. It's an incredible Wurlitzer organ with every time of drum, violin, xylophone, horn, and pipe organ noise maker you can imagine under direct control of the organist. And none of the sounds are generated electrically. Yup, it's all powered by air pressure. You can drink cheap beer and eat average pizza while you watch all mechanisms make music. And the best part is when the organ console rises out of the floor on a hydraulic platform and the organist is revealed wearing a gold sequined jacket. He's got a tip jar on the top of the organ, and will play whatever you like for a few bucks. I tipped him a 5-spot and asked for Chattanooga Choo Choo (one of his faves listed on the playlist). Yup, it's got a real train whistle.

Yeah, it's totally steampunk and anti-electrical, but it's a great mechanical show very close to Phoenix, AZ.

http://www.organstoppizza.com/

The theater organ crowd calls that "the toy counter."  Lots of new technology on the control end but still electrical and pneumatic at its heart.

[Frank DeWitt]

The quote I remember from Edison is "Genius is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration."  The Oatmeal cartoon about Tesla v Edison is spot on when the author says "Edison was a CEO."  While Edison came up with ideas it was largely the perspiration of his hired staff that refined those ideas until Edison could determine the monetary worth/practicality of a concept.

One of the things that I like about Edison is that he paid people to do research.  (He created jobs)  The light bulb is a good example of how he did things.  He didn't set out to invent the light bulb because that had been done.  He set out to invent a long lasting light bulb that customers would chose over gas as the way they wanted to light there homes.  That meant looking at the total cost of gas lighting and the relative benefits of gas vs electric and coming up with something better.  He started by specifying a system to compete, and then inventing it.  He specified the brightness,  That it should be high resistance and low current (100 ohms and 1 amp running at 100 volts) all light bulb before that were very low resistance and high current.  He then decided on a system of distribution using underground wiring for safety At that time telegraph and arc light street lamp wires were run from roof top to roof top in cities.  He came up with the 3 wire system (Hot neutral Hot) with a balanced load having no current flow in the neutral.  BTW having smaller branch circuits running off a larger feed had never been done, parallel circuits for lighting had never been done.  He also decided that he needed direct coupled generators for efficiency, a meter, fuse boxes, sockets, switches. and all the other bits.  He then set to work with his staff to invent it all.  In the process he got AC wrong, and he didn't see small appliances coming so he didn't invent the plug and outlet. given all that he got right, I am OK with that.

He had a rule that he would not invent something unless there was a way to commercialize it, and he worked hard to make money from his invention.  I am not only OK with that, I am all for it.  I work for money.

BTW in the early years he worked alone and invented a number of things completely alone. 

[Stephen Swaffer]

Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI has-or at least claims to have-several buildings that were a part of Edison's Menlo Park laboratory restored and apparently ready for any new experiments you might dream up while you are there (if you can talk the staff into letting you play!)  Been a while since I've been there-definitely a nice weather field trip though not a good idea today.

[Tim McCulloch]

{big ol' snip to maintain some kind of continuity...}

He had a rule that he would not invent something unless there was a way to commercialize it, and he worked hard to make money from his invention.  I am not only OK with that, I am all for it.  I work for money.

BTW in the early years he worked alone and invented a number of things completely alone.

I have much more admiration for Edison the CEO than I do for the myth of Edison the inventor.

[Mike Sokol]

I have much more admiration for Edison the CEO than I do for the myth of Edison the inventor.

My top three favorite inventors have got to be Da Vinci, Tesla and Doc Brown from Back to the Future. And I'm only including Doc Brown because I REALLY want a DeLorean with a flux capacitor.

[ProSoundWeb Community]