What’s in a name? For BestrentNJ.com tenants at Edison Woods, Edison Woods Senior 55+, Edison Village, Blueberry Village, & Rivendell Heights the city / township name of “Edison” holds both historic significance and ongoing inspiration.
It was right here in Menlo Park that Thomas Alva Edison set up his home and research laboratory. Mr. Edison, became known as the “Wizard of Menlo Park” during and after the duration of his stay here. Originally named after the town of Menlo Park, California, the municipality was called “Raritan Township” while Edison was alive and it would not be until 1954 – 78 years after his arrival in 1876 – that the township would be renamed Edison in his honor. Historians have noted that none other than Christie Street in Edison’s Menlo Park area was one of the first streets in the world to use electric lighting!
The Menlo Park lab was unique in that it wasn’t a tinkerers lair nor a factory. It was actually one of the first scientific labs to further the commercial practical usage of scientific research. Take for instance the incandescent light bulb as a perfect example of Edison’s flair for the commercially functional. It may surprise you to learn that historians have listed no less than 22 inventors of incandescent lamps prior to Thamas Edison! Why then is Edison largely credited for it’s invention? Edisons solution combined three factors to create an economically viable centralized power system; 1) More effective incandescent material, 2) a higher vacuum capacity than his predecessors and 3) a higher resistance that made power distribution commercially possible.
The inspiration part of this equation went further than the invention of the light bulb or the phonograph; Edison invented the modern lab workflow consisting of teams of people working together, sharing ideas and perfecting prototypes toward commercial application. Interestingly, Edisons greatest “invention” – the process of modern invention – is not included in the 1,093 patents attributed to him before his death in 1931. This template made Edison township and the state of New Jersey THE place to set up a lab or tech shop until the 1950’s before Silicon Valley gradually overtook the Garden State as the North American tech mecca. The global concept of “research & development” took shape right here in Edison NJ and that in and of itself spawned a new more collaborative age merging science, academia and business from the industrial age to the information age.
Whether by reading about Edisons life or visiting the Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park, young and old alike can glean rich insights into why there’s so much inspiration to be found in both the city and man known as Edison.
Should circumstances lead you searching for your next abode, use BestrentNJ.com’s Apartment Locator and find an inspiring home for your Garden State lifestyle.