The Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park

Me - The Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park, wow! It was fun. I learned a lot of stuff. For instance, I learned that Thomas Edison had the most patents. They had laid out all pictures and documents related to all the big events in his life. There was a picture that showed what the property looked like when it was Edison's lab. Then, there was a button you could push, and it lit up the picture to show what  the building and property is like now. On one of the walls, there was a lot of Edison's patents. They had this model house that was built out of pieces of  the old building. They had three different models of phonographs. We got to listen to recordings on all of them. They actually sounded pretty good considering they are hundreds of years old. Edison built the first electric train and it ran right across the street from where the laboratory is located.  There was a picture of the train. My Dad said it looked like the boat in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  There was a tower there too. They were doing construction on the tower so we couldn't go in it. All in all, it was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be.

Mom -  Although, of course, I had heard of Thomas Edison before I went to the Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park, I really didn't know that much about him. In the museum, I got to learn a lot of interesting things about Thomas Edison. I learned about his early life, in Ohio where he was born and later in Michigan. I learned about how originally he used to sell newspapers and later became a telegraph operator. I learned about his early experimenting and how he first became an inventor.  I learned about his early inventions like the stock ticker and the electric vote recorder. I learned about how he came to build his research laboratory and how it was the first of its kind. I also enjoyed learning about Edison's family life. For instance, I never knew that he was married twice and had three children with each of his wives and that one of his children was even Governor of New Jersey at one time. The pictures and artifacts in the museum really made everything I learned about Edison come alive. There were pictures of young Edison and pictures of him and his family. There were many of his inventions including light bulbs, a generator and various incarnations of the phonograph. It was especially fun to listen to the original phonographic recordings. I also enjoyed seeing the model house someone made out of the wood from Edison's original laboratory and gave to him as  a gift. I also really enjoyed seeing many of Edison's original patents especially since I used to work in a patent law office. I learned  and saw a lot more as well much more than I could put in a paragraph. The museum really made Edison come alive for me much more then ever before. If you have an interest in history, science, inventions, and/or Thomas Edison and you ever have the opportunity to visit the Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park, I would highly recommend it.

 And that's our view. What would you be most interesting in seeing or learning about at the Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park?

Tune in tomorrow for Funny Friday.