Thomas Edison Center, Edison, NJ

     Saturday, March 6, 2021:  In one of last year’s issues of Dotty’s Dimensions: The Column, I wrote about a virtual visit to this place: Thomas Edison Center, 37 Christie Street, Edison, New Jersey (732-549-3299). On the date above, I finally took my first in-person visit to an attraction in over a year when I visited the place listed above! Anyway, upon arriving I noticed the large tower in the picture, dedicated in 1938, on the spot where Thomas Edison’s lab stood from 1876 to 1882. I had to book in advance for my tour in this two-room museum, but our enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide explained and pointed out the different texts, pictures, and exhibit items that covered Edison’s life and his inventions. Two of his most famous inventions here were the first practical light bulb and the phonograph. Nevertheless, the greatest invention of Edison’s was starting the first organized research and development laboratory. Our guide also demonstrated some of the exhibit items here, especially the old phonographs. Then, I glanced at a model of the first laboratory that the model maker made with pieces from the original building. Finally, our guide took us outside to the tower and let us look inside on the ground floor at an eternal light that stayed lit all the time using the latest technology; on the date above, it would be an LED light. Afterward, we walked around the grounds and looked at the memorial to Edison (1847-1931), dedicated in 1947, the 100th anniversary of his birth.