Today we had some time to kill and so we took the kids to the Thomas Edison inventions museum in West Orange New Jersey. I have been to the museum about four times before and I was excited to bring the kids to see all of the really neat inventions thought up so long ago, and yet still used today. I thought the little lion would especially like to see the workshop and the laboratory and the motion picture studio Edison had created. The research buildings were built in the late 1800’s, around 1880, and they are some of the only buildings still standing today, but they are no longer used for anything but to house the museum.
The industrial style buildings are built all of brick with, wooden shutters and wrought iron decorations all up the walls and copper downspouts decorating the base. The buildings have many arched windows with beautiful lattice window panes and even though those kinds of buildings were so common back then, it was so exciting to see them as if I’m a time traveler stepping back into the past. We started out with a tour of Edison’s library. The library is three floors of all wooden panels, beautiful wood detailing, and in between the bookcases. statues and portraits, and of course, his desk where he kept all of his brain storming ideas and his own drawings. It’s the kind of library that anyone who does any kind of serious reading would be happy they have in their own house. There was even a loungy bed in a nook in case Edison decided to take a nap when he got tired.
Next we went to tour the black Mariah which was the motion picture studio Edison built to test out and make some of the first motion pictures .
The building is a black shack built on a circular track with skylights that can open so that the building can be rotated maximize the sun’s light shining on the stage, and at the same time it left the person filming the movie in as much darkness as possible. In this way the picture on the stage would have maximum light while everything around it would be blocked off in the dark. It was very exciting to see, even though this building is a reproduction of the original. The kids were pretty interested, but they preferred to climb all over the railings and jump down the stairs and run around to sitting and listening to that speaker. I don’t think they understood that the movie they watch today began way back in that strange building.
The next place we went to was the chemistry laboratory where we saw the bottles and the machines that were used to research which plants could be used to make rubber during war time when there was a shortage. After all the research on all of the different materials and plants, the most interesting thing was that he made a new kind of rubber out of the goldenrod but the rubber was not even durable enough to use for tires!
We next visited the workshop building where prototypes and tools were made before testing and production on a new product. There is an entire warehouse for all kinds of materials from all over the world, such as elephant hide many kinds of metals and leathers, precious metals and minerals.
Edison wanted any material he could ever possibly need stored at his fingertips so he would not have to order it and wait months for it to arrive when he needed it. We also saw the dark room where he made all of his advertisement on site as well as the studio where his phonographs were tested, and voices and music were recorded.
The last thing we saw was his hall of inventions where many of his most famous creations, like the talking doll, which never went into production, the toaster oven, the sandwich press, the electric iron , all kinds of light bulbs, the phonograph, and many other contraptions, were housed.
I was so happy to be able to bring my kids to see the museum because they’re just at a point where there are beginning to understand that the things they use everyday didn’t just come out of nowhere. Somebody invented them!
What a great new staircase!
After we left the museum he went to visit my aunt Peg and Uncle George in Morris Plains. They were not be able to go to the wedding and so it was very important to me that we stopped to see them on our trip east . My aunt is such a lovely person and very classy but she is always happy to see us, it seems, and she didn’t mind all my kids coming in and making a mess on her floor. The kids played Chinese chess for a while while we talk and then went downstairs to watch a movie and behaved themselves very nicely. Screamer stayed with us upstairs and wiggled around and wanted to be held and smiled and charmed everybody, and by the end of our time with them he had wiggled his way into their hearts. We talked about all the things that have happened since I last visited their house, like hurricane Sandy, which knocked down several large trees in their yard. In fact, one tree was uprooted completely, leaving a huge hole in the ground. They think a tornado has been created by the store and had blown through along with the hurricane. New little trees had been planted, but the deer came around during the snow that winter and ate the tops off the new little trees! And so they are still dealing with the deer that ravage all the gardens and trees planted in the area, and growing anything is very hard to do. However the area and so lush and beautiful, and I didn’t notice a lack of plants! What we did notice was a baby dear in the back yard, as well as many different kinds of birds at the bird feeders. On the way in to see my aunt and uncle we have come across three other deer in their neighborhood, so the deer population is certainly not suffering! I love talking to my aunt and uncle. Reminds me of a different time when things were proper and in their right place.
We said goodbye to aunt Peg and uncle George, hopefully before we overwhelmed them, and made our way to Binghamton, New York where my college friend Alicia and her family live. Alicia mom made us an amazing barbecue meal of hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken kebabs. We also had wonderful corn on the cob, salad, and squash Alicia had grown in her garden. It was so lovely to sit and talk with Alicia after all those years! I have not seen Alicia in 13 years, but we sat and talked as if we talked to each other everyday. Years don’t matter to good friends. Her mom was so kind to feed us, and she then invited us to stay at her house for the night, which we were happy to do. The kids got to swim in the pool with Alicia’s kids, and Alexis particularly was so sweet with the kids. The lion loved playing video games with Austin, and I think he would have stayed downstairs playing games all night. It felt super manly to play games with a teenage boy like they were the same age!
I wish we had a week spend visiting with Alicia, but we need to move on and in the morning say goodbye. In the morning we head out to Maine.
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