Edison Ford Winter Estates(02-23-13)

On the west coast of Florida, Ft.Myers was the winter home  of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.  Being a Ford retiree, they were high on Paul’s list of things to see, here in the Ft. Myers area. 

Believe it or not, all of the tree trunks in this picture belong to a single Banyan Tree. Covering almost one acre, it’s one of the largest Banyan trees in the world.  It was given to Edison by Harvey Firestone.

We started the day a little later than we should have, and could have used more time.  We elected to take the boat tour  to get a different perspective of the estate. It included lunch at the adjacent yacht club.  Apparently we were supposed to eat in one specific room, but we didn’t know that and took a seat outside.  They were nice enough to let us stay, and enjoy the view.





Anyway, Thomas Edison started visiting Ft. Myers in the 1880s, when the population was just 349.  He liked the area for not only for his ability to relax near the water and fish, but also because of the variety of plants, which he needed to conduct his botanical experiments.  He spent the last few years of his life trying to find a domestic source for rubber. Although he was technically successful in that endeavor, he never found an affordable, abundant source, and his research was discontinued a few years after his death.

After their first meeting in 1896, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison became great friends, and in 1916, Edison convinced Ford to purchase the house next door, and both families spent time here every winter, although Henry usually only stayed a few weeks and Edison spent most winters working here.

The museum was a wealth of information about Thomas Edison.  Somehow there is always too much information in most museums to take it all in, and this  one was no exception, but I did learn so many things that I became in awe of the things that Edison, as well as so many others of his time, like Harvey Firestone, and Henry Ford accomplished.

Born in 1847, in Ohio, his family soon moved to Port Huron, MI.  As a youngster, Edison did so poorly in school that his teacher thought he was “addled”, and his mother pulled him out just months after he started. From that point on, he was home schooled and self taught. He became hard of hearing very early in life, which is a little ironic, since he invented the phonograph (he also invented the first movie camera).  Later in life he would listen by biting the wood casing of the phonograph to feel the vibration. He taught his second  wife Morse code so they could communicate without her having to yell in public.  He proposed to her by tapping the words onto her hand.

By the age of 18, Edison had been working for years as a telegraph operator. He already considered himself to be an inventor, and some of his earliest inventions were improvements to the telegraph system. Although we associate Edison with the light bulb, he didn’t invent it.  What he did invent was the first commercially practical incandescent bulb. He went on to patent an electricity distribution system, to further solidify the practical use for the light bulb. As of 1890 all of his business interests had been combined to create Edison General Electric Company.  Two years later, he and one of his adversaries pooled resources in order to ensure the commercial success of electricity, and the word Edison was dropped from the company name, leaving it as General Electric Company. He soon moved on to new projects and left other inventors to work on products that would make use of this electricity.  Some of the earliest inventions included the fan, the iron, the electric coffee pot, and the sewing machine motor.

Edison was so prolific, he was awarded 1093 U.S. patents, and received at least one patent every year for over 60 years.