Thomas Edison National Historical Park - Online Games (U.S. National Park Service)

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Replica of Thomas Edison's first working lightbulb.

Be an Inventor

Explore Edison's Laboratory Complex and see how Thomas Edison had a room or building for various steps of his invention process.

Can you pick out the right material for the lightbulb filament? Can you pick out the right shape? Play the game and see if YOU can build a working lightbulb.

How hard can inventing be? See if you can make the right decisions to steer the Edison Team to successfully invent the motion picture camera.

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Thomas Edison taking notes in his chemistry lab.

The Edison Test

If you wanted to work as an executive for Thomas A. Edison, Incorporated in the early 1920s, you had to pass a test. Edison himself chose the questions, which ranged from geography to astronomy to economics to fiction to history. The inventor believed that an intelligent, well educated person should know most of the answers. After all, he knew them and he had never been to college. In fact, he had mostly been home schooled by his mother!

Try your hand at some of the test questions.