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    Thomas Edison

    National Historical Park New Jersey

Theodore Miller Edison

Young Theodore Edison

Young Theodore Edison.

NPS Photo

As a child, Theodore Miller Edison was called "the little laboratory assistant" by the family. He showed an early interest in science and performed many experiments at Glenmont. His father said, "Theodore is a good boy, but his forte is mathematics. I am a little afraid. . . he may go flying off into the clouds with that fellow Einstein. And if he does . . . I'm afraid he won't work with me."
 
Theodore Edison

Theodore Edison.

NPS Photo

Theodore Miller Edison was born at Glenmont on July 10, 1898. Edison was 51 when his son was born. He was named after a beloved brother of Mina who had just died in the Spanish-American War. He first attended the Haverford School in Haverford, Pennsylvania, and then Montclair Academy in Montclair, New Jersey. Finally he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he earned his physics degree in 1923. He was the only member of the Edison family to graduate from college.

Despite Edison's worries, Theodore did work for his father's company after graduation. After starting as an ordinary lab assistant, he worked his way up to technical directory of research and engineering for Thomas A. Edison, Inc. Much later, he founded his own company, Calibron Industries, Inc., and built his own smaller laboratory in West Orange. He earned over 80 patents in his career. In 1925 he married Anna Maria Osterhout, a graduate of Vassar. In later years he became an ardent environmentalist, opponent of the Vietnam War and advocate of Zero Population Growth. He lived in West Orange with his wife Anna until his death on November 24, 1992.

 

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Did You Know?

Fluoroscope

Clarence Madison Dally an employee of Thomas Edison at his West Orange research labs volunteered to work on the newly discovered x-rays. Using a fluoroscope, made of a fluoride gas filled light and two pieces of cardboard to focus the x-rays, Dally would expose himself to high concentrations of radiation eventually leading to radiation poisoning. After Dally’s death when Edison was asked about x-rays he would respond with “Don’t ask me about x-rays. I am afraid of them.”