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THOMAS A. EDISON—This is Thomas A. Edison speaking.
WALTER H. MILLER—The modern world we live in is a world which Edison created. … No other single man has ever benefited mankind to such an astounding degree.
BERNIE CARLSON—The Edison National Historic Site, as far as I know, is one of the few sites in the United States where visitors can go and see how science and technology were actually practiced.…
JOHN KEEGAN— Hello. My name is John Keegan, Chairman of the Edison Innovation Foundation. On behalf of the Foundation and the National Park Service, welcome to Edison National Historic Site. If you haven’t already, please find a comfortable place to stand in the large room of the Visitor Center. This audio guide takes you inside Thomas Alva Edison’s laboratory complex in West Orange, New Jersey. The lab opened in 1887, and remained active through the 1920s. Here, Edison and his co-investigators invented the motion picture camera, and perfected the phonograph. But Edison’s greatest innovation was the vision behind this facility. His laboratories in Menlo Park and West Orange were the first places ever designed to invent new technologies through a team-based system of research and development.
I am pleased to invite you to begin your exploration of the life and times of the man who changed our world, Thomas Alva Edison—the man of the millennium!
Library (203)
English language audio guide for the Library, #203.
This impressive, three-story library features dark-stained paneling of southern yellow pine. The room looks much as it did in the late 1920s. Edison was in his early 80s, still managing his many business enterprises personally, with the assistance of his secretary, William Meadowcroft.
Edison designed this library as a multi-purpose room. Take a look around. Archivist Leonard DeGraaf.
LEONARD DeGRAAF—It was a place for Edison to entertain important dignitaries who came here. It was also a place for him to display the honors and awards that he received throughout his career, and you will see a lot of different awards hanging on the walls and from the balconies in the library, particularly the Academy Award, honorary degrees from universities and schools. So it had a very important ceremonial function. But the library was also a place where Edison and his office staff would administer the numerous companies that he created in order to manufacture and market his inventions. So it was a place for them to hold stockholder and board meetings, and to run the businesses.
NARRATOR—The library contains approximately 10,000 books. Bernie Carlson.
BERNIE CARLSON—Most of those were science and engineering books that he collected from all over the world in a variety of languages. … And he wanted to have on staff, at any given time, people trained and able to read French, German, and Italian. He also collected a large number of magazines and scientific periodicals. His secretary estimated that in the 1900s, Edison subscribed to more than 60 magazines.
Any invention project at West Orange always began with a careful search of everything that was known about that particular topic, and available in written form.
NARRATOR—Edison’s investigators also conducted patent searches to make sure no one else already held a patent on a proposed invention. By the end of his career Edison held an astounding 1093 U.S. patents.
NARRATOR—Employees checked out tools and supplies from the Stock Room at the security fence, or at the window to the right, above the counter. Look through the security fence to find it. It’s a little hard to see. Next to the window is a board with metal chits, for keeping track of tools, and billing supplies to the correct project. There are samples of chits on the stool in front of you. There’s also a small lift called a “dumbwaiter,” for delivering supplies to the second floor. Once again, here’s archivist Leonard DeGraaf.
LEONARD DeGRAAF—Edison had a saying about invention. He said that the secret to inventing was to have “a big junk pile.” And the Stock Room here in the West Orange Lab was Edison’s junk pile.
NARRATOR— When the muckers needed something, they couldn’t afford to order supplies and wait. Someone else might beat them to the patent office.
LEONARD DeGRAAF— You’ll find strange things like animal hooves, different types of animal skins. There’s a tortoise shell in the Stock Room, a ram’s horn, elephant hide. In fact, Edison had another saying about the Stock Room; he said it was equipped with “everything from the hide of an elephant, to the eyeballs of a U.S. Senator.” We do have a piece of elephant hide here in the Stock Room, but so far we haven’t found any of the Senator’s eyeballs.
Heavy Machine Shop (206)
English audio guide for the Heavy Machine Shop, #206.
NARRATOR—Start looking around the Heavy Machine Shop. Here’s where skilled laborers called machinists shaped metal rods, plates, and tubing from the Stock Room on pieces of equipment called machine tools. Edison’s machinists built the original model of every new dynamo, streetcar motor, and phonograph in the Heavy Machine Shop, or in the Precision Machine Shop upstairs. Bernie Carlson.
BERNIE CARLSON—He used this Heavy Machine Shop to make prototypes, or test models, of new machines. So this was a specialized machine shop; this was not a factory, but this was actually a place where special parts were made, for the equipment that Edison needed in order to test out a new idea or a new invention.
NARRATOR— Leonard DeGraaf.
LEONARD DeGRAAF—It was also used to make the equipment that was used in the manufacturing facilities that surrounded the lab, in order to mass-produce the products of the laboratories: the storage batteries, phonographs, motion picture cameras, and other inventions that Edison was producing.
NARRATOR— Before you move on, be sure to notice the freight elevator next to the doorway you came through. The sign on it says “For the Use of Mr. Edison Only.” We think that this was put on the elevator by the laboratory employees who thought that the 80 year Old Man shouldn’t be using the stairs anymore. Supposedly, he ignored them and kept climbing the stairs.
Heavy Machine Shop and Building 6 (207 & 208)
English audio guide for the Heavy Machine Shop and Building 6, #207 & #208.
NARRATOR— You’ll see different brand names on the machine tools in this shop. Edison bought equipment from his own company, the Edison Machine Works, and from other suppliers.
[SOUND—FADE IN SOUND OF SPINNING LEATHER BELTS. ADD SQUEELS AND SCREECHES FROM MACHINES CUTTING AND SHAPING METAL.]
NARRATOR— A system of spinning leather belts drove the machines, flapping constantly as they turned. They’re connected by a series of pulleys to drive shafts along the ceiling. The power came from the two large motors on the far wall in this room.
BERNIE CARLSON—If you worked in the Heavy Machine Shop at West Orange, it wasn’t a safe place. And in fact, it was probably a very scary place when you first arrived and all the machines were working. … You use a lot of oil to lubricate the cutting edges of machine tools, and so at any given time in the Machine Shop, there is a heavy smell of oil in the air. Finally, take a good look at the machines that you see around you, and notice that none of these machines have any sort of safety guards or safety features. If you cut off a finger, it’s your own fault. And 19th-century labor law basically said that the only thing that an employer had to do if a worker was maimed or killed in the workplace was return the tools of that worker to the widow or the worker’s children.
NARRATOR - On the other side of the wall stands Building Six, the old powerhouse for the West Orange lab. The Heavy Machine Shop switched from steam power to electricity in 1910. Today Building Six contains an elevator and a staircase.
Second Floor
Precision Machine Shop (209)
English audio guide for the Precision Machine Shop, #209.
[SOUND—FADE IN SHOP NOISE AS DOWNSTAIRS, BUT WITH SMALLER MACHINES.]
LEONARD DeGRAAF—Edison had another saying about his lab. He said that it was “equipped to build everything from a ladies’ watch to a locomotive.” The ladies’ watch would’ve been made on the second floor, in what was called the Precision Machine Shop.
NARRATOR— Take a look around. The machine tools in the Precision Machine Shop resemble the larger models downstairs. But they’re specialized for working the smallest pieces of metal. Edison’s most elite machinists used this shop to build prototypes for milestone inventions like the phonograph and the kinetoscope.
Walk slowly down the center aisle. Pause when you get to the next display area. It will be on the left.
The Precision Machine Shop expanded to its present size after 1918. Earlier, the left-hand side of this space was partitioned off as a row of lab rooms. In some places you can still see the partition tracks in the ceiling. The West Orange facility changed over time, as Thomas A. Edison, Incorporated focused less on experimentation, and more on routine product development. Eventually, other buildings here, including the surrounding factories, built their own machine shops.
Prototypes and Success (210)
English audio guide for the Precision Machine Shop's second tour stop, #210.
NARRATOR—The path from idea to invention wasn’t always smooth. The muckers usually had to make more than one prototype, testing each element individually. Eventually they produced a working prototype that Edison used to attract investors. The final hurdle lay in perfecting a factory-ready prototype that upheld the Edison reputation for high quality.
BERNIE CARLSON- At West Orange, Edison had major successes with several very important technologies. By far the most important technology he worked on at West Orange was the development of motion pictures, or what he called his kinetoscope. … Another major project at West Orange was the development of the phonograph as a low-cost form of entertainment.
NARRATOR—Other major inventions at West Orange included the first successful alkaline storage batteries, and a medical device called the fluoroscope, for taking X-ray exposures. Edison also designed large-scale equipment for the Edison Portland cement plant in western New Jersey.
BERNIE CARLSON—Edison developed at West Orange all of the heavy equipment that he needed to produce tons and tons of Portland cement, which in turn was used for a variety of buildings including Yankee Stadium in New York City in the 1920s.
Experimental Rooms (211)
English audio guide for the Experimental Rooms on the second floor of Building 5, #211.
[SOUND—MUFFLED, INTERMITTENTLY HEARD, AS BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: MEN CONVERSING, GLASS-BLOWING, VACUUM PUMP, PHONOGRAPH TESTS (1920).]
NARRATOR— You should be in the hallway outside the Precision Machine Shop. The second floor functioned as command central in the invention process. This hallway used to buzz with creativity. Behind these doors, safe from competitors’ prying eyes, Edison and the muckers tinkered with the incandescent lamp, the X-ray tube, and the phonograph. In a way, the entire laboratory complex revolved around what happened in these experimental rooms.
Find Room 10 on the right. This was the office of John Ott, who supervised the Precision Shop. John’s brother, Fred Ott, worked in Rooms 11 and 12, operating a precision lathe.
[SOUND—QUIET BACKGROUND OF DRAFTING ACTIVITY: PENCILS, ERASERS AND BRUSHES.]
NARRATOR— In this room, Edison’s draftsmen made drawings to scale with hand tools like the scales, T-squares, triangles, blueprints and brushes on the desks. The drafting room transformed a mucker’s notes and rough sketches into precisely measured drawings. The machinists used these measured drawings to build prototypes. Later, the drafting room made finished drawings, documenting each invention with its patent application.
LEONARD DeGRAAF—In our archives, we have lots of different types of drawings. They would make these drawings on sheets of linen, a very durable type of paper that could be used in a different type of machine, on the third floor, to make blueprints. … So scholars can come in, and using the drawings, actually see how Edison and his staff went about the process of putting together a new invention.
NARRATOR— Notice the photograph displayed in this room. It shows the drafting room after 1911, when it occupied all three rooms along this side of the hallway. In the foreground, a man at the foreman’s desk speaks into an Ediphone dictation machine, like one in the room today. The label on this photo reads “Engineering Office.” Edison created a new Engineering Department to take over drafting operations. This new department also designed and measured new parts and products, and distributed blueprints and specifications to the appropriate production departments.
Room 12, Edison's Favorite Room (213)
English audio guide for Room 12 in Building 5, #213.
NARRATOR—Thomas A. Edison’s official biography called Room 12, quote: “Edison’s favorite room, where he will frequently be found. Plain of aspect, being merely a space boarded off with tongue-and-grooved planks … and containing only a few articles of cheap furniture, this room seems to exercise a nameless charm for him.”
BERNIE CARLSON— When Edison was planning the West Orange Laboratory, one of the important things that he wanted was, as he said in one note, “a special or secret part of the Machine Shops, for special things I want sub rasa,” Now, when he was talking about that special or secret part of the machine shops, what Edison really wanted was he wanted a room of his own. A private room where he could retire and go to work on ideas and jot things down in his notebook. … Or when he was pursuing particularly complicated experiments, and he wanted to be left alone.
NARRATOR—Edison devoted as much time as he could to experiments in chemistry, his favorite subject. He had set up his first chemistry lab as a boy, in his parents’ basement in Port Huron, Michigan. Edison also spent a lot of time in a room on the third floor.
NARRATOR— Please step inside the Music Room if you haven’t already. Soon after Mr. Edison opened the lab, he conducted recording experiments in this space. In particular, he tested phonograph horns, like the ones stored in the adjacent room. Also notice the built-in shelves for records along the wall to either side of the entrance.
The Music Room today looks as it did around 1912 to ’27: the era of the Edison Diamond Disc phonograph. Many of the recording on this tour are archival and come from the Edison Foundation Archives. You’re listening to a Diamond Disc record now: Johnny Marvin, The Ukelele Ace, playing the “Jersey Walk” in 1926. Edison set out to develop a catalogue of recorded music to rival that of his arch-competitor, the Victor Talking Machine Company.
JERRY FABRIS—He took a big step out of his normal realm of dealing with the mechanical and the technical, and started to really focus on music and artists.
NARRATOR— Jerry Fabris is Museum Curator of sound recordings at Edison National Historic Site.
JERRY FABRIS—So he began to just spend a lot of time sitting in the Music Room, listening to compositions played live on the piano, or listening to recorded music. … The person who basically managed the Music Room, his name was Clarence Hayes. And so it’s kind of the headquarters of the phonograph business during that period of time, and Clarence Hayes was like a liaison between the performers, the recording engineers, factory workers. … It seems to be there were usually two or three other people working in the room. And it looks like they were usually women. … So that’s something special and interesting about this room. It’s one place in the lab where there were a few women who had regular jobs there.
Phonograph exhibit (216)
English audio guide for the Phonograph Exhibit in Building 5, #216.
NARRATOR— Now make your way out of the Music Room. Follow the path ahead to the next exhibit, and pause briefly at the introductory text panel. It tells about Thomas Edison’s favorite invention: the phonograph. Although it’s hard to hear, the following is Edison recalling the most famous moment of his career. From a 1927 newsreel.
THOMAS A. EDISON—…the first words I spoke in the original phonograph. A little piece of practical poetry: “Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow. And everywhere that Mary went the lamb was sure to go.”
BERNIE CARLSON—Edison of course invented the phonograph at Menlo Park in 1877. But it was at West Orange where Edison did all of the important work to convert the phonograph from being a plaything to being a practical product used by millions of people around the world.
NARRATOR— The rare phonographs along this hallway include some of the stars of our collection. Many of them are prototypes that Edison and his associates worked on personally, as they improved the phonograph’s sound and technology.
Look for audio labels on each display group. Listen to the in-depth stops about the objects that intrigue you most. Or listen to them all to trace Edison’s research and development process from start to finish. If this space is crowded, please feel free to return to this exhibit later.
Photography Lab (217)
English audio guide for the Photography Lab, #217.
NARRATOR— Edison knew the power of images in advertising and public relations. In this suite of rooms, Thomas A. Edison, Incorporated maintained a staff of photographers from the early 1900s through the 1950s. The Photographic Department took pictures of products and machinery, as well as the laboratory. It also supplied the insatiable public appetite for pictures of Mr. Edison. In addition, it enlarged drawings from the drafting room downstairs to make blueprints.
You can look through the door into one of the adjacent rooms, for darkroom and enlarging operations. Aside from the Music Room, these rooms and the rest of the third floor were fairly empty during the early years of the laboratory. Edison sometimes used this floor for exhibits and lectures. Eventually, it was partitioned into laboratory rooms, like the ones you saw downstairs. The Photographic Department occupies three of these rooms.
Artifacts and Open Storage (218)
English audio guide for Artifacts and Open Storage on the third floor of Building 5, #218.
NARRATOR—After 1912, this end of the floor housed Edison’s new Educational Film Department, and later, office space for the Engineering Department. Today it’s an open storage space for artifacts from the collection of Edison National Historic Site.
Take a look around. Think of this as a visit to the attic of Edison’s laboratory, filled with glimpses of the past. The objects on view, some of our 400,000 artifacts, represent the largest single body of Edison-related material anywhere. The collections of Edison National Historic Site preserve the product of Thomas Edison’s career as an inventor, manufacturer, and businessman. They include Edison manufactured goods, lab furnishings, and equipment related to experiments in electrical power and lighting, motion pictures, storage batteries, cement making, ore milling, and synthetic rubber.
Feel free to browse as long as you like and listen to in-depth messages about the treasures in this room.
Edison's Impact (220)
English audio guide for the conclusion of the main tour in Building 5, #220.
THOMAS A. EDISON—Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: I am told that tonight my voice will reach out to the four corners of the world. …
NARRATOR— Thomas Edison made one of his last public appearances at the Electric Light Golden Jubilee celebration in 1929.
EDISON (cont.)—… I would be embarrassed at the honors that are being heaped upon me on this unforgettable night, were it not for the fact that in honoring me, you are also honoring that vast army of thinkers and workers of the past, and those who will carry on, without whom my work would have gone for nothing.
NARRATOR—Edison and his army of thinkers and workers invented a new method of team-based experimentation, in a fully equipped, self-sufficient laboratory, to speed up the invention process. In the process, they made research and development a cornerstone of the corporate world, and Thomas Edison became a public icon. His impact still reaches every person in the modern world today.
How has Edison changed your life?
Conclusion (221)
The conclusion and wrap-up of the Edison audio guide, #221.
JOHN KEEGAN—Hello again. I’m John Keegan, Chairman of the Edison Innovation Foundation. Imagine a world with no light in the darkness except from fire. A world without electric power plants, movies, voice messages, or recorded music. Once again, Bernard Carlson.
BERNIE CARLSON—I always tell people that Edison has touched our lives in several broad ways. Edison was a major figure in the first information revolution of the late 1800s. … And through much of his career, he worked on all of the major communication technologies that were coming available. He helped improve the telegraph, the telephone, he invented the phonograph, and he helped create motion pictures. … Before Edison, entertainment for Americans was largely a community or social event. One went to a concert, or watched a play, or attended a sporting event, all group activities. After Edison, entertainment became more, much more individualized. A person using the kinetoscope or the phonograph could choose a movie to watch, or the song to listen to, and they could do it whenever they wanted. In many ways, Edison made entertainment available to the masses, and he made it more convenient. And he established the idea that we should be able to choose whatever we want to listen to, or watch, to entertain ourselves.
JOHN KEEGAN— Now that you have completed your journey through this historic building, we hope that you have been touched by our mission—preparing for the future while we venerate the past. There is much more to see and hear at Edison’s laboratory. Look for additional audio stop labels outside the other buildings. Just enter the number to hear about the important role of these historic structures in Edison’s invention factory.
When you are ready to leave, please return your X-plorer to the bookstore in Building One where you picked it up. There, you can also obtain tickets for Glenmont, the Edison home in nearby Llewellyn Park and information about the Edison Innovation Foundation's efforts to preserve Edison's legacy. Thank you for visiting Edison National Historic Site.
NARRATOR—This tour was made possible by funds from the Edison Innovation Foundation.
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Last updated: August 9, 2025
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