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Seminole Lodge, Edison's house
Photo: Ileana Johnson |
Hurricane Irma hit Florida with a vengeance six weeks ago, the
island had to be evacuated, and the ocean receded from its bay. Siesta Key was
spared severe devastation but its neighbors to the south, Naples, San Marco,
and Fort Myers did not fare as well. Irma hit them as a strong category 3
hurricane. The evidence is painful to see in the mounds of chopped up uprooted trees
and torn vegetation yet to be picked up in front of every home.
The Edison/Ford Estate lost 100 old trees, shrubs, and other
tropical vegetation that used to shade almost 20 acres of property, now fully
exposed to the sun. Vegetation grows fast in Florida but 100-year trees are
hard to replace. The estate museum opened on October 14, 2017 for the first
time since the severe winds devastated the once shady and lush green gardens,
still beautiful but showing signs of distress.
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Edison's 90-year old Banyan tree
Photo: Ileana Johnson |
Edison’s beloved 90-year old Banyan tree survived the hurricane
onslaught. This Banyan tree was among the more than 17,000 samples that Edison
tested for his research effort to find a natural source of rubber. It is
documented that the tree was planted in 1927 and is one of the largest in the
continental U.S. The Banyan tree (Ficus
benghalensis) produces a milky sap (latex) that can be used as rubber. The
Edison and Ford estates have more than thirteen types of ficus trees.
Fort Myers is known as the City of Palms; it is a tradition
started by Edison – he planted 1.5 miles of royal palms along McGregor
Boulevard in front of his winter home.
Edison’s botanical research laboratory eventually found a
source of rubber in the plant called goldenrod.
He was worried that the source of rubber domestically would dry up in the case
of a shortage in the foreign supply. The lab, which was built in 1928, remained
operational until 1936, five years after Edison’s death.
Sanibel Island Beach
Photo: Ileana Johnson
Nearby Sanibel Island, lush with jungle-like vegetation
seemed to have fared better. Off the
fishing pier, the sugary-white quartz sand shell beach was sparkling in the
noon sun. The ocean had a greenish-rusty brown hue. Wading in the surf to find
more shells on the bottom was fun even in leather sandals. Sanibel Island’s
lighthouse had an unusual iron skeleton appearance; it was first lit in 1884.
Sanibel Island Fishing Pier
Photo: Ileana Johnson
Sanibel Island Lighthouse
Photo: Ileana Johnson
The bay in Siesta Key was flooded by jelly fish and hundreds
of bathers and swimmers were stung daily; nobody could resist the balmy 83
degree Fahrenheit waters with small and gentle waves. The life guards were
flying the purple caution flag for dangerous marine life. People took a
careless attitude to the jelly fish. How
much can they possibly hurt? We are going in for a swim.
As clouds gathered for a rainy afternoon, it was a perfect
time to visit Thomas Edison’s estate in Fort Myers, Florida. One of Edison’s famous inventions, the incandescent
bulb, inexpensive and reliable, is now
becoming extinct as the environmental scaremongers are blaming inexistent
global warming on everything man-made despite evidence to the contrary.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was a prodigious inventor,
newspaper printer/publisher, telegrapher, and businessman. Edison’s research lab in Florida focused on
finding a domestic source of rubber. He was the only person who was awarded
consecutive patents every year for 65 years, a total of 1,093. His favorite
invention was the phonograph, but his work improved the telegraph, generators,
motors, batteries, movie-making, and cement.
Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, John Burroughs and families
camped often in the Florida Everglades. His famous remark, “There is only one
Fort Myers and soon 90 million Americans will discover it,” certainly rings
true today.
River view from the porch
Photo: Ileana Johnson
Edison found a 14 acre property along the Caloosahatchee
River countryside, one mile south of the city of Fort Myers. The land was
mostly scrub and wild vegetation with Giant Green Bamboo, a natural fiber with
which Edison experimented as filament for his incandescent bulb. Among hundreds
of exotic plants growing on the island, mango trees and orchids, there are many
species of green bamboo.
The Edison estate pier
Photo: Ileana Johnson
Edison and his family were trying to evade the cold winters
of West Orange, New Jersey and found a mild paradise in Fort Myers.
Pergola which connects the main house with the guest house
Photo: Ileana Johnson
The riverside buildings were built in 1886 and remodeled
through the years. The large Seminole Lodge is composed of a family home, a
connecting pergola, and a guest house. His little office, a pool, a teahouse,
the Caretaker’s house, seawall recreation area, and Moonlight Garden were added
later. In 1911 the pool constructed by W.R. Wallace and Company cost $1,000.
Edison living room
Photo: Ileana Johnson
Edison bedroom
Photo: Ileana Johnson
The Guest House was built for Edison’s good friends Ezra and
Lillian Gilliland as their winter retreat.
They owned the home for three years and, in 1891 sold it to Ambrose
McGregor who lived with his family year-around in the house until 1902. In his
honor, the boulevard that runs along the Guest House was named McGregor in 1914.
Edison bought the home in 1906 and turned it into a guest house with a dining
room, kitchen/pantry, and servants quarters. “Visitors included Henry Ford and
Harvey Firestone who stayed for days and Charles Lindbergh who came for dinner.
They received reminders of a Florida visit when mangoes, grapefruit, guava, and
orange marmalade would arrive at their northern homes.”
The Caretaker’s House is an example of early “Cracker”
architecture and is one of the oldest standing buildings in Fort Myers. The
lumber for all buildings on the property was pre-cut in Maine and transported
by ship to the pier.
In 1947 Madeleine wrote to her mother, “We did enjoy the
lazy days at Fort Myers – I couldn’t have borne it not to see the place again
as it always was – and I’m glad it was warm enough for a farewell swim in the
pool.”
Mina and Thomas Edison's swimming pool
Photo: Ileana Johnson
Until 1929 when city water was hooked to the riverside
property, Edison provided water to its own property by ingenious ways such as a
windmill which pumped water from a well, a 40,000 gallon cistern which captured
rainwater, and two artesian wells. Today he might have been imprisoned by environmental
agencies for capturing rainwater on his property.
The pier which stretches 1,500 feet into the Caloosahatchee
River was initially called the wharf and was used to load and unload boats of
supplies for the family and for the lab. Later, it was used mostly for
recreational activities such as boating and fishing.
Mina, Edison’s wife, wrote to the family in 1909, “Thomas
caught a trout, snapper and I think a small tarpon which he did land, right off
the pier… We may supper there this evening, I am not sure.”
At first Fort Myers was isolated from the rest of the state;
the railroad connected to the city by 1904; then a wooden bridge was built in
1924; and the roadway now known as the Tamiami Trail, connecting Tampa to
Miami, which allowed the Edisons to visit their friends, the Firestones, at
their winter home in Miami Beach. The Tamiami Trail cost $8 million, took
twelve years to complete, and 3 million sticks of dynamite. The Edison Bridge
which spans the Caloosahatchee River was built in 1928 and dedicated on Edison’s
last birthday, February 11, 1931. (Museum Archives)
When completed, Edison’s bridge had no electric lights. A
nationwide cartoon satirized the irony of the bridge for its lack of lights
and, in 1937, the city added over fifty lampposts, work completed by the
Florida Power & Light.
In 1910 Edison had developed a commercial iron-nickel alkaline
battery for use in electric cars which he considered the future of mass transportation.
Because of the internal combustion engine, Edison sold his battery for
industrial use instead, thus becoming Edison’s most lucrative invention.
His miner’s cap lamp battery (1930) saved thousands of
miners from flammable gases igniting an explosion if a bulb broke. His
secondary battery was encased in a steel case, an electric lamp connected with
a flexible cable, and a safety measure preventing ignition.
Another important invention was the carbonaire primary
battery used for railroad applications (1950); it replaced prior primary
batteries. Edison’s primary battery emerged during 1880s, providing power to
telephone systems, fire alarms, doorbells, sewing machines, electric fans, and
phonographs.
Edison’s research on secondary batteries (1899), which could
be recharged, “was an alternative to existing lead-acid secondary batteries,
which were heavy and difficult to recharge.” His portable unit from 1925, the 6 volt Edison
Radio Filament battery which could recharge radio batteries, was on display. So
were the Edison-Lalande batteries from 1890, named to recognize the French
scientist, Felix de Lalande, who had the first patent for the
copper-oxide-zinc-caustic soda battery.
The first movie camera was called a kinetograph. Edison worked with George Eastman. Edison announced in
1888 that he would manufacture a machine called a kinetoscope that would “do for the eye what the phonograph does for
the ear.” (kineto, Greek for “motion,”
and scope for “view”) Edison modified
Eastman’s flexible film and “adapted it for his own motion picture products.”
(Museum Archives)
Edison’s system of lighting with Direct Current (DC) was
first used on Pearl Street Station in New York. The area included Wall Street
from which Edison attracted investors and several New York newspapers from
which Edison gained publicity. The system was most efficient within a square
mile of the station. The station burned in 1890 but the standard for an electrical
utility was set.
But the alternating current (AC) proved more practical
because it continually reverses direction, can be conducted at high voltage
over long distances, and can be transformed to lower voltages to power many
devices. The direct current (DC) runs in
a single direction, is conducted at low voltage with a lower risk of injury,
and can only be conducted a short distance.
Direct current (DC) powers today cell phones and electric cars.
Nikola Tesla worked briefly for Edison in 1884 before he
went to work for competitors. They were not really bitter rivals as the media
portrayed them. The museum archives evidence the fact that years after the “war
of the currents,” Edison appeared in public to hear Tesla address the American
Institute of Electrical Engineers and Tesla graciously “asked the crowd to give
Edison a standing ovation.”
By December 1878 Edison had designed numerous generators and
an electric meter. The electric lighting was so much cheaper than gas yet he
had not yet devised the incandescent light bulb.
Edison’s laboratory held equipment to perform chemical and
mechanical experiments (1886). Edison had spent $12,000 to build and furnish
each of his homes but he spent $16,000 on the lab. It had a dynamo powered by a
coal-fired steam boiler which provided electricity for the entire estate in
1887, eleven years before the City of Fort Myers was electrified. The original
lab was sold to Henry Ford who moved it to Dearborn, Michigan, where it became
base of operations of The Edison Institute, still open to visitors today.
The New York Times reported in February 1886 that “one of
the ships carrying supplies for the lab was hit by lightning and sunk.” The
insured cargo ($3,000) held “chemicals, machinery, and furniture.” (Museum
Archives)
TO BE CONTINUED
