ABSTRACT
An entity located at Main Street and Lakeside Avenue, West Orange, New Jersey. Thomas Edison opened a new laboratory and manufacturing complex in West Orange on 24 Nov 1887, 10 years almost to the day after he had invented the phonograph in Menlo Park. His early work in West Orange resulted in the Improved Phonograph, the Perfected Phonograph, and the kineto-phone, as well as a successful storage battery; all his later enhancements in recording were developed there. After the inventor’s death, activity at the lab began to phase out, and it closed completely by 1935. Manufacturing of phonographs for business use and of electric storage batteries did continue until 1972. The laboratories were preserved by Edison’s widow, Mina. After she died in 1947, the firm opened some of the research areas to the public on guided tours. In 1955 the laboratories were turned over to the National Park Service, which administers the facility as an educational museum. President John F. Kennedy signed legislation giving the sitewhich combines the labs and the Edison home, Glenmont-its present name.
