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Edison in his Eighties



Ford and Edison at a ceremony dedicating the Edison Institute

 
Ford and Edison at a ceremony dedicating the Edison Institute, 1929
 


   

In a touching tribute in 1929 - the 50th anniversary of the light bulb - Edison's friend Henry Ford dedicated a museum complex at Dearborn, Michigan, as the Edison Institute (now known as the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village). It included the complete Menlo Park laboratory, reconstructed in part out of surviving material. In attendance were notables from all areas of American life.

Visibly weak at the Dearborn celebration, Edison said, "I am tired of all the glory, I want to get back to work." He did return to his rubber experiments, but only sporadically. The end came quietly, two years later, on October 18, 1931, at the age of 84.

Edison had thought that he could extrapolate from his earlier years in plotting his life after forty. But he did not foresee the changes in the world around him, or changes in his own personal needs. Still, he probably had few regrets. As he said shortly after he had lost several years of effort and over two million dollars in his iron-ore extraction process, he had "a hell of a good time."

 

 


At the Dearborn, MI, railway station

 
At the Dearborn, Michigan, railway station, 1929
 




Edison and Francis Jehl reenacting the evacuation of an experimental light 
bulb, 1929

 
Edison and Francis Jehl reenact the evacuation of an experimental light bulb in the reconstructed Menlo Park laboratory at Dearborn.
 




Edison with experimental rubber plants at Ft. Myers, 1929

 
Edison with experimental rubber plants at Ft. Myers, 1929
 


Edison at age 80

 
Edison at 80, in 1927
 

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Electricity Collections
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The Challenge of Success
Before Forty
Changes At Forty
Home Life
The New Technical World
Fame And Its Distractions
Edison In His Eighties