Edison on the way....
mkrone
Posts: 45
Mint sent me email that Edison Unc is on the way...anyone else order these?
A newbie to collecting...but recognize the value of PCGS grading.
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In Laurel
MD
Just a fist full of Dollars
TIA
In Laurel
MD
Just a fist full of Dollars
THOMAS EDISON
(1847 - 1931)
Thomas Alva Edison, inventor of the practical electric light, phonograph, and motion-picture camera, was born in Milan, Ohio, February 11, 1847, and died at Llewellyn Park, West Orange, New Jersey, October 18 1931. Self-educated, he had read Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and had build a chemical laboratory in his cellar by the time he was 11. In 1862 he saved a station agent’s son from death under a train. The grateful father taught Edison telegraphy, an association with electricity that led Edison to experimentation and invention. After five years as a telegrapher in the Midwest, he went to Boston where in 1868 he made his first patented invention, an electrical vote recorder. As a partner in a New York City electrical engineering firm in 1869 Edison invented a stock printer, for which he received $40,000. With the money, his first from an invention, he opened a stock ticker factory in Newark, New Jersey. Later, he built research laboratories, first at Menlo Park, New Jersey, and then at West Orange. He invented the phonograph in 1877 and the motion-picture camera in 1891. On October 21, 1879, he perfected the first feasible incandescent electric lamp. He then developed generating and distribution facilities, paving the way for municipal incandescent lighting and power stations. Edison inaugurated the world’s first such system in January, 1882, in London, and America’s first later that same year in New York City. After World War I broke out he was appointed president of the Naval Consulting Board, forerunner of the Navel Research Laboratories. Of the 1,097 United States patents issued to Edison during his life, 356 dealt with electric generation, distribution, and lighting.
ABOUT THE DESIGN OF THE MEDAL
A visit to the Edison National Museum containing the exhibits of working models of his inventions, a privileged scanning of the archives and extensive collection of photographs there immediately impresses upon the observer that this life of Edison’s was one of the subjective dedication to his work, the never-ending search. Several of the photographs taken during those years of great productivity reflect this attitude of personal sacrifice. It is thus my endeavor to portray an intent Edison supported by a stout limb of the Laurel of Honor, which encompasses the dates of his life. I very much appreciate the information and suggestions so kindly given me by Bryant Baker, sculptor of the Edison bust in the Hall of Fame.
Reason for the symbolic spreading of light by an angel on the reverse side of the medal derives from two personal impressions; the first at the time of Edison’s death in 1931 observing the three minute blackout of the lights over the city and Capitol Dome from my home on the hill in Maine; and second, observing in Edison’s library at the Museum the marble statue of an angel holding aloft a bulb. It was a considerable expense that he purchased this sculpture in Europe and had it shipped to his library. The three motifs at the bottom of the medal, test tubes, gears, and anchor with American Flag are symbols of his extensive research and invention and those years of service to his country on the Navel Consulting Board. – Granville W. Carter, sculptor of the Edison Medal