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Menlo Park, New Jersey

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Alansohn (talk | contribs) at 00:39, 21 November 2016 (add details re renaming of township, with source). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For other uses of "Menlo Park", see Menlo Park (disambiguation).
Menlo Park, New Jersey
Unincorporated community
Replica of Edison's lab, where he improved the light bulb and made it commercially practical. Henry Ford, Edison's longtime friend, built it at the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan.
Replica of Edison's lab, where he improved the light bulb and made it commercially practical. Henry Ford, Edison's longtime friend, built it at the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan.
Country United States
State New Jersey
CountyMiddlesex
TownshipEdison
Elevation
[1]
141 ft (43 m)
GNIS feature ID878259[1]

Menlo Park is an unincorporated community located within Edison Township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States.[2]

In 1876, Thomas Edison set up his home and research laboratory in Menlo Park, which at the time was the site of an unsuccessful real estate development named after the town of Menlo Park, California.[3] While there, he earned the nickname "the Wizard of Menlo Park".[4] It was in his Menlo Park laboratory that Thomas Edison invented both the phonograph and a commercially viable incandescent light bulb filament. Christie Street in Menlo Park was the first street in the world to use electric lights for illumination.[5] The Menlo Park lab has been called one of the greatest laboratories ever.[6] Edison left Menlo Park and moved his home and laboratory to West Orange in 1887.[7] After his death, the Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower and Museum was constructed near his old Menlo Park lab and dedicated in 1938. Edison's old lab site and memorial now make up Edison State Park.[8] The municipality in which Menlo Park is located, which was called "Raritan Township" while he was alive, was officially changed to Edison Township on November 10, 1954, in honor of the inventor.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b "Menlo Park". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  2. ^ Locality Search, State of New Jersey. Accessed February 10, 2015.
  3. ^ "The Origin of New Jersey Place Names", New Jersey Public Library Commission, May 1945, p. 20.
  4. ^ Walsh, Bryan. "The Electrifying Edison". Web: Time 5 Jul 2010.
  5. ^ Township History, Township of Edison. Accessed June 22, 2016.
  6. ^ John Steele Gordon "10 Moments That Made American Business," American Heritage (magazine), February/March 2007.
  7. ^ Thomas Edison and Menlo Park, The Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park. Accessed June 21, 2016. "In 1886, Edison started building a new facility in West Orange, New Jersey. In 1887, his laboratory moved out of Menlo Park and into the new, much larger laboratory in West Orange."
  8. ^ About Us, Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower and Museum. Accessed March 22, 2012.
  9. ^ Snyder, John P. The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606–1968, Bureau of Geology and Topography, Trenton, New Jersey, 1969. p. 170 re Edison Township, p. 173 re Raritan Township. Accessed November 20, 2016.


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