Twenty-seven teams of excited students ranging from 6th grade to high school competed in the third annual Thomas Edison Invention Challenge. Held on the campus of New Jersey Institute of Technology [NJIT] on Saturday, May 11th, this alternate energy technology themed competition capped 6 months of work by the student teams. Teams from all over northern and central New Jersey got up bright and early to bring their inventions to NJIT. Groups of judges fanned out and examined each team entry and interviewed them to learn the specifics of their creations. Here below are photos and explanations of the winning entries and teams.

1st Place
“Waldwick Warriors”
Waldwick HS
Invented solar/USB sunglasses

2nd Place
“Team Tesla”
New Providence HS
Invented an emergency shelter for disaster relief

3rd Place
“Ener-gae”
Howell HS
Invented a source of biofuels derived from algae farms

Two Honorable Mention awards were also made.

Honorable mention #1
“Grizzly Innovators”
High Point RHS
Invented a turbine system that would mount to the grill of a truck and generate energy to be used to warm the block of the engine in the winter

Honorable mention #2
“Technovators”
Heritage Middle School
Invented a solar powered food dryer

Great work student teams! Thomas Edison would be proud.

To see more pictures from this event, visit and ‘like’ our Facebook page. Stay tuned for an expanded invention challenge next year.

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The main way to illuminate homes in the second half of the 1880s was through the use of oil lamps; or if the home was in the vicinity of a gas manufacturing plant, then gas became the fuel of choice for lighting the house. Much like we use natural gas today in our homes for heating, cooking and making hot water, at one time it was used to illuminate our homes. Open flames of gas were common in homes in urban areas, where gas manufacturing plants were usually located.

Here is how it worked. Coal was burned slowly at a gas manufacturing plant in what is known as a coking process (charred slowly in an oxygen starved environment). This drove off methane, the primary constituent of natural gas. Such low grade methane [about 500 Btu per cubic foot] was stored in large, cylindrical, steel containers that still may dot some urban area landscapes. This gas under pressure was then distributed to nearby homes and businesses for their use. If you lived in a suburban or rural area, you used oil lamps, maybe even candles, when the sun went down.

Large homes owned by people of means could rely on another method for gas illumination, a private system where a carbureted vapor fuel was made on-site and this vapor drawn into the home and used for illumination. One such system was called the Springfield Gas Machine, often used in large Victorian style homes of the period, including the Edison home, Glenmont, built in 1882. In the photo below, one sees the lovely Glenmont, a Queen Anne Victorian style mansion, with 29 ½ rooms.

Edison’s Glenmont home

About 100 feet away from this home an underground vault was located that contained a gasoline vaporizing system that connected with an air pump in the basement via underground piping. A large stone weight was cranked to a certain height in the basement of the home and this weight via mechanical gearing turned the centrifugal air pump, drawing gasoline vapors into the home to be used for illumination as needed. The diagram below shows the layout of the system. In the basement of Glenmont, one still sees the air pump and weight system remaining, along with the piping that led to the underground vault.

Edison purchased Glenmont in 1886, and soon bypassed the gasoline vapor system sometime in 1887/88, electrifying his beautiful home. The gasoline vapor system was most likely installed by the original famed architect of the home, Henry Hudson Holly. Edison installed underground electric lines from his nearby West Orange Labs-about ½ mile away. The massive home at one time had 500 light bulbs in service. Several large ceiling chandeliers originally designed for gas illumination have been converted to electricity and are in-service today at the mansion for visitors to see.

Original gas light chandelier at Glenmont [the library], long ago converted to electricity. Each bulb would have been an open flame.

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