Out-of-the-box but also functional? Check! A new type of battery that can be used by ordinary people in daily life? Check! Perfectly matching the industrial red-brick style of his West Orange lab? Check! It makes you wonder if Thomas Edison himself didn’t create this new innovation.

Thomas Edison knew from a young age what he liked best and it was chemistry. From his preteen years to his death at age 84, the great inventor never lost sight of the wonders of chemistry, and how it fit into his inventions and entrepreneurial activities.

Let’s play a game! Name this famous material:

• Thomas Edison used this material in his early disc records
• Early telephones were made of this durable material
• Some of the first printed circuit boards used this fascinating material as a base
• Even dice, billiard balls and dominoes were once made from this materila
• Many homes had colorful table radios made of this dating back to the 1940s
• In the 1950s & 60s, teenagers sported small transistorized pocket radios made of this material
• Women’s jewelry was another popular application for this widely used material

Edison’s greatest gift to mankind was his creation of commercial Research & Design labs. In his invention factory at West Orange, Edison taught us that R&D is a risk reduction process, reducing the risk of launching new products! It eventually fostered the realization that the United States economy and progress is technology driven.