February 20, 2016

February 20, 2016

We drove a half hour south this morning to Thomas Edison National Historical Park. West Orange, NJ was the site of Edison’s main lab after outgrowing Menlo Park.  Known as his “Invention Factory”, this is where Edison invented the modern Research and Development Laboratory.  We give ourselves the self-guided tour of this turn of the century complex of buildings.  Most look exactly like they did under Edison because he worked here up to the day he died.  The lab subsequently closed, and soon became a museum.  It is amazing to see how much technology has changed in the intervening 100 years.

I was pleased to learn that his chemistry lab was so important to his operation.  Besides contributing greatly to both his phonograph and light bulb projects, his invention of a rechargeable chemical battery turned out to be his most profitable invention.  To this day, Edison has the most patents of any inventor, a remarkable achievement for an uneducated self-taught man.

From West Orange, we made our way across Staten Island to its eastern tip.  In earlier times New York Harbor was ringed by a string of forts. Fort Wadsworth guarded this entrance at the Verrazano Narrows.  Now long obsolete, it is one of many sites in the Gateway National Recreation Area.  While the fort is not that interesting the location on New York Harbor under the long Narrows suspension bridge is stunning.

After crossing the bridge into Brooklyn we take the Belt Parkway past Coney Island to Floyd Bennett Field, another unit of Gateway NRA.  This old airport was NYC’s first but never gained commercial viability.  It was sold to the Navy in WWII.  It was later given to the National Park System to care for. The runways are intact but rarely opened for use. It has a small uninteresting museum.  Sections of the park are rented out to the public for a wide variety of uses.  I don't understand why the Feds are keeping it. All I can think of is Reagan’s comments about the immortality of government programs.