unded by over 10,000 books. At West Orange, Edison improved the phonograph using wax records. Now he could build phonographs to sell to the public. Out of the West Orange laboratories came the motion picture camera and silent and sound movies. His factory improved the alkaline storage battery, the electric pen, the copy machine, and the dictating machine. Other inventions and improvements included a cement mixer, the microphone, and a magnetic process to separate iron ore. Edison invented the concept of film reels for motion-picture cameras. He also connected a motion picture camera to a phonograph. Now he could put sound with motion pictures! In 1913, Edison introduced the first talking moving pictures. Before photocopying machines were invented, Edison invented an electric "pen" which was really a puncturing device that rapidly punched holes in a sheet of waxed paper. A historian suggested this "pen" looked like a sewing machine. There were silly moments in the lab also. Sometimes they tried mixing chemicals that seemed foolish - coffee, eggs, sugaring, and milking. (Allen pg. 45) His Abbott Pg. 5 lab held everything for experimenting - whalebone, tortoise shell, elephant hide, and even the hair of a person, a native Amazonian. It is rumored that one of Edison's friends said the lab storeroom even had the eyeballs of a US senator. (Denmark pg. 54) Most of these lab substances had no practical use, but a few did. Edison used rain-forest nuts to make phonograph needles. Japanese bamboo was used to make filament (wire) for his light bulb. The hair of the Amazon was used for a wig for the first talking doll. In the doll's chest was hidden a tiny phonograph speaker. In 1915, Edison was appointed president of the U.S. Navy Consulting Board. He believed that electricity would make weapons more powerful. He claimed to have made an explosive that would explode if yelled at. He invented an electric torpedo. Edison urged Congress to establish th...
