Within this building, carpenters shaped wood models, or patterns. From these wooden pieces, Edison and his employees made parts for working models, specialized machinery, and other devices. Skilled workers in the Pattern Shop and other shops linked the ideas of the laboratory to the mass production of the factories. The front of Building 3 once stored chemical supplies. In the Blacksmith Shop, Building 7, workers forged parts for inventions and laboratory machinery. With his resources at West Orange, Edison claimed he could “build anything from a lady’s watch to a Locomotive . . . . Inventions that formerly took months and cost a large sum can now be done in 2 or 3 days with very little expense.”
