Edison’s Study

Thomas Edison included a laboratory in his initial plans for his Florida estate so he could continue inventing as well as enjoy leisure time. The 1886 laboratory contained equipment for mechanical and chemical experiments, and Edison spent $16,000 on it, compared with $12,000 for building and furnishing his winter home. Many elements in the lab came from Edison's companies, including a dynamo powered by a coal-fired steam boiler that supplied electricity to the estate beginning in 1887, eleven years before the City of Fort Myers was electrified in 1898. Among the experiments Edison pursued there was underwater telegraphy; in a February 9, 1904, New York Home Journal article, he said he was trying to extend the distance for telegraphing by sound through water, using rapid steam explosions to create musical notes and pauses like Morse code signals, and that Florida waters were best suited to the work because they were free from other sounds. The present study was designed by Florida architect Nathanial Galliard Walker and built in 1928 on the original site of the 1886 Fort Myers Laboratory as a gift from Mina Edison. Its design included Colonial Revival elements such as a wood colonial mantle and simplified porch columns, along with a rustic coquina stone chimney reflecting Walker's Craftsman use of natural materials, and a large trellis was first built on the south side to support existing vines and botanical features. Edison used the study only sparingly for research, preferring his office in the botanical laboratory across the street. The original Fort Myers laboratory was given to Henry Ford and moved in 1928 to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, where it became the base of operations for The Edison Institute, now The Henry Ford.

Fort Myers, Florida · United States