Inventing Madness

Session 3

May 5, 1931

I arrived at Glenmont around 8:55 a.m. I got out of my car and stopped to look at the poisonous and colorful foxglove flowers that encircled Mr. Edison's estate. I knocked on the front door and was escorted in by the maid. Mr. Edison was waiting for me in his parlor. I sat down and took out my paper and pencils. Mr. Edison's notes and the diaries were on the table. They looked like they had not been touched since last week. The tea had already been set out for us.

"Good morning, Mr. Edison," I said.

"Good morning, Mr. Laurence," he said. "I realize I still need to tell you about my greatest invention of all time––the one invention I have yet to reveal to the world. Please believe me, I will. I just think it's important that I tell you the specific background of how I came to invent it. Should we get started?"

"Yes, of course!" I said.

"When I was nine years old my older brother, William Pitt Edison, married Ellen "Nellie" Holihan. Nellie worked at the US patent office. I liked her from the moment I met her, which was pretty unusual for me. On Sunday afternoon, when the family would sometimes have lunch together, she would sit down with me in the parlor and tell me stories about all the marvelous inventions she got to read about at the Patent Office. She said quite a few of the inventors had made a lot of money off their patents. She explained to me if someone owned a patent, anyone who used their invention would have to pay them a fee. I began to wonder if perhaps I couldn't invent something that would one day make me wealthy.