Category Archives: Inventions Edison Would Love

Thomas Edison and PSE&G—a Perfect Team

The Light Bulb Icon and a Utility Giant Celebrate Invention

*The winners will be celebrated on May 15, 2019!*

It’s May and the level of excitement at the Edison Innovation Foundation is nearing its annual peak; because this is the month for the grand awards in our annual Thomas Edison Pitch Contest. In this our 9th straight year, we have reviewed numerous entries from all over the United States, and winnowed it down to 9 finalists, three each in the elementary, middle and high school divisions. Finalists will compete in a 2-3 minute team pitch to determine the final order of awards.

What makes this year doubly blessed is our new partnership with Public Service Electric & Gas [PSE&G] Foundation. PSE&G is New Jersey’s largest electric and gas utility, with an impeccable national reputation for customer service reliability; clean power generation and a pioneer in applying photovoltaic installations on utility poles, commercial properties and rehabilitated brownfield sites.

PSE&G has the creative spirit that ties right in with the theme of the pitch contest. They have long been a booster of STEM educational programs throughout their service territories, and we are proud to have them associated with this Thomas Edison program. Students will even get the chance to be judged by one of their principal Technical Engineers, Dawn Shilkoski!

*Thomas N. McCarter, founder and President of PSE&G explains a tour of the new Kearny Generating Station in 1925 to Gov. of NJ, A. Harry Moore (left) and Thomas Edison (right)*

This year’s awards ceremony will take place “under the big top” at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park, the site of the legendary inventor’s West Orange works where Edison combined invention and entrepreneurship to create the modern world of R&D labs, team-based problem solving, and tied it to our ever expanding concept of technology driven economic progress.

Edison is the great grandfather of modern STEM / STEAM thinking, the educational paradigm taught in schools all over the world. Our finalists will have mimicked the Edison style of thinking throughout their journey from raw idea to final design.

Edison on solar energy – “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that. I wish I had more years left.”

Left: Intel-Edison module now available world-wide for developers. Right: The “Tommy” award given by the Edison Innovation Foundation.

Thomas Edison Admires 3D Printed Homes

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Rejuvenating an Old Dream

Imagine being able to custom order a house built in one day that is weather-proof, insect-resistant, storm-resistant, and cute as all-get-out. This is being done now with a grown-up size 3D printer, and a good supply of ready-to-build concrete. Not your average size classroom printer, but a superb example of relevant technology application.

This technology is a powerful argument for supplying durable and quickly built housing for those in need; for bulging populations in developing nations; and can be used for more than just houses…with application to building commercial structures. Think of quickly built hospitals in remote areas, or in cities in need of medical facilities. Concrete is everywhere in our modern world and can be used in so many places. This technology is now being discussed and employed all over the world. These homes can be quick replacements for those destroyed in hurricanes, tornados and other natural disasters.

Another innovator was working in concrete and building homes in the early 1900’s. Perhaps you heard of him…Thomas Edison…who in 1908 began experimenting with using large steel molds for building concrete structures–two of his pilot buildings were built on the site of his historic home at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park [TENHP] in West Orange, NJ. Both these structures remain in excellent condition today [a potting shed and a large garage]; and are toured by thousands of public and professional visitors to TENHP every year.

A Thomas Edison designed concrete house being built with steel molds on four walls—circa 1919.

Edison’s beautiful 10-car garage, looks as good today as when built with his concrete in 1908!

Edison’s durable concrete was later used to build Yankee Stadium. It is worth noting that Edison’s work in concrete revamped the entire industry, increasing typical manufacturing plant outputs by a factor of four. Did we mention he also used his concrete to build the many buildings in the manufacturing complex at his legendary West Orange facility!

Editor’s Deep Dive

https://www.sculpteo.com/blog/2018/01/03/concrete-3d-printer-the-new-challenge-of-the-construction-business/

America’s first 3D printed houses

America’s First Permitted, 3D-printed House Was Built in Texas in Less Than 24 Hours

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_Portland_Cement_Company

https://search.aol.com/aol/video;_ylt=A2KIbMdr9K1czSEAGI1pCWVH;_ylu=X3oDMTByMDgyYjJiBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw–?q=concrete+d+printed+home+videos+youtube&v_t=webmail-searchbox#id=37&vid=44bf5762a76a45b5698bdd53c71b5e78&action=view.

Thomas Edison said, “Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.”

Thomas Edison Admires Maria Montessori

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Maria Montessori, born in 1870, was the first woman in Italy to receive a medical degree. She initially worked in the fields of psychiatry, education and anthropology, eventually concentrating on education in 1907. She was truly a liberated woman, who supposedly even entertained the thought of becoming an engineer.

Her Montessori method of education stressed the development of a child’s own initiative and natural abilities–especially through practical play, and a hands-on, self-paced approach to learning; aimed at inspiring creativity and imagination, along with independent thinking [OMG….sounds like today’s STEM!]. This educational paradigm, after a tenuous start and the tumult of World War I, eventually spread over the globe.

Dr. Montessori made her first visit to the United States for a brief lecture tour in 1912. She was given an enthusiastic welcome, including a reception at the White House. She gave her first lecture at Carnegie Hall to overflowing crowds, and stayed at the home of Thomas Edison, who admired her work. In addition, other admirers were Alexander Graham Bell, Helen Keller, Henry Ford, Woodrow Wilson and Mahatma Gandhi. Today, estimates vary widely, but as many as 8,000 Montessori schools flourish in the United States.

**Montessori with her beloved children (above and below)**

**(**https://montessori-ami.org/resource-library/facts/timeline-maria-montessoris-life**)**

Edison was quoted as saying … ”I like the Montessori method. It teaches through play. It makes learning a pleasure. It follows the natural instincts of the human being … The present system casts the brain into a mold. It does not encourage original thought or reasoning.” This meshes well with Edison’s many career pronouncements about changing the current form of American education to make it more practical. It is worthwhile to note that early markets that Edison envisioned for his phonograph and motion pictures were school classrooms.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Co-founders of Google, have said that Montessori education allowed them to think for themselves. They credit Montessori with allowing them to question what was going on around them and to discover the answers for themselves. Former Montessori students, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, and Will Wright, inventor of “The Sims” video game series, also credit Montessori for allowing them to ask questions, discover, and learn on their own terms.

Thomas Edison said, “The world owes nothing to any man, but every man owes something to the world.”

Thomas Edison Would Love 5G

“I hear the train a comin’
It’s rolling round the bend….”
-Johnny Cash, Folsom Prison Blues

“Now arriving on cell phone track 3…..the 5G Express. This is an all tickets train folks with station stops everywhere. All aboard!”

This train will change everything we have come to expect in telecommunications, transformational as some experts say – even bigger than the automobile and electricity others claim.

With 5G, the combination of speed, responsiveness and reach could unlock the full capabilities of other hot trends in technology, offering a boost to self-driving cars, drones, virtual reality and the internet of things.

Here are just a few of the general expectations:

Every cell phone can offer cheap, unlimited Internet access
Internet speeds many times faster than 4G service
5G will also affect the Internet of things—it all speeds up.
Augmented and virtual reality applications
Remote surgery via teleoperation
Tactile sensation of sights, sounds….etc.
Self-driving cars and traffic control
Health monitoring, especially for seniors
Weather warnings, and forecasting
Environmental monitoring

It’s all in the G’s!

Some of the first 5G phones could be in your pocket/purse in 2019, a full year ahead of earlier projections, and premiering first at highest speeds in big cities like the Big Apple and San Fran. 5G will work best with higher communication frequencies, thus more cell towers, closer spaced, will be needed. This could cause cluttering and aesthetic concerns in urban neighborhoods. Expect lawsuit challenges as it all shakes out.

Thomas Edison so respected the importance of information and knowledge, he placed his office in his corporate library. Imagine if he had a 5G wireless Internet connection and cell phone!

“Time is really the only capital that any human being has and the thing that he can least afford to waste or lose…”

Left: Intel-Edison module now available world-wide for developers. Right: The “Tommy” award given by the Edison Innovation Foundation.