In the early morning hours of October 18, 1931, Thomas Alva Edison passed away peacefully in his Glenmont mansion in West Orange, New Jersey, not far from the laboratory where he had toiled many long days for many long years. He was 84 years old and had been inventing for seven decades. His health had been failing for months and by this time he had struggled with the cumulative effects of diabetes, Bright’s disease, stomach ulcers, and uremic poisoning, the final stages of kidney failure. His family was by his side, though he seemed only to recognize Mina, his wife of the last 42 years.
His legacy was immediately obvious to everyone. The sculptor James Earle Fraser, as was the fashion for famous people of the day, prepared a death mask and cast of Edison’s hands. His body lie in state in the library of the laboratory, and over 50,000 mourners passed by to pay their respects. After two days the casket was moved back to Glenmont for a private funeral. Besides Mina and the family, nearly 400 friends attended the service, including camping buddies Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone, First Lady Lou Henry Hoover (representing the U.S. President), and many other friends. Sympathy letters were received from world dignitaries such as Pope Pius XI and German President Paul von Hindenburg, as well as from more notorious personages as fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and Gus Winkler, an Al Capone hit man. Science magazine published a glowing obituary of the famed inventor, declaring him a “benefactor of humanity.”
Thomas A. Edison is buried behind the family home at Glenmont, a half mile from his West Orange Laboratory. The great inventor had died, but his inventive legacy would live on to this day.
[Adapted from my book, Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World.]
David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
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