Thomas A. Edison papers

Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) with 1,093 U. S. patents to his credit, is the most prolific American inventor to date. Although he is most commonly associated with the telecommunications industry and the invention of the incandescent lamp, Edison was engaged for two years (1927-1929) in the search for a domestic source of natural rubber. This took place at his winter home “Seminole Lodge” in Fort Myers, Fla.

In 1885, while searching for the perfect filament for his incandescent bulb, Edison and his friend Ezra Gilliland were exploring bamboo groves along the Caloosahatchee River. Both men determined to establish winter quarters in Fort Myers overlooking the river. However, the two had a falling out and it was not until 1906, after Edison had purchased Gilliland’s land that he and his family began to use it on a regular basis.

Edison had become acquainted with Henry Ford while Ford was an employee of the Edison Electric Company of Detroit. Edison encouraged Ford to work on his automobile. They remained friends through Ford’s success and in 1916 Ford bought an estate in Fla., across the road from Edison which he named “Mangoes”. The two men and their friend Harvey Firestone enjoyed going on botanical field trips in the surrounding wilderness led by the naturalist John Burroughs. Undoubtedly this was how Edison first became acquainted with the work of John Kunkel Small whose expertise in Florida flora had been established through the publications of “Flora of the Southeast” (1903; 1913); “Florida Trees”(1913); “Flora of the Florida Keys” (1913) and others.

By 1927 both Ford and Firestone were looking for domestic sources of rubber and for plants that would produce a product superior to the materials then in use. They provided the financing and the Edison Botanic Research Corporation of Fort Myers was formed to investigate sources and production of natural rubber.

Plants were collected in Florida and throughout the Southern United States by field collectors. Plants were grown under controlled conditions in Florida and at Edison’s laboratories in West Orange, N. J. The Edison employee most associated with this research was Bernard Jonas. Eventually over 17,000 plants were tested for quality and quantity of rubber produced. It was determined that the goldenrod was the most likely candidate and after two years of cross-breeding a goldenrod was developed that yielded almost 12% rubber.

John Kunkel Small was engaged both as a collector and to perform the analyses of plant samples for rubber content. This work was done both in Fort Myers and at the New York Botanic Garden. Harold Moldenke recalled that the women’s rest room on the top floor was outfitted as a lounge especially for Edison during his work here. Edison was elected to the Board of Managers in 1930 and served until his death in 1931. Rubber experiments continued for several years after Edison’s death and that of Small in 1938. In July 1936, however, the company was dissolved. Henry Ford moved the goldenrod project to his Savannah, Georgia plantation. During World War II, the U.S.D.A. continued the experiments but with the development of synthetic rubber, the project was concluded.

The Records of the Edison Botanic Research Corporation were moved to the Edison National Historic Site at West Orange, N. J. and microfilmed. In 1963 Mrs. Lilllian Roth of Irvington, N. J. was a volunteer at the site. She transcribed many of the notebooks related to Edison’s rubber studies and one related to trial filaments for the incandescent lamp and presented carbon copies to Harold Moldenke who subsequently sent them to the New York Botanical Garden where they remain today.