Edison - Edison and Ford in Florida

IMAGES
of America

EDISON AND FORD
IN FLORIDA

Henry Ford (left) and Thomas Edison relax at the base of the pier on Edisons Fort Myers estate, Seminole Lodge, around 1925. Their decades-long friendship would help shape the development of Florida, and today, their neighboring estates stand as a reminder of their legacy of innovation. (Courtesy of the Edison & Ford Winter Estates.)

ON THE COVER: Henry Ford and Thomas Edison pose in front of Edisons 1886 laboratory in Fort Myers in 1928. (Courtesy of the Edison & Ford Winter Estates.)

IMAGES
of America

EDISON AND FORD
IN FLORIDA

Mike Cosden, Brent Newman, and Chris Pendleton for the Thomas Edison & Henry Ford Winter Estates

Copyright 2015 by Mike Cosden, Brent Newman, and Chris Pendleton for the Thomas Edison & Henry Ford Winter Estates

ISBN 978-1-4671-1464-6
Ebook ISBN 9781439653142

Published by Arcadia Publishing
Charleston, South Carolina

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015935035

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There is only one Fort Myers in the United States, and there are 90,000,000 people who are going to find it out. Thomas Edison, 1914

To the volunteers of the Edison & Ford Winter Estates, whose contributions are invaluable and immeasurable.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of Edison & Ford Winter Estates staff members Andrew Schiep, whose countless hours spent locating and scanning images made this book possible, Pearce Augustenborg, and proofreaders Matthew Andres and Janet Wilsonthank you for your patience and attention to detail. Special thanks must be given to Alison Giesen; Dr. Ann Wilson; Mark Campbell, treasurer of the Henry Ford Heritage Association; Nancy Darga, executive director, and Sara Schultz, education and visitor services coordinator of the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant; the volunteers and staff of the Southwest Florida Historical Society; Jim Powers, research historian with the Southwest Florida Museum of History; the staff at the Benson Ford Research Center at the Henry Ford, including image services specialist Jim Orr; Butch Wilson, director of the Clewiston Museum; Neal Adam Watson with the Florida Memory Project; Leonard DeGraaf, archivist at Thomas Edison National Historical Park; Tom Smoot; and Madeline Plummer.

Unless otherwise noted, all images appear courtesy of the Edison & Ford Winter Estates.

INTRODUCTION

Life, as I see it, is not a location but a journey.

Henry Ford, c. 1923

Few individuals have shaped our modern world more than Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. Combined, these two innovators held a total of 1,254 US patents, guiding the course of the 20th century. Both Edison and Ford were self-made men with humble beginningsFord was born on a farm outside of Detroit, Michigan; Edison, in the modest shipping town of Milan, Ohio. Neither man received an extensive formal education. Still, by the time they purchased winter estates on the banks of the Caloosahatchee River in Fort Myers, Florida, they had become two of the most celebrated men in the country.

Thomas Edison, known as the Wizard of Menlo Park, astonished the world with the invention of the phonograph, the first device that could both record and play back sound. He continued to fascinate and inspire with his improved incandescent lightbulb and associated electrical system, which helped to usher in the dawn of the electrical age. But, Edison was also involved in a variety of other industries, from cement production to the early film industry.

Henry Ford was 16 years younger than Thomas Edison, the man who would become a mentor and close friend. Fords automotive innovations in the early 20th century, and his revolutionary $5 a day wage for factory workers, made him a household name. By applying the assembly line to the industry, he was able to drastically reduce the cost to produce each automobile. Thanks in part to its low-cost assembly-line production, as well as its simple, rugged design, the Ford Model T became one of the best-selling vehicles of all time, making Henry Ford a billionaire in the process.

Together, Edison and Ford cultivated a decades-long friendship, which would in turn spark further creative innovation and collaborative projects. The two worked together to improve Ford automobiles and began a tradition of camping trips with friend Harvey Firestone, who would join Henry Ford and Thomas Edison for the wizards final research project: a search for a natural source of rubber that could be grown in the United States.

To understand the historic friendship and lasting impact of these American icons, consider the time line of their lives, which frequently intersected in Florida, the state they both chose to call their winter home: