Beautiful day today. sun was shining and it was warm enough for shorts - what a treat! Did boat chores this morning, then walked the docks looking at some of the boats here - WOW!. Visited with Double Trouble X4, they are getting the boat ready to sell, then taking it to the broker and all going home. It was nice to see them again, but we're sorry to see them leave. Walked uptown to a little place for lunch, then went to the Edison Ford Winter Estate for a tour. It took all afternoon, and was well worth it. Edison spent the winters down here for many years, even lived here year round in his later years. Henry Ford was a great friend of his and so bought the estate next door. However, he only came down for 2 weeks each year in the winter. On both estates, the houses have been maintained as they were. Edison invented so many things, starting with a recording device for which he was paid $40,000 in the 1800's. The tour guide said that would equate to about $700,000 today, and that financed a life spent inventing things. He had 1093 patents. He bought the estate here in Fort Myers partly to grow many varieties of plants and trees that he then used in his labs. An example is using bamboo as a filament in the light bulb, which added many many hours to the life of the lightbulb. The estate was donated to the city of Fort Myers by Mrs. Edison just before her death, on condition that it be maintained. The city has just spent about 15 million dollars restoring it, and it is great. The many varieties of plants and trees are all labelled. The houses and his lab look as if they had just stepped out of them.
The guide told us one story about Thomas Edison. His only relaxation was reading and fishing. One day he went out in his electric boat with a friend fishing for tarpon. His one son wanted to go too, but for some reason was not taken on the trip. The son and a servant went out in the rowboat, tied it to the end of the dock here at the estate, and fished all afternoon. When Edison and his friend returned after about 4 hours, Mr Edison had caught several fish, the largest of which was about 80 pounds. He asked his son how he had done, and the son and servant together struggled to lift up a 110 pound fish that the son had caught. The son's fish was stuffed and mounted and is on display here.
Came back to the marina for dinner on the boat.
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| Banyon trees just keep growing by sending out shoots from the branches; the shoots then grow roots. This one tree covers an acre. Apparently there are only 2 larger in the world. Latex for rubber comes from the banyon tree |
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| A stand of bamboo trees |
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Our tour guide making an important point
A Woolly Fig
I'm standing among the above ground roots of the fig
Edison's winter home
Wayne is about to flick the switch, or actually push up the thingee to turn on the light. Edison powered his estate with DC power provided by a coal fired dynamo long before electrical power was available in the area.
The first juke box, note the handle to crank it on the bottom right hand side.
Edison planted royal palms for one mile on both sides of the street in front of his estate; he challenged the city to plant more and there are now several miles of these royal palms lining the streets.
Henry Ford developed the flat head eight cylinder motor
The first understandable words ever recorded "Mary had a little lamb" by Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison and his wife called their winter home in Fort Meyers Seminole Lodge. They had many guests, to the point where they purchased the estate next door to provide more room for their guests. |
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