No neighbors compare to Edison, Ford

Just imagine the conversations they had.

From 1916 to 1931, two giants of American history, industry and commerce, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, were actually next-door neighbors as they wintered in Fort Myers, Fla.

During these expansive wintertime conversations, a touch of Maine always was evident. The Edison estate was built in 1885 with Maine pine and was built by the Kennebec Framing Co. in Fairfield. The wood was precut and shipped to Florida by two Maine schooners.

Ford was a teetotaler who would not allow alcohol in his house. He demanded that Poland Spring water be shipped by the case to wherever he was, even in Florida. Ford’s original Poland Spring bottles are featured in the Edison Ford Museum in Fort Myers. The museum is a favorite spot for New England Red Sox fans on those difficult days when there are no spring training games.

It is hard to overestimate the effect that Edison had on the lives of Americans. As his friend Henry Ford said, “To find a man who has not benefited by Edison and who is not in debt to him, it would be necessary to go deep into the wilderness.”

In case you have forgotten, Edison was born in Ohio in 1847. By the time he was 23, he had his first invention patent, for an automatic vote counter. By age 24, he earned $40,000 for inventing an automatic stock ticker. That was just the beginning for a man who had no formal schooling after he was dismissed as “too slow” by Ohio teachers, and was educated by his mother.

This “slow” student went on to invent or dramatically improve the typewriter, telegraph, telephone, incandescent lamp, phonograph, moving pictures, X-rays, and that’s not counting the 300-odd patents he filed for developments in the manufacture and delivery of electricity. In his lifetime, Edison had more than 1,000 patents, more than any other person.

When he had a spare moment, he tried to develop a source for synthetic rubber. He was fascinated with exotic plants and filled his 14-acre Florida estate with plants and trees from China, Japan, India, Africa, Java, Panama, Mexico and Australia. He bought the Fort Myers property because of the bamboo plants there which he used to make bulb filament. Edison experimented with thousand of plants because he was convinced that “Nature provides an answer to each problem, if one only investigates.”

The most spectacular exhibit on the museum grounds is a Banyan tree imported from India by friend Harvey Firestone. The roots of the cutting have spread to 390 feet. The tree from which the cutting was taken now covers 14 acres, according to the museum.

Edison met Ford when both attended the Association of Edison Illumination Convention in New York City in 1896. Edison was convinced that the future of automobiles was in electric propulsion. Ford, who was working for an Edison company in Michigan, was convinced that the internal combustion engine was the answer. Ford convinced Edison that the internal combustion theory was superior, and the men became friends for life.

To spend more time with his mentor, Ford purchased “The Mangoes,” the estate next to Edison’s in Fort Myers, for $20,000 in 1916. At the time the two men shared the neighborhood, it was a common sight to see cattle drives come down the main street a short distance from their porches. It was said that the two giants had the best seats to watch the spectacular sunsets on the Caloosahatchee River, which ran by their properties.

Ford, of course, became the nation’s first multibillionaire when he mass-produced automobiles on an assembly line modeled

after a meat packing line in Chicago. But he always considered Edison to be far more important to the nation.

Ford said that Edison “changed the face of the world in his lifetime, and everything he achieved was beneficial to mankind. The epoch created by his work will influence all the future. His name … is etched in light and sound on the daily and hourly life of the world. There was only one Edison.”

When Edison died in 1931, Ford sold his Florida home and never returned to Fort Myers.

He knew he would never find another next-door neighbor like Thomas Edison.

Send complaints and compliments to Emmet Meara at emmetmeara@msn.com.