Most people today recognize Thomas Alva Edison, the famed Wizard of Menlo Park, as one of the greatest inventors in history. Few know that late in life he sought to develop a means of transferring electrical power from one object to the next without the use of wiring or any tangible connection whatsoever.
Edison arranged an experiment in his kitchen centered around two small electrical lights in glass tubes. He switched on the first light and then turned his rapt attention to the second. Then he waited.
Nothing happened.
"Failure!!!" he cried. "I thought for sure the energy of the two lit lamps would travel through the air to the sink and do my dishes!"
Few people today recognize that in his last days Thomas Alva Edison, the famed Wizard of Menlo Park, went stark raving mad.
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Picture prompt above, story below, and at 137 words I've invented 37 words too many. But if the inventor of the phonograph and the motion picture camera doesn't merit a few extra words, who does?
This is my weekly contribution to the Fabulous Friday Fictioneers and Menlo Park Mothers of Invention Institute. Click the link when you're ready to check the patents on the literary inventions of many of the Mothers in our group, and I mean "Mothers' in its most favorable sense.
Hope you have an innovative week!
30 comments:
Wish someone discovered something to travel by air and clean dishes:)this was imaginative
About the only thing that will do that is a house sitter. Thanks for writing!
I love this. Your imagination really created a unique twist. Nice writing. :-)
I tell you who deserves those 37 words...TESLA! Edison was a creep!
Tom
Maybe he was just impatient!
The Jetsons back in the day. Nice.
Clever story - considering that someday we would have dishwashers - although we still plug them in. Being ignorant, I was confused in the beginning, since Menlo Park is in Silicon Valley, Ca - I guess they named a lot of towns Menlo Park. I wonder who Menlo was?
Thank you, but also give credit to good ol' nutty Edison!
Exactly why he went BANANARAMA late in life ....
No, I understand the dishes aren't done even yet!
Beth, stop this crazy thing!
Study this carefully, Linda. Next week there will be a quiz! http://bit.ly/Xiub7p
Nice try, Edison, and too bad about the experiment. Lots of failures happen before a success. This was certainly worth going 37 words over!
Great idea for the prompt. Perhaps he should have invented the dishwasher instead.
Claire
In thinking it over, maybe it was worth 30, 35, or so. No way was it worth 37!
Now there's an idea. Did they invent that yet, maybe you and me could get on it!
what a great take on the prompt... Science id sometimes futile against weird ideas.
Dear Perry,
Now that was a most unique take on the prompt. Very clever. Poor Mr. Edison. I'll run my dishwasher by candlelight in his honor.
shalom,
Rochelle
Hi Perry,
Did you know that Nicola Tessla actually thought you could transmit electricity through the air like radio and waves and experimented to try to make it happen. Actually, you can. It's called lightning. Thought you might have based your story on that, even though it was Tessla instead of Edison. As per usual, you have a unique take on the photo. Ron
hahaha lighting up two lamps and expecting the dishes to be done, that's like, really lazy. lol ^^ great story
And so we saw the birth of the dishwasher concept... Nice one!
I think it was more a Frank Zappa story, you Mother of Invention. Let me know if you get this to work, I've got several chores lying around the house just waiting to be done.
Not so weird. I just finished doing the dishes and I'm not attached to any electrical wiring whatsoever either!
I'm waiting as well. Sitting here typing away, waiting.
I think it's probably Mr. Kitchenaid in whose honor you should run your dishwasher. Thanks, Rochelle!
Thanks, Ron. Didn't know much about Tessla before but now I definitely owe him a post. Maybe we'll all be paying our lighting bill to Con Tessla, or something like that, we'll see!
I am, like, really lazy!
Kind of like a virgin birth in this instance, however. Thanks, Sandra!
I think just plain Mother may be more like it. I got very little to work, including a lot of my stories.
Well, at least you're getting some typing done!
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