♪ >> this is american history tv on c-span 3. has takenities tour us on the road to cities across america. coming up, some highlights from our travels. see the schedule of where we has been in and watch video from all of our stops at c-span.org/localcontent. interestssion, the from the drive to create something that would be commercially viable in more time. this was a very active place for

that period of time. wherein the edison research lab. it was very active until 1936. -- hismary focus was life was built around the creation of electricity. the focus of that was new york city. his primary residence for the second half of his lifetime was just outside new york city in a little town called west orange, new jersey. he arrived in 1885 and it was a very cold winter. he stopped first in jacksonville and insane augustine. -- and in saint augustine.

he built a home for himself and he built a home for his partner. they remained partners for a few years and then had their differences in edison bought his partner some. two mirror image homes. his interest in plants began when he first arrived here. he was looking for a plant filament that could be used in the lightbulb and that was bamboo. we have several dozen varieties of bamboo on the property now. he loved palm trees. .e have 100 variety of palms he brought the royal palm to fort myers.

the reason why this land was so important was that it cost the u.s. government to come forward with what was called the patent law. if you invented something with plants and it was a process that was worthy of patenting, it was issued. until that time, the process in this country had been for mechanical devices, machinery , and it was not until the that the whole new emerged.ant scientists the process was very critical in america. was veryindustry interesting because it was the beginning of the machine age. henry ford worked for thomas

edison. he worked for the edison company in detroit. he was younger than edison, 15 years younger than edison. their friendship was based on a love of invention, interested in how to take things from the process of creating it through .ommercialization i-19 no four, henry ford had 1904, henry ford created the ford motor company. henry ford visited many times and by 1915, he bought the and the ideaoor would be that the two men with vacation together, work, and play. from that time on, they were an expectedd became

thing that edison and ford would be here in fort myers in the winter months. by the 1920's, the united states was relying on foreign rubber and we were headed into war. materialded the plant and the process should be done in this country. they were traveling all over the world collecting lands and had hundreds -- plants and had hundreds of people over this country electing plants and sending them back here to fort myers to find a source of plant material that could use rubber commercially. the lab was put here because of that reason because they could grow the plants on-site and to the preliminary research on site . all three of the men had an interest in using robert in their industries -- rubber and their industries.

about thisting thing laboratory is edison was a very early proponent of the factory system. each one of the tables would've had a different operation going on and the team of scientists around the table would be working on that particular process. edison would be moving for the processes happening at each table. his work was as the director, the man who took what everyone was working on, take that process and move it to the next step. if you were here, he would be the thoughtful overseer. he had a very talented group of people working with him. in addition to himself, he had a full-time glassblower. a lot of the work used some very different beakers, test tubes

and he soon learned that in order to make the process right, he had to create the glass himself. he brought in a gentleman from europe. he had a full-time machinists. glass, a lot of what he was doing was working with metal pieces. creating them from scratch or changing them slightly, modifying them, or repairing them. this laboratory had to be a very interesting place if various times. -- at various times. some of the more interesting inventions are certainly the ones we know about. his love of the phonograph, electricity, the lightbulb. the last part of his life was plant science. the plant goldenrod successfully could be harvard did, the

chemical -- harvested, the chemical process to plays and it did reduce a source of rubber that could be commercially viable. we were just coming out of the depression and the project was not funded in fort myers. it was taken by henry ford to savanna where it did move on to some mixed success. he could raise a source of organic rubber in this country that could be available for commercial production. we think of all three of them as being green scientists. we have to look to our natural resources and replenish them in order to be successful as a country. that is where we all today. we are looking at sources of fuel. edison, ford, and firestone all understood that.

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america's past and our new series is "reel america." c-span 3, created by the cable tv industry and funded buyer local cable and satellite provider. like us on facebook and all is twitter. acthe youth committee grant yosemite grant- act was signed by president lincoln 100 years ago. the california historical society hosted this event. it is just over an hour. >> thank you for your patience. welcome to the california historical society. i have the honor of being the executive director here.