DALLAS (AP) — Keys to the New Jersey lab where Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and some of the lightbulbs that he perfected sold for more than $60,000 at auction on Saturday.
DALLAS (AP) — Keys to the New Jersey lab where Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and some of the lightbulbs that he perfected sold for more than $60,000 at auction on Saturday.
The keys sold for $10,625 at an auction run by Heritage Auctions in Dallas. A bulb created by a German inventor who claimed to have invented the incandescent lightbulb before Edison did was sold for $23,750, while a set of five Edison bulbs used in a court case sold for $30,000.
The items were acquired by Charlie Knudsen, 69, of Pittsburgh, and had belonged to his great-aunt. She was married to one of the attorneys whose law firm represented Edison in patent lawsuits.
Tags on some of the keys list the doors that they opened, including Edison’s 1876 lab that became known as the “invention factory.” Another key says “motor shed,” and a third “shop.”
Edison had applied for about 400 patents, including improvements to the incandescent bulb, before he left for New York City in 1882, said Kathleen Carlucci, director of the Thomas Edison Center in New Jersey.
The lab itself was built by Edison’s father about 30 miles northeast of Trenton and was the world’s largest in its day.