10 Lesser-Known Creations by Thomas Edison

There’s no doubt that Thomas Alva Edison’s inventions have profoundly shaped modern life. His New Jersey lab was a hub of innovation, producing groundbreaking devices that transformed society in numerous ways.

Born in Ohio in 1847, Edison secured his first patent at 21. Remarkably, his final patent was issued two years posthumously in 1933. Over his lifetime, he amassed 1,093 U.S. patents and over 1,200 internationally [source: Rutgers]. Biographers estimate he filed a patent every two weeks during his active years. While some of his ideas weren’t entirely original—and he faced legal disputes over intellectual property—Edison’s marketing prowess and influence often secured his place in history.

Edison’s innovations span eight key areas: batteries, electric lighting and power, sound recording and phonographs, cement, mining, motion pictures, telegraphs, and telephones. Though he’s celebrated for iconic inventions like the electric light bulb and phonograph, his relentless creativity also led to lesser-known—and sometimes controversial—ideas.

Continue reading to discover why lawmakers dismissed a device intended to boost their efficiency and how another of Edison’s creations scared young girls and upset their parents.

10: Electrographic Vote-recorder

At just 22 years old, Edison, then a telegraph operator, secured his first patent for the electrographic vote-recorder. He joined a group of inventors aiming to modernize voting methods for legislative bodies like the U.S. Congress, replacing the traditional voice vote system with a faster alternative.

Edison’s vote-recorder linked a voting mechanism to the clerk’s desk. The desk featured legislators' names in metal type, organized into "yes" and "no" columns. Lawmakers would toggle a switch to indicate their vote, sending an electric signal to the clerk’s device. Once voting concluded, the clerk placed a chemically treated paper over the metal type and rolled a metal roller across it. The electric current dissolved the chemicals on the paper, marking the votes. "Yes" and "no" wheels tracked and tallied the results automatically.

Edison’s friend, Dewitt Roberts, also a telegraph operator, invested $100 in the machine and attempted to market it in Washington, but without success. Lawmakers rejected the device, fearing it would speed up voting and reduce opportunities for filibusters and political maneuvering, ultimately consigning Edison’s invention to obscurity.

9: Pneumatic Stencil Pen

Edison created the precursor to the modern tattoo gun—the pneumatic stencil pen. Patented in 1876, this electric pen featured a steel needle that perforated paper for printing, marking it as one of the earliest tools capable of efficiently duplicating documents.

In 1891, Samuel O'Reilly, a tattoo artist, received the first patent for a tattoo machine, reportedly inspired by Edison’s stencil pen. However, O'Reilly only made one machine for personal use, and there’s no evidence he ever marketed it.

O'Reilly moved to New York City from Ireland in 1875. After creating his tattoo machine, performers from circuses and sideshows flocked to his shop at No. 11 Chatham Square. The machine offered faster and cleaner results compared to traditional hand tattooing. Following O'Reilly’s death in 1908, a student inherited his tools and continued the craft at Coney Island until the 1950s.

8: Magnetic Ore-separator

One of Edison’s most significant financial setbacks was the magnetic ore-separator. His lab worked on this concept during the 1880s and 1890s, aiming to use magnets to extract iron ore from low-grade deposits. This innovation could have revitalized abandoned mines by extracting iron from leftover sand. At the time, iron ore prices had soared to record levels.

Edison’s lab focused intensely on developing and implementing the magnetic ore-separator. He secured rights to 145 abandoned mines and launched a pilot project at New Jersey’s Ogden mine. Edison invested heavily, even selling most of his stake in General Electric to fund the endeavor. However, unresolved engineering challenges and a drop in iron ore prices forced him to abandon the project.

7: The Electric Power Meter

Introducing electricity to homes and businesses for the first time brought numerous challenges. One key issue was measuring consumption accurately to determine billing amounts.

Edison addressed this issue by patenting the Webermeter in 1881. This device featured two or four electrolytic cells with zinc electrodes and a zinc sulfate solution. As electricity was consumed, zinc moved between electrodes at a fixed rate. Meter readers would remove and weigh the cells during readings, replacing them with fresh ones.

6: Method of Preserving Fruit

One of Edison’s inventions emerged from his lab’s experiments with glass vacuum tubes during the development of the incandescent light bulb. While Edison is often credited, it’s important to note that many others contributed to the research and production of the light bulb—though Edison secured the coveted patents.

Returning to the story, in 1881, Edison patented a method for preserving fruits, vegetables, and other organic materials in glass containers. The process involved placing the items in a vessel, removing all air with a pump, and sealing the container with a glass lid.

Although wax paper is frequently linked to Edison, it was actually invented in France in 1851, long before his time. Edison did, however, use wax paper in his sound recording experiments, which may have led to the misconception.

5: Alkaline Battery for Electric Cars

Edison was convinced that electricity would power the future of automobiles. In 1899, he began developing an alkaline storage battery for this purpose. His vision wasn’t far off: In 1900, 28% of the 4,000+ cars made in the U.S. were electric [source: PBS]. He aimed to create a battery capable of running 100 miles (161 kilometers) without recharging. However, the rise of gasoline-powered cars led him to abandon the project after a decade.

Edison’s efforts weren’t wasted—his storage batteries became his most lucrative invention, finding use in miners’ headlamps, railroad signals, and marine buoys. Even his friend Henry Ford incorporated Edison’s batteries into the Model T.

4: Concrete House

Not content with revolutionizing daily life through electric lights, movies, and phonographs, Edison aimed to eliminate urban slums in the early 20th century. He envisioned affordable, fire-resistant homes for working-class families, mass-produced using materials from his Edison Portland Cement company. Inspired by his own humble beginnings, Edison pledged to forgo profits if the project succeeded.

Edison’s plan involved pouring concrete into massive wooden molds shaped like houses. Once cured, the framework would be removed, leaving behind a complete concrete home with built-in features like decorative molding, plumbing, and even bathtubs. He estimated these homes would cost around $1,200, roughly a third of the price of traditional houses at the time.

Although Edison Portland Cement was widely used in New York City’s early 1900s construction boom, the concrete houses failed to gain popularity. The molds and equipment required a substantial upfront investment, deterring most builders. Additionally, the homes carried a social stigma, as they were marketed as a solution for slum dwellers. Many also found the design unappealing. While a few concrete houses were built in New Jersey—some still standing today—Edison’s dream of concrete neighborhoods never materialized [source: Onion].

So, how did Edison imagine furnishing these concrete homes? Keep reading to discover why the inventor’s interior design ideas missed the mark.

3: Concrete Furniture

Why should young couples burden themselves with debt for furniture that lasts only a few decades? Edison suggested they could instead invest half the amount in concrete furniture, designed to last forever. His lightweight foam-infused concrete pieces weighed just 1.5 times more than wood and could be polished to a glossy finish or stained to mimic wood grain. He promised to furnish an entire home for under $200.

In 1911, Edison’s company crafted a piano, bathtub, and phonograph cabinets from concrete. As a publicity stunt, the cabinets were shipped nationwide with labels urging handlers to treat them roughly. They were meant to debut at a New York City cement industry event, but Edison didn’t attend, and the cabinets vanished, likely damaged during transit.

2: Phonograph for Dolls or Other Toys

After patenting the phonograph, Edison explored various applications. One idea, conceived in 1877 but patented in 1890, was to miniaturize the device and embed it into dolls or toys, giving them a voice. The phonograph was housed in a tin chest, with pre-made limbs and a German bisque head attached. These talking dolls retailed for around $10. Young girls recorded songs and nursery rhymes onto wax cylinders in factory stalls, which the dolls would then play.

Unfortunately, the concept of a talking toy outpaced the available technology. Early sound recording was primitive, and the crackling and hissing noises from the phonographs were unsettling when emitted by dolls with innocent faces.

"The voices of these little creatures are extremely unpleasant," one customer remarked. Many dolls either didn’t work or produced sounds too faint to hear. The delicate mechanism was easily damaged by the rough handling typical of children’s toys, making the phonograph dolls impractical for everyday play.

1: The Spirit Phone

Expanding on the concepts of the telephone and telegraph, Edison revealed in October 1920 that he was developing a device to communicate with the spirit world. Amid the post-World War I resurgence of spiritualism, many hoped science could bridge the gap to the afterlife. Edison, an agnostic who admitted uncertainty about the spirit world’s existence, discussed his project in magazines and explained to The New York Times that his machine would measure “life units” dispersed throughout the universe after death.

Edison exchanged ideas with British inventor Sir William Crookes, who claimed to have captured “spirit photographs.” These images reportedly inspired Edison, but he never unveiled a machine capable of contacting the dead. After his death in 1931, no such device was discovered, leading many to believe his “spirit phone” was a prank on the journalists who interviewed him.

Rumors suggest that during a 1941 séance, Edison’s spirit revealed that three of his assistants held the plans for the machine. It was allegedly constructed but failed to function. At a later séance, Edison’s spirit supposedly offered improvements. Inventor J. Gilbert Wright, who attended, worked on the device until his death in 1959, but there’s no evidence it ever successfully contacted spirits.