STEM – Writing New Jersey Life

Category: STEM

“From the Earth to the Stars: Sterling Hill Mining Museum”

On October 23, 2019

In Museum, Science, STEM, Travel, US History

“What you do will show who you are.” Thomas Alva Edison

From the rainbow beneath the Earth to the stars in the sky, Sterling Hill Mining Museum encompasses every aspect of science. Described as a “gem” by Fodor Travel Guide, the nonprofit museum combines geology, history, and magic in a place that fascinates visitors of all ages as they experience one of the best tours in the state – or anywhere. On the National Register of Historic Places, the museum’s fluorescent minerals are on display in both the Smithsonian Institution and the Museum of Natural History. The incredible Rainbow Tunnel, part of what is the largest collection of fluorescent minerals in the world, and the mining museum are about an hour’s drive from New York City and slightly longer from Scranton, as is the neighboring Franklin Mineral Museum.

The Mining Museum

Dedicated to learning for all ages and the inspiration of future scientists and engineers, Sterling Hill Mining Museum is continuously evolving as its new website shows. Return tours like the one I enjoyed in the late summer bring more discoveries. In operation for more than 300 years, Sterling Hill Mining Museum is the fourth oldest mine in the country. Passing through picturesque Ogdensburg and going up the museum’s long driveway, visitors experience the awe-inspiring sight of the sky-high conveyor of the former working mine. A visit begins with a warm welcome when buying tickets for the two-hour museum and mine tour and/or Discovery Digs (fossil and mineral), sluice mining, the GeoSTEM Academy, or periodic special tours. Observations that staff share on the tours and in museum YouTube videos are, “If you can’t grow it, you have to mine it…” and “almost everything man-made depends on mining for its production,” capture the breadth of what the museum has to offer.

A mining car filled with fluorescent minerals

Honoring the miners and mineral collector Joe Cilen

Partial view of the conveyor and a 1915 mill

Touring the mine means walking through a 1/4 mile of white marble tunnels where the temperature is about 56 F (13 C) year-round. Of the 35 miles of tunnel, only the ground level remains open to the public. The mine floors are not perfectly smooth, but the tour is stroller and wheelchair accessible. Wearing layers and water-resistant clothing and shoes is helpful as is bringing protective eyewear for digs. The mine tour includes a simulated blast among the representative sights.

The tour begins in Zobel Hall Museum, which was the miner’s change house during the era of the New Jersey Zinc Mining Company, 1852-1986. Striking among many treasures in the room are the giant dinosaur skull, the incredible periodic table, and miners’ helmets in the glass cases. The fluorescent minerals in the curtained corner room give a preview of the remarkable display to come. Behind the miners’ helmets is the Oreck Mineral Gallery with beautiful minerals from around the world showcased with state-of-the-art lighting.

The tour also includes the original mine and the Warren Museum of Fluorescence with a collection of more than 700 specimens of glow-in-the-dark minerals. (Interestingly, different kinds of ultraviolet light, longwave and shortwave, bring out different colors.) Wonderful in itself, the Warren Museum sets the stage for the remarkable Rainbow Tunnel. Of the 356 minerals found in Sterling Hill Mine, the discovery of as many as 80 fluorescent ones in the early 90s brought Sterling Hill Mining Museum worldwide renown.

Mining Life

In Zobel Hall at the start of the tour, miners’ lockers remain with photos of those who contributed to the development of the museum. Miners’ work clothes hang from the ceiling as they did nightly to dry out for the next day. Jobs at the mine included: drill runners or lead drillers, muckers “who moved the blasted ore,” cage men who transported men and supplies on the “man cages” or elevators which descended at 900 feet per minute, and the shift bosses. Recovered footage of daily life at the mine in the 1930s is available in Sterling Hill Mining Museum videos on YouTube with links on the museum’s homepage. Extracting zinc, used to make pennies, paints, shoes, boots, ceramics, vitamins, sunblock, tires, and brass among other things, made a profit until the 1980’s when the costs of running the mine exceeded those.

White lung disease was the hazard of working in the zinc mines as black lung was of the coal. The miners of the late 1800’s came from Poland, Russia, Hungary, and other Slavic countries, some directly from Ellis Island. The new website shares the diaries of miner John Kolic, who worked in the mine from 1972 until the mine closed in 1986, and contributed to the museum from 1989 until 2014. To follow newly released diary chapters, events, and topics ranging from chemistry to geology to ghosts, sign up for the Sterling Hill Mining Museum Newsletter. Having family on our father’s side who worked in the coal mines in Northeastern Pennsylvania, visiting the mine and following its history is also of personal interest.

Thomas Edison at the Edison Ore-Milling Company

Thomas Edison, with ties to Ogdensburg, had a mining business, the Edison Ore-Milling Company, that traversed between there and Sparta following the company’s origin in Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania. Mr. Edison invented what came to be known as the Edison Cap Lamp for the Mine Safety Alliance Company (MSA) in 1914. Battery operated, the cap allowed miners to see for as long as 12 hours without the danger of using flammable gas. Thomas is honored by the Edison Tunnel at the museum. This weekend, the film “The Current War” about the competition between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse & Nikola Tesla will be released. In addition to the Sterling Hill Mining Museum and Thomas Edison National Park in West Orange, science and history buffs can also visit the charming Queens home of another light bulb inventor Louis Howard Latimer, post in progress with a link to come, part of the Historic Houses of New York

From Mine to Museum

Brothers Richard and Robert Hauck bought the closed mine in 1989 with the generous thought of sharing it with the public as a museum. The moving addition of the steel remnant from the World Trade Center is a donation from an area company that assisted after 9/11, also giving visitors an idea of the character of those behind the museum.

Ongoing projects include a railroad caboose restoration. The museum offers a snack bar (with rock candy 😉) and a gift shop both of which help support this educational nonprofit. Donations of minerals, fossils, and mining artifacts are welcome as are memberships and gifts of support. The museum is a sponsor of a STEM Scholarship Award for college students.

The popular museum has about 40,000 visitors a year. Groups are welcome for tours scheduled two weeks in advance. Please call (973) 209-7212. The ticket prices for the two-hour tour are incredibly reasonable for this area: adults, $13, senior adults $12, children (4-12) $10 ($9 on a group tour), and free for under 4. Tours are daily at 1 p.m. till the end of November, weekends at 1 December through March, daily at 1 April through June, and daily at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. July through August. Sterling Hill Mining Museum welcomes anyone with interest in science or engineering who would like to be a guide. The next GoSTEM Academy is Saturday, November 2nd for those who would like to register.

Posted with thanks to @sterlinghillminingmuseum for following on Instagram. In addition to the museum’s Instagram and Facebook pages, you may enjoy their informative YouTube videos.

“Not Easter eggs, but rocks, minerals, and geodes….the difference is the light in which we see them.” @kathleenlevey Instagram from spring 2016, highlighting the museum’s incredible fluorescent minerals

The Ellis Astronomical Observatory

A new discovery on a brief follow up trip this month was the intriguing Ellis Astronomical Observatory. Far from city lights, the Ellis Astronomical Observatory offers clear views of the night sky with reflector telescopes and safe views of the sun through a Hydrogen-Alpha one.

The next viewing is for the transit of Mercury on the morning of November 11th, which is the sighting of the silhouette of Mercury against the sun. In each century, there are 13 transits of Mercury. The next one will be November 3, 2032. To make a reservation for this November, contact Bill Kroth (973) 209- 7212 or Gordon Powers: (973) 209-0710.

The Mine’s Namesake

Following the initial Dutch entrepreneurs who sought copper, Lord Stirling, 1726-1783, often spelled as “Sterling” in records of the 1700’s, was one of the early owners of the mine. Serving in the Continental Army from 1775 until his death in 1783, he first led the Battalion of East Jersey and then the 1st Maryland Regiment to win the Battles of Trenton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. Like many of his wealthy compatriots in the war, William used his own money to provide supplies and weapons for his men.

Considered flamboyant by some for his pursuit of a Scottish title, New Yorker William Alexander, Lord Stirling walked away from it without hesitation to serve his country in the fight for independence. With respect, General Washington called his brigadier general “Lord Stirling” as did William’s officer peers throughout the Revolutionary War. The issue of the title may have reflected the historical Scottish-English and English-Colonial tensions of the era. A Scottish high court granted William the title, which the English House of Lords later rescinded. The title would have given William ownership of a great deal of coastal land in New England and Nova Scotia.

Loyal, William helped stop the Conway Cabal, the 1777 conspiracy by General Conway and some Continental officers to remove George Washington for being a “weak general”. Appalled by such “wicked duplicity of conduct” (ushistory.org), William informed General Washington of the plot and supported him as he had done his previous commander General William Shirley, also an early governor of Massachusetts, in the French and Indian War. William’s courage at the Battle of Long Island earned him a newspaper headline, if not an official title, and the praise of General Washington as “the bravest man in America”. General Washington left William in charge of the Continental Army in the general’s brief absence and before the war had given William’s daughter Catherine away at her wedding. Catherine’s mother and William’s wife was Sarah Livingston, sister of William Livingston from Union’s Liberty Hall, who was a signer of the US Constitution and the first governor of New Jersey. Sarah accompanied William to Valley Forge and, a capable accountant, acted as William’s agent in managing properties.

Accomplished in mathematics and astronomy, William founded King’s College, precursor to Columbia University, of which his grandson William Alexander Durer was later president. William died shortly before the official end of the Revolutionary War in 1783, which is why he is not well-known today. In some ways, William’s attitudes were reflective of his peers, in other ways, not. Historically, Lord Stirling may best be remembered as a brave man of the American Revolution. The Lord Stirling Festival returned to Basking Ridge earlier this month at Lord Stirling Park Environmental Education Center to honor William for his contributions. William’s gravesite is in Trinity Churchyard in New York City, along with his wartime compatriot Alexander Hamilton. Today, William’s love of mathematics and astronomy echo in the scientific pursuits at the museum.

Tributes to the miners are throughout the area like the one at Heaven Hill Farm’s Great Pumpkin Festival

Franklin Mineral Museum

Franklin Mineral Museum is another geological treasure trove near Sterling Hill Mining Museum, both in the Franklin District. Also known for its florescent minerals, the Florescent Room at the museum celebrates this geological bounty of the region as it does the miners.

“The Zinc Miner, Dedicated to the memory of the men who worked in the world famous Franklin and Sterling Mines,” by Carey Boone Nelson

Displays in the museum begun by a local Kiwanis Club also include types of zinc that was the basis of the Franklin District’s mining from the mid-1800s, as Sterling Hill also notes: Franklinite, discovered in the Franklin District mines, zincite, rare except in the Franklin and Sterling Hill area, and willemite. The museum literature explains that the discovery of fluorescent minerals came about when sparks from early electric equipment in the mines made the rocks glow.

For visitors with children who like digging, dinosaurs, and tunnels, this is a wonderful complement to Sterling Hill. Another warm welcome from staff who enjoy sharing all that the museum has to offer is in store, though kindly ask permission regarding taking photos inside the museum.

Richard P. Hauck, who co-founded the Sterling Hill Mining Museum and after whom the mineral Hauckite is named, and his wife Elna, a geologist, two Hall of Fame Honorees at the Franklin Mineral Museum.

Princeton colors among the minerals with donations also made by Dr. Pete Dunn, Smithsonian Institute Mineralogist and expert on the Franklin Mine minerals

An exhibit of South American butterflies

A fascinating surprise was Welsh Hall, named after Wilfred “Bill” Welsh, a teacher who had served with the Navajo Code Talkers during World War II. Mr. Welsh donated his collection of Native American artifacts and fossils to the museum as well as his worldwide collection of minerals, acquired with his wife Mary.

Ortam, the Peace Chief of the Hackensack Tribe, Unami Leni Lenape, also known as the Delaware Native Americans, 1577-1667, New Jersey

Sussex County has beautiful family farms offering fall events and Christmas tree farms and skiing as the weather changes. For warm weather fans, the Sussex County Miners baseball team plays in Augusta. Off-season at their Skylands Stadium home there is a Christmas Light Show & Village, which takes visitors from fluorescent to holiday bright.

(Sources: sterlinghillminingmuseum.org, franklinmineralmuseum.com, youtube.com, americanhistory.si.edu, ethw.org, falconerelectronics.com, Ogdensburg Journal, nytimes.com, abc7ny.com, northjersey.com, mountveron.org, sterlinghistoricalsociety.org, lordstirling.org, ushistory.org, battlefields.org, brownstoner.com, tripadvisor.com, njherald.com, smithsonianmag.com, Franklin Mineral Museum pamphlets, tworivertimes.com, nyu.edu, William Alexander by Paul David Nelson, Past and Present: Lives of New Jersey Women, tapinto.net, americanrevolution.com, iment.com/maida/familytree/henry/bios/lordstirling.htm, Wiki)

Edison & Ford Winter Estates

By Kathleen Helen Levey

On May 20, 2018

In Food, Gardening, Science, STEAM, STEM, Travel, US History

“If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.”

An admirer of Thomas Paine, who once lived in Bordentown, New Jersey, Edison’s remarks sometimes revealed a revolutionary soul, “We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles.” Perhaps that is one aspect that he had in common with his lifelong friend Henry Ford, a fellow trailblazer in innovation and mass production, who often visited at Edison’s Glenmont Estate in New Jersey. Nevertheless, they both enjoyed some luxuries, not opulent in comparison with their peers, but elegant just the same. One of those was their winter getaway to Fort Myers, Florida, designed by Thomas, which includes the Edison & Ford Museum, Seminole Lodge (main house, guest house, caretaker’s house), the Edison Botanic Research Laboratory, Edison Botanical Gardens, and The Mangoes, the Ford home.

The Botanic Research Laboratory was the result of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone’s concern about the United State’s dependence on suppliers overseas for rubber. After trying 17,000 native plants to produce rubber, Thomas found success with Goldenrod, though he did not live to see the completion of the experiments. The lab is now a National Historic Chemical Landmark, designated by the American Chemical Society, one of few in the country, others commemorating the work of Rachel Carson and George Washington Carver. The extensive museum includes a Smithsonian Spark! interactive lab, a timeline of innovation, movies & music, and more. Children’s activities include rainy day learning.

The more than 20 acres of botanical gardens includes trees planted by Edison and Ford themselves as well as a moonlight garden, 1929, designed by Ellen Biddle Shipman. The banyan tree and royal palm allee are standouts among many gardens of interest.

Tours, lectures, and events are ongoing at the Winter Estates. The estate is also available for corporate and private events. For more information and to take a virtual tour, visit: Edison and Ford Winter Estates.

If you enjoy bringing history to life, and simply making good recipes, try one of the favorites from Edison’s Family and Friends Recipes.

Ginger Snaps

2 cups brown sugar

2 cups molasses

1 cup shortening

4 cups flour

1 1/3 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cloves

Heat and bring to a boiling point sugar, molasses, shortening (part of which should be butter), ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Remove from fire and cool. In the meantime, mix and sift the salt and flour and stir part of it in the cooling mixture. Dissolve the soda in a tablespoon of warm water and beat into the mixture then stir in the remainder of flour. Roll out to about 1/4 inch-thickness on a floured board and shape with a floured cutter. Place on small buttered tins allowing space for spreading. Preheat oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F. Put in oven and bake for 7 minutes.

As a firefighter’s granddaughter, I decided to use the microwave instead of boiling, and an ice cream scoop and a pizza tray replaced the cookie cutter and tin. (Things are fast and loose in this kitchen, especially with a deadline.) The batter has a consistency like taffy and the cookies taste like gingerbread. If you prefer a sweeter cookie, a couple of sweet recipes are coming in the summer and the Martha Stewart’s peanut butter and jelly cookie recipe is still up. Our father’s favorite cookie was a molasses-based spice crinkle, and he would have enjoyed these ginger snaps as well as Thomas Edison’s overalls quote in the preceding post. The ginger snaps may be a fun cookie surprise for Father’s Day along with a visit to an Edison site.

Mina Edison’s Ginger Snap Cookies

Sincere thanks to the Edison & Ford Winter Estates for their kind permission to use this recipe from Edison’s Family and Friends Recipes that features family favorites. This is more like a booklet and only costs a few dollars. Other recipes are: Mina’s “Light as Air Muffins,” Egg Croquettes, Mina’s Deviled Crab, Hot Slaw, Hickory Nut Cake, Chocolate Caramels, and Mina Miller Edison’s Holiday Punch.

You can purchase the book online with the Winter Estate or in the Thomas Edison Historical Park gift shop where I did. Since we were in touch late last summer, the nonprofit Winter Estates came through Hurricane Irma. In what seems like characteristic generosity, they are offering wood from downed trees to local woodworkers.

(Source: edisonfordwinterestates.org)

“Vision: Thomas Alva Edison”

By Kathleen Helen Levey

On May 20, 2018

In Science, STEAM, STEM, Travel, US History

The distinctive Queen Anne Victorian architecture of Glenmont Estate, Edison Family home, West Orange, New Jersey

Thomas Alva Edison, 1847-1931, was world-famous during his life with a name and an impact from his 2,332 global patents that are part of our daily lives to this day. He was not only an inventor but a premier businessman who helped “build America’s economy during the nation’s vulnerable early years”. Some of his inventions are the incandescent light bulb, alkaline storage batteries, the phonograph, the stock ticker, the telegraph, the Kinetograph (a movie camera), concrete, and miners’ helmets that helped save lives. Today, we also know him from the photos of the preoccupied man in endearingly wrinkled suits and his insightful quotes of hard-won wisdom.

Young Edison

“I find out what the world needs. Then I go ahead and try to invent it.”

Born in Milan, Ohio, he was brought up there and in Port Huron, Michigan. As a child, he showed a remarkable liveliness and curiosity which served him well in life. A bout with scarlet fever resulted in some hearing loss, but in spite of this, he demonstrated his enterprising nature at only 12 years old. When selling newspapers to railroad passengers to fund his boyhood experiments, he created his own paper with local news – his first success. While conducting lab experiments on a train car, he started a fire, and though the story varied over the years, a conductor reportedly hit him on the side of the head causing further hearing loss. Though his experiments did not sit well with the conductors, his hearing loss was likely congenital as one of his sons had the same. This makes Edison’s later invention of the phonograph all the more remarkable.

Though accounts vary, Thomas had only a few months of formal schooling. Due to his hearing loss and incredible energy, formal schools of his time were not a fit. His mother, a former teacher, instructed him at home and instilled in him the habits of research and continuous learning. Much of his knowledge was self-taught, derived from his ongoing experiments at all hours of the day and night. Thomas felt that his lack of hearing helped him work long hours, not distracted by background sound, and to sleep better.

The railroad was Thomas’s making combined with his own heroism. When he was 15, he saved a three-year-old from being run over by a train. A grateful father showed Thomas how to operate a telegraph, which opened the door to the world of electrical science.

At 19, Thomas went to Boston to work for Western Union to help support his struggling family back in Michigan. He invented the Electrical Vote Recorder for the city legislature, which they rejected because it worked too well. The machine counted the votes quickly and this left legislators with no opportunity to “change minds” before voting. Though the context may have its humor, this resulted in financial failure for Thomas. The experience taught him a valuable lesson in business – one should create things for which there is a clear market.

After Thomas’s success: Brewster Ford Town Car, 1936, Edison family car at Glenmont Estate at Thomas Edison Historical Park

New Jersey

Elizabeth and Newark

“We should remember that good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.”

Boston led to New York in 1869, where at 24, Thomas Edison invented an upgraded stock ticker for which there was a definite, immediate market. As he did later with the light bulb, Thomas improved upon the basic idea of another inventor that gave the invention practical, everyday use. Edison developed his Universal Stock Ticker in the company he formed with inventor and mentor Franklin Leonard Pope. Pope had allowed the young man to live in his home in Elizabeth, New Jersey when the struggling young Thomas had arrived two years earlier. The success of his stock ticker prompted Thomas to quit his job and start inventing full-time at his own lab in Newark, New Jersey. In Newark, Thomas discovered “‘etheric force’ —the electromagnetic waves later used in wireless and radio transmissions.”

Thomas Edison Memorial and State Park

Menlo Park, renamed “Edison,” New Jersey

“I haven’t failed, I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

The Newark lab quickly expanded, resulting in a move to Central New Jersey and the Menlo Park neighborhood of Raritan Township. Raritan Township later became Edison Township, named after Thomas Edison in 1954. Interestingly, his original surname was Dutch and spelled, “Edeson,” and his father’s family had lived in New Jersey years earlier.

In the Menlo Park laboratory in 1878, after much trial and error, Thomas heard a recitation of his childhood favorite “Mary, Had a Little Lamb” return to him in his own voice. Replayed on simple tinfoil, this achievement was to memory, experience, and perhaps identity, what Princeton’s Albert Einstein’s gravitational waves were to infinity. From this, Thomas became known around the world as “The Wizard of Menlo Park” and Menlo Park as the “Birthplace of Recorded Sound” and “The Invention Factory”. The ripple effect of invention resulted in world fame for another New Jerseyan, Princeton and Somerville’s Paul Robeson. Thomas Edison’s phonograph took Paul Robeson’s voice beyond concert halls into homes in an ideal partnership of technology and art.

Art Deco style of Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower designed by Gabriel Francois Massena and Alfred E. duPont.

Thomas Edison Memorial Tower, dedicated on February 11, 1939, what would have been Thomas’s 91st birthday. The tower marks the site of the world’s first research laboratories.

Edison, New Jersey honors the inventor not only with the city’s name, but Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower in Edison State Park with its gleaming light, a beacon to invention on the site of Thomas Edison’s first research center where he perfected the light bulb for everyday use. At the Menlo Park lab, he acquired 400 patents in six years and made the cement that laid the foundation for the first Yankee Stadium where New Jersey residents Yogi Berra, Elston Howard, and Phil Rizzuto played. Sadly, Thomas’s young wife Mary died, leaving him with three small children. The laboratories fell into disuse until the last two were moved to Dearborn, Michigan at Henry Ford’s request. For more information on the Menlo Park lab, visit: Thomas Edison Memorial Tower and Park.

Thomas Edison bust at Thomas Edison National Historical Park

Thomas Edison National Historical Park

Laboratory and Film Studio, West Orange, New Jersey

“I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”

What you might not expect at Thomas Edison’s West Orange research complex is an incredible, elegant library. The laboratory itself looks more like a warehouse, but does not disappoint. As it was at Menlo Park, it was not unusual to find both staff and Thomas Edison working all night. The collegial atmosphere included a pipe organ and a pool table for breaks.

Library at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park, West Orange

The world’s first film studio onsite was a small, rotating box with a retractable roof, the Black Maria, another marvel at Thomas Edison National Historic Park. The nickname for the studio came from Edison’s staff because of its resemblance to the horse-drawn police wagons of the time. The name now commemorates not only the studio in West Orange, but short works by diverse young filmmakers throughout the state, sponsored by New Jersey City University.

One of the first movie cameras, Thomas Edison National Historical Park

Annie Oakley and her husband Frank E. Butler, who once had a home in Nutley, New Jersey, starred in a Thomas Edison movie that Mr. Edison made in West Orange. Frank threw glass balls in the air, and Annie shot right through each one. In their Buffalo Bill act, “the splintered balls released feathers and colorful powder that sprinkled down from the sky. Annie would shoot, six-seven-eight balls at a time, switching her gun from hand to hand and jumping on horseback.”

Model of first phonograph, laboratory, Thomas Edison National Historical Park.

One of the world’s first feature films “The Great Train Robbery,” 1903, set in Milltown, New Jersey, with the original “Broncho” Billy, descended from Thomas Edison’s inventiveness. Director Edwin Porter had learned his craft at the Black Maria Studio and an excerpt from the film is shown as the Historical Park.

For more information visit: Thomas Edison National Historical Park.

Floral arbor at Glenmont Garden

Glorious Glenmont: The Edison Family Home

West Orange, New Jersey

“What you are will show in what you do.”

Glenmont Estate deserves singular attention for its beauty. The name comes from its scenic location, a summit over a valley, or glen. An integral part of its appeal is that it was, overall, the home of a happy family which one senses in the visit. The estate, also in West Orange, is across the street from the laboratory and up a long driveway. Part of Llewellyn Park, the home was built between 1880-82 in the Queen Anne style of Victorian architecture with stained glass windows, a pipe organ, and much of the original interior by the New York designers Pottier & Stymus. Thomas bought the home fully furnished for his new bride Mina Miller from the original owners. A limited number of the 29 rooms are open to visitors, but enough to experience the charm. The home’s decorative arts collection includes works by Tiffany and Hudson River School artists. The grounds are idyllic. After a visit, you will feel as if you have been away as Thomas Edison himself must have felt, remarkably, simply by crossing the street. Impressively, the same architect designed the home and laboratory, Henry Hudson Holly.

Visitors to the home included US presidents and Henry Ford, George Eastman, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs with whom Thomas took annual camping trips, John Muir, Helen Keller, Maria Montessori, the Kings of Siam and Sweden, among others. Mina, the daughter of a prominent minister, knew how to handle a public life, which allowed Thomas time alone to invent. Thomas was impressive, but as a self-made man of stature, was tough in business, often unavailable, and demanding of excellence from his children. His six children, for the most part, fared well. The best known were Charles, who had the same hearing challenge as his father, and was briefly Secretary of the Navy under President Roosevelt and then governor of New Jersey, and Theodore, an inventor. The estate is also the resting place of Mina and Thomas.

What is also wonderful at Glenmont as you will experience at all of the national historical sites and parks, is the esprit de corps of the park rangers who are proud to share information about the Edison family and their life at Glenmont. The estate consists of the main house, the greenhouse, and garage that Thomas built with the extraordinary cars of the Edison family.

Greenhouse at Glenmont Estate

Visits to Glenmont are on Saturdays and Sundays from 11-4 with tours on the hour. Tickets are sold at the Visitors Center at the laboratory on a first come, first serve basis, so consider arriving early at 10. (The laboratory is open 10-4, Wednesday through Sunday.) Photographs are not permitted in the house, but the scenic grounds offer opportunity for photo and social media enthusiasts. For more information, call: (973) 736-0550 x 11.

A note that the visits to these Edison historical sites were over a two-year period. The Glenmont photos and videos are from last May. Though the hours are not as extensive as those of the laboratory, do not miss the chance to see the one of the most wonderful places in New Jersey, especially in the spring.

Sterling Hill Mining Museum

Ogdensburg, New Jersey

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

This incredible museum will spark the imagination of any child with Edison’s spirit. The history of the mining industry here is a world unto itself and worthy of another blog, but the museum mention here is in regard to the Edison Tunnel, named to honor the man who improved safety for miners. In 1914, mine engineer John T. Ryan Sr. and George H. Deike, pioneers in mining safety, founded the Mine Safety Appliances Company (MSA) after numerous tragic deaths of miners. Torches and oil lamps had proven dangerous in the mines, so they sought the help of Thomas Edison who, rather than wiring the mines for lighting which was a prohibitively expensive alternative, created a rechargeable battery that provided light for 12 hours straight. The Edison Cap Lamp was in use here in Sussex County at the mine when Thomas was a part owner in the 1880’s. Thomas also developed innovative methods of blasting and separating minerals. The museum and tour share display the helmet and cap lamp with visitors. Edison’s mining conveyor line reportedly inspired Henry Ford’s assembly line at his car factory. For more on this New Jersey “gem,” a quote from Fodor’s, visit: Sterling Hill Mining Museum. Edison also had cobalt silver mining ventures in Ontario, Canada.

Thomas Edison: Inspirational Figure

“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

Trenton’s Thomas Edison State University, which emphasizes independent learning, bears the inventor’s name as does Edison Bridge. For someone who experienced hardship and setbacks in his life, Thomas Edison’s accomplishments are remarkable. His inventions keep him in mind today, but so does his example of lifelong learning and perseverance.

Incandescent light bulb sculpture, Menlo Park, Edison, New Jersey. In season, there are flower gardens by each sculpture.

(Sources: menloparkmuseum.org/history/thomas-edison-and-menlo-park/, biography.com, goodreads.com, thomasedison.org., nps.com, npshistory.com, americanhistory.si.edu, invention.si.edu, ethw.org, inc.com, mininghalloffame.org, newnetherlandinstitute.org, brainyquote.com, Britannica.com, Wiki)

“The Franklin Institute: At the Heart of Curiosity”

By Kathleen Helen Levey

On February 19, 2018

In Aviation, History, Science, STEM, Travel

Benjamin Franklin by James Earle Fraser with green lighting for the Eagles

”An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” Benjamin Franklin

The institute, like Ben Franklin whom it honors, explores answers to the questions of the lifelong curious in its science museum: What is the connection between electricity and life? How does the mind work? The human body? Machines? What can history teach us today? This inquisitiveness is not confined to the Earth. The institute has a renowned Astronomy department with Chief Astronomer Derrick Pitts who guided us through the wonder of last year’s solar eclipse and conducts monthly “stargazing events” held in the observatory, while the museum’s Philadelphia cam captures the city celestial like the Eagles Parade.

Model of the emperor’s palace

“Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor”

The first stop in the repository of knowledge and query on Logan Circle is history with the exhibit of the Terracotta Warriors on through March 4th. The life-size warriors are from the tomb of China’s first emperor Qin Shi Huang Di, circa 210 BC, who with his funerary army wished to remain in command of his immortal life as he had his earthly one. Hand in hand with history is archeology. The revelation not only of the accidental find of the warriors by a farmer in the 1974 but the exhibit’s re-creation of the assembly, discovery, and excavation of all 8,000 plus soldiers in what now is known as the Mausoleum of the Xi’an Dynasty Emperor, still not completely excavated, is remarkable. Among the innumerable things that fascinate in the exhibit, the facial expressiveness of the warriors is art as much as history. Interestingly, artisans of the emperor, an estimated 700,000 over a 36-year period, created the soldiers to reflect each individual member of his army. Height reflected hierarchy, generals being the tallest, but some surprises were that the warriors originally were painted in bright colors and others “traveled” with them like musicians and acrobats. Emperor Qin standardized “coins, weights, and measures,” reflected in the exhibit, and connected the walls of various states to create the Great Wall. Significant information about his tomb is not only from the onsite dig and ongoing discoveries but the writings of Chinese historian Sima Qian, the “father of Chinese historiography,” who wrote one hundred years later.

For more information about the exhibit, visit The Franklin Institute or download the Augmented Reality Terracotta Warriors app as well as a separate museum app for Live Science events, both accessible at The Franklin Institute apps. For additional background on the Terracotta Army, NatGeo has a fascinating online interview with a Chinese archeologist: National Geographic Terracotta Warriors.

Striking warrior at exhibit entrance

Incredible portraiture

Re-creation of tomb discovery with partially painted figures simulates the original form and deterioration over time

Assembling the figures

Charioteer and horses

The Science Museum

Special features of the science museum are incredible live science shows, which you can also find at The Franklin Institute, a Young Scientists Area (8 and under), 3D printing, movies in the IMAX Theater, escape rooms, Your Brain, the Air Show, Train Factory, Weather, Virtual Reality, Sports Zone, and events…plan a day! Upcoming exhibits include “Game Masters” a trip inside favorite video games “with multi-immersive experiences,” opening September 3rd.

First-hand learning is the hallmark of the science museum. Visitors will see children darting enthusiastically among the interactive exhibits. A fun stand out on this visit was the room that rotated like the one with Fred Astaire’s ceiling dance in “Royal Wedding,” part of the Nicholas and Athena Karabots Pavilion in “Your Brain”.

The museum and special exhibits are not inexpensive, but do plan on a day’s visit, or the better part of one, which may be helpful to know with a Philadelphia itinerary. Buying tickets online ahead of time is helpful to avoid lines during popular visiting periods. The institute has a good, extensive café that can accommodate many visitors and a parking garage, though it is worth an initial look for a parking space on the surrounding streets.

Exploring the neurons of the brain in “Your Brain”

Part of “Your Brain” exhibit ☕

More “Your Brain” exhibit fun

Original Singer sewing machine in “Machines” exhibit

Benjamin Franklin Memorial and The Giant Heart

The Benjamin Franklin Memorial greets visitors with an impressive, larger-than-life marble statue of the inventor and statesman by the accomplished sculptor James Earle Frasier along with a multimedia show. The institute is a valuable resource for all things Franklin, from his discovery of electricity to inventing bifocals, swim fins, and the glass armonica, to helping found the first hospital in the United States: Benjamin Franklin resources. The stately rotunda reflects the influence of Rome’s Pantheon as designed by Beaux-Arts architect John T. Windram in 1938.

At the museum entrance within the gaze of the man who discovered the current of life is the Giant Heart. If your children, or you, for that matter, can resist racing to the heart to the right of the museum entrance upon arriving, do not miss it before leaving. Envisioned by Dr. Mildred Pfeiffer, the heart that would beat in a 220 foot (67 meters) tall person opened in 1954, and with frequent updates, often marks the introduction to museums for many children. It is marvelous to walk through the heart as one’s stature changes over the years. The appreciation for its wondrous power only increases.

For more information and ways to support, visit The Franklin Institute. Additional sources: nationalgeopgraphic.com, MetroKids.com, goodreads.com, and Wiki.

Created by Richard Albany, medical illustrator, and Albert Jehle, engineer

“Margate Marvel, Lucy the Elephant”

By Kathleen Helen Levey

On November 7, 2017

In Architecture, Culture, Lifestyle, Park, STEM, Travel

Charm as defined is “the power or quality of giving delight or causing admiration”. Margate City with its beautiful beaches, serene marinas, downtown shops, fun and fine dining, stunning and historic architecture is certainly elegant, but its charm is what makes it unique. The warm welcome to visitors is the delight that makes one return. A centerpiece of that charm is Lucy the Elephant.

Lucy the Elephant, the unique and “oldest roadside attraction in the US,” noted in People Magazine last summer, began as a real estate promotion, but became a beloved New Jersey and national icon. Lucy is the vision of Philadelphia entrepreneur James Lafferty, Jr.., son of parents from Dublin. In what was then South Atlantic City, comprised of undeveloped sandy land and shoreline, he envisioned this “novelty architecture” made of wood and tin, the result of his combined talents as an engineer and an inventor. To protect his idea, Mr. Lafferty applied for, and received a patent for Lucy, legally considered an invention. William Free, a Philadelphia architect, brought Mr. Lafferty’s vision to life in 1882.

Ingenuously, people can climb the stairs and peek through her eyes that are ship-like portholes, then ascend to the howdah and enjoy spectacular views of this year-round seaside city with its lively downtown. The remarkable central room was Mr. Lafferty’s office from where he sold the nearby real estate parcels, and the howdah served as an impressive podium for auctions.

Visitors may not know that Lucy was one sibling of triplets. After completing his work in Margate, Mr. Lafferty developed land similarly in Cape May, and then Coney Island. Lucy’s sister promotional elephants suffered demolishing and fire, making Lucy’s preservation all the more important. Over the years, Lucy had numerous roles including “…restaurant, ice cream parlor, tavern and private home”.

The name “Lucy” is from a little girl, the daughter of one of those subsequent owner who named her, affectionately, as children do. Lucy stands six-stories high in Josephine Harron Park, named after one of the local Save Lucy Committee members who kept the beloved icon from being demolished in the 1960’s after it had become “dilapidated”. The committee raised money to have her moved after The Elephant Hotel it was promoting was torn down. Lucy was restored, and in 1976, she became a National Historic Landmark in celebration of the Bicentennial.

Summer fun with Lucy includes watching the Fourth of July fireworks nearby on Huntington Beach as well as celebrating at her annual birthday party, the 136th being held today till 8 p.m. Though her actual birthday is July 20th, tradition has it that the celebration is the following Saturday, so more can join in events like playing miniature golf, climbing a Velcro wall, and of course, enjoying birthday cake.

Lucy is open year-round with no charge for the park, but her surprising interior, “Lucy movie,” and sky-high views are one-of-a-kind and not to be missed on an informative tour. Plus, you will help keep her looking runway ready. Admission and the tour are $8.50 for adults and $4.00 for children (3-12). Children under two may enter for free. US military with ID’s may receive complimentary tours. Summer hours are Monday-Saturday 10-8, Sunday 10-5. Guided tours for Lucy are every 30 minutes, and the last tour is 30 minutes before closing.

If you are planning a visit, Lucy the Elephant and her Margate home are minutes from Atlantic City, near a grille and a gift shop (with an online store) with adorable items. The proceeds also support her ongoing preservation as does an annual “Holiday in NYC Raffle” in early November . For anyone thinking outside the box for entertaining, the celebrity’s “people” note that she is available for events, which also support her upkeep. For inquires, please call: (267) 973-1938. After a visit, stay around for the friendly smiles, swimming and surfing, downtown fun, a farmer’s market, or Thrilling Thursday free family movies on the beach.

For more information about visiting, volunteering, or touring with a group, call: (609) 823-6473 or write: info@lucytheelephant.org and for Margate events Margate Has More. Too cute, Lucy has her own Facebook page and an Instagram account complete with “steppin’ out” pedicure photos @lucytheelephant, still trendy 136 years later.