02 July 2012 - As the proliferation of renewables has undergone its inevitable rise and fall and rise again in recent years, it has become fashionable to point to the geniuses of the past both as advocates (or questers) for the technology and as wise, ancient voices urging the trend forward. Perhaps no one gets this treatment more that America's most famous inventor, Thomas Alva Edison. He is an easy choice.
Not only was he one of a handful of men born in the 19th century who ushered in the modern age -- and was the one most responsible for the widespread consumption of electricity -- but throughout his career he returned time and time again to technologies that are today seen as being at the forefront of sustainability.
For instance, in 1912 Glenmont, Edison's New Jersey home for the last 44 years of his life, was dubbed the "Edison Twentieth Century Suburban Residence”, having been taken completely off the grid and receiving its power from a bank of 27 rechargable batteries in the basement.
According to a 12 September 1912 article in The New York Times, the home was crammed with all manner of electric luxuries available at the time, including air conditioning, a washing machine, an electric range and, his most commercially successful invention, incandescent light bulbs.
The batteries were charged by a gas-run motor, but more recent articles suggest Edison planned to hook the whole thing up to a wind turbine. That plan wasn't original -- another inventor, Charles Brush had actually created a wind-powered house in Cleveland, Ohio in 1888 -- but Edison hoped to find a way to bring the idea to the masses. read more>>>
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