Thomas Edison's World War One

Thomas Edison During the Great War

Science is going to make war a terrible thing–too terrible to contemplate.

Thomas Edison, October 1915

Thomas Alva Edison (1847–1931) is revered as America's greatest  inventor. While also a highly successful businessman, he is best known for developing many devices such as the phonograph, the long-lasting light bulb, and the motion picture camera. He was also a dedicated and energetic contributor to America's war effort

Soon after war broke out in Europe, disaster struck Edison's enterprises. On 9 December 9 1914, a massive explosion and fire destroyed much of Thomas Edison’s West Orange, New Jersey, research laboratory and factory complex. Fueled by highly flammable nitrate film and chemicals, the blaze destroyed 13 to 14 buildings.  He would overcame this challenge while keeping busy supporting his country's military. Ultimately, the war would also place a strong personal strain on Edison and his family.  His oldest daughter, Marion, spent much of the war behind enemy lines as the wife of a German Army officer, while his son William fought in France as a sergeant in the U.S. Tank Corps. 

Edison at a Preparedness Day Event, New York City

Edison became a major spokesman for preparedness, and his ideas spurred the creation of the Naval Consulting Board, on which he was appointed as president by Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels. Although a naval-focused group, the board also supported the Army's efforts and the aviation programs of both services.

To overcome the shortages of chemicals previously obtained from Germany, he quickly built new manufacturing plants and became a major chemical supplier not only to American industries but also to the European allies and Japan as well. 

In February 1917, a few months before the United States entered the war, Edison and his assistants began conducting anti-submarine experiments for the U.S. Navy, as well as other military research, at a specially equipped new laboratory at the top of Eagle Rock Mountain in West Orange. Over the next two years, Edison would continue his research aboard the USS Sachem in Long Island Sound, at an office in Washington, D.C. formerly occupied by Admiral George Dewey, and at the U.S. Naval Station in Key West, Florida.

Edison with Secretary Daniels and the Naval Board

During this period, some truly creative ideas, prototypes, and devices were generated by the board. The war would end before all but one—the Ruggles Orientator (a precursor to the flight simulator)—could actually be produced and implemented.  An article from the University of Central Florida lists a number of the most promising that were likely helpful for future American military operations including:

• A device for detecting submarines by sound

• A shipborne device able to hear a torpedo approaching from up to 5,000 yards away 

• Reducing ships' visibility by smokescreens, zigzag maneuvers, and camouflaging 

• A strategy for navigating ships out of mined harbors 

• A steel protective net coupled with a detecting device for incoming torpedoes

• An underwater searchlight for  destroyers to track and find U-boats

• A water-penetrating projectile that would not ricochet off the water but continue smoothly through the water to reach U-boats

• Methods for submarine stabilization  and extinguishing coal fires safely from within the ship

• A telephone system for ships to contact other ships

• Direction finder and sound ranging devices that would predict the direction and distance of incoming enemy aircraft and artillery pieces 

However, despite his various experiments and innovations, Edison nevertheless grew increasingly agitated with the Navy for failing to implement any of his ideas. Of the 48 new inventions and improvements he proposed, the Navy [with one exception] failed to develop any of them beyond the prototype stage. This later caused Edison to accuse them of lacking the imagination or the foresight to see the usefulness of his work. As he wrote in 1918, "Nobody in [the Navy] will do anything on the account of taking risks that an innovation will bring in ... no training at Annapolis to cultivate the imagination."

Nevertheless, if Edison's work during this period had one significant effect, it is the resulting creation of what became known as the Naval Research Laboratory. Edison firmly believed in the necessity of a federal research laboratory to produce new ideas and inventions to improve the military. 

Sources: "Thomas Edison in the Great War", Florida in World War I, University of Central Florida; "Edison in World War I", National Park Service; The World War One Centennial Commission