Thomas Edison House
Edison's time in Louisville
In 1866, at age 19, Thomas Edison, a skilled telegrapher, came to Louisville to work for Western Union, which at that time had an office on the corner of Main and Second Streets. In August 1866, Edison left briefly, intending to take a trip to Brazil but was turned back at New Orleans because the waterway was shut down. So, he returned to work in Louisville and found lodging in a shotgun duplex on East Washington Street in what is now Butchertown.
In 1867, while working the night shift, Edison, already the experimenter, was working with a battery when he spilled sulfuric acid onto the floor and his boss' desk on the floor below. The next day, he was fired, and left town for good. Sixteen years later, in 1883, one of Edison's new inventions, the incandescent light bulb, was demonstrated in the largest installation to date in Louisville at the Southern Exposition.
See also
- List of attractions and events in the Louisville metropolitan area
- List of museums in the Louisville metropolitan area
References
- ^ Jeff Campbell; Loretta Chilcoat; Susan Derby; Andrew Dean Nystrom (2004). Lonely Planet USA. Lonely PlanetTravel. ISBN 1-74104-192-9.
External links