The Backstory: Test tube holds Thomas Edison’s dying breath

Two of the most famous inventors of the late 19th and early 20th century were Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. They were great friends and shared a strong belief in the afterlife. That connection led Ford to obtain a test tube from Edison’s son…allegedly containing Edison’s dying breath.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, have you ever idolized somebody? And what would
you do to keep them close to you? Well, Henry
Ford felt that way about Thomas Edison. He admired his creativity,
but most of all, he admired his work ethic. Ford
was sixteen years younger than his idol So when Edison
was nearing his final days, Henry Ford asked Edison's son

(00:21):
to give him one thing. I'm Patty Steele capturing Thomas
Edison's dying breath. Literally, that's next on the backstory. The
backstory is back. Thomas Edison may not have invented everything
he gets credit for, but nobody knew how to take

(00:41):
a simple invention turn it into a product he could
mass produce and change the everyday lives of people worldwide.
And he did it with multiple inventions, including the phonograph,
movie cameras, movie projectors, and most impactfully, the light bulb
with which he lit the world. Thomas Edison established the

(01:02):
first industrial research laboratory, which completely changed the way inventions
were brought to market in a rapidly industrializing world. Edison
was the ultimate business man, and that's why Henry Ford,
who was sixteen years younger, idolized him. For his part,
Edison never stopped working. He was famous for rarely sleeping

(01:25):
more than three or four hours a night, saying that
sleep was a waste of time, but he would take
short naps, which he said sparked his creativity. There are
even photographs of him taking power naps under a tree.
He said those short daytime naps helped to recharge his mind.
Those close to him said he was capable of falling

(01:46):
asleep in under a minute, anytime, any place. If he
couldn't solve a problem, he'd nap and then wake up
to try a completely different approach. Not everything Edison tried
was successful. He tried to improve on X ray technology
when it was in its very early stages, but he
had absolutely no idea what he was doing. During one experiment,

(02:09):
his assistant, Clarence Dally, who was severely burned, lost both
of his arms and eventually died from radiation poisoning. At
the same time, Edison permanently damaged his left eye and
his stomach, and he was emotionally scarred by what had
happened to his trusted assistant. Toward the end of his life,

(02:29):
Edison was suffering from complications of diabetes, which ultimately killed
him at the age of eighty four. So we have
to take a look at how such a driven guy
felt about death itself. He famously said he wished he
had more years left, more time to work on new ideas,
especially solar energy, which he thought would be a powerful

(02:52):
source of power. He said he loved figuring out what
the world needed and then creating it. Edison also became
fascinated with spiritualism toward the end of his life. It
was a really popular movement in the eighteen hundreds. He
believed that the human spirit was composed of tiny energy
particles that would be released at the time of death,

(03:14):
and he thought that there may one day be a
way to capture those particles and reconstitute individual personalities. A
question I think I'd have to ask him would be
reconstitute into what where would you put it? Anyway, back
to Henry Ford in his Edison connection, Edison was Ford's
role model. So Ford took a job with the Edison

(03:36):
Illuminating Company in Detroit in eighteen eighty eight when he
was twenty five years old. Three years later, he was
made an engineer, and he stayed with the company through
most of the eighteen nineties. He actually never met Edison,
who mostly worked at his lab and factory in West Orange,
New Jersey, until he'd worked for him for several years

(03:57):
out in Michigan. When they did meet at a company event,
he told Edison about the experimental automobile he was building,
which he called the Ford Quadricycle. He had just finished
the prototype and was working to perfect it. Edison was
fascinated and really encouraged him to keep developing it. Not
long after, Ford left the Edison Company to devote his

(04:20):
full attention to the Quadricycle, which would eventually become the
Model t He used Edison's manufacturing in business principles to
create the Ford Motor Company, where he mass produced an
affordable car for the Messes. Andry stayed close to Edison
for the rest of his life. They even bought neighboring

(04:40):
estates in Fort Myers, Florida. In fact, they built another
research lab down there in which they worked on creating
a rubber like latex material for car tires. And Ford
was also extremely interested in the afterlife. As a lot
of powerful people are, they always want more. Right. He
was said to believe that a person's soul is located

(05:02):
in their final breath, so toward the end of Edison's life,
Ford was apparently a bit obsessed with capturing Thomas's last breath.
He wasn't the only one. The story goes that Edison's son,
maybe at Thomas's or Ford's request, had anywhere from eight
to over forty test tubes by his father's bedside as

(05:22):
death approached, all to capture Thomas's final breath. Sources from
the Ford Museum say that in nineteen thirty one, mister
Ford asked Charles Edison to catch his father's final breath
and sit beside him with test tubes close to his mouth.
They say Ford was a man with many eccentricities as

(05:42):
was Edison, including some interest in reanimation and spiritualism, and
some say that he was attempting to capture Edison's soul
as it escaped his body in hopes of later reanimating him.
After Edison died, the test tubes were sealed with paraffin
wax and one of them sent to Henry Ford. You
can actually see it if you visit the Henry Ford

(06:05):
that's a museum dedicated to Ford's life and inventions. In
Dearborn Michigan. Thomas Edison died at the age of eighty
four on October eighteenth, nineteen thirty one, at his home
in Llewellyn Park in West Orange, New Jersey, just a
short walk from his laboratory and factory. But according to
the Definitive Biography of Edison by Neil Baldwin, called Edison

(06:29):
inventing the century. Just before he died, Thomas briefly awakened
from a coma. Looking up at his wife Mina. He
said his final words, which may have referenced the afterlife,
He said, it is very beautiful over there. Hope you

(06:52):
like the Backstory with Patty Steele. I would love it
if you would subscribe or follow for free to get
new episodes delivered automatically, and feel free to dm me
if you have a story you'd like me to cover.
On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.
I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,

(07:15):
the Elvis Durand Group and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer
is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new
episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out
to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram
at real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.
Thanks for listening to the backstory with Patty Steele, the

(07:36):
pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.