Thomas Robins (inventor) Thomas Robins (inventor) Thomas Robins, Jr. (September 1, 1868 – November 4, 1957) was an American inventor and manufacturer. He was born in September 1, 1868, in West Point, New York to Thomas Robins, Sr. He attended Princeton University. In 1891 he began work on a conveyor belt for carrying coal and ore for Thomas Edison and his Edison Ore-Milling Company in Ogdensburg, New Jersey. His conveyor belt received the grand prize at the Paris Exposition in 1900, and first prizes at the Pan-American Exposition and Saint Louis Exposition. Based on his invention he started the Robins Conveying Belt Company
Thomas A. Edison, Inc. Alva Edison, and had his picture hanging in his office. In 1956 he arranged a meeting with his son Charles Edison, former Governor of New Jersey and Secretary of the Navy, to discuss merging their two companies. They spent a few days at the Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado and came to an agreement. The merge was effective 2 January 1957. The combined company was named the McGraw-Edison Company. Max McGraw would joke after the merger that his name now appeared before Edison's on the New York Stock Exchange. Thomas A. Edison, Inc. Thomas A. Edison, Incorporated (originally the