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 Edison bridges around the United States have been named in Edison's honor: the Edison Bridge in New Jersey, the Edison Bridge in Florida, and the Edison Bridge in Ohio. In space, his name is commemorated in asteroid 742 Edisona. In West Orange, New Jersey, the Glenmont estate is maintained and operated by the National Park Service as the Edison National Historic Site, as is his nearby laboratory and workshops including the reconstructed "Black Maria"—the world's first movie studio. The Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower and Museum is in the town of Edison, New Jersey. In Beaumont, Texas, there is an Edison