Thomas Edison had created the first industrial laboratory concerned with creating knowledge and then controlling its application. Edison's name is registered on 1,093 patents. Edison began his career as an inventor in Newark, New Jersey, with the automatic repeater and his other improved telegraphic devices, but the invention that first gained him wider notice was the phonograph in 1877. This accomplishment was so unexpected by the public at large as to appear almost magical. Edison became known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park," New Jersey. His first phonograph recorded on tinfoil around a grooved cylinder. Despite its limited sound quality and that
Menlo College Menlo nonetheless, and in 1933, he appointed six members of the Stanford faculty to educational advisory roles at Menlo. The start of World War II brought to Menlo the challenge of reduced enrollment. To balance the student body, Howard instated a four-four plan wherein grades 7 through 10 were designated to the School while grades 11 through 14 constituted the College. As World War II was coming to an end in 1944, President Howard suffered severe heart trouble, and his physician advised that he retire from the presidency of Menlo. The Board of Trustees chose Dr. William E. Kratt, former