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
Wizard of Oz (character) users have permits. In later books, he proves himself quite an inventor, providing devices that aid in various characters’ journeys. He introduces to Oz the use of mobile phones in "Tik-Tok of Oz." Some of his most elaborate devices are the "Ozpril" and the "Oztober", balloon-powered Ozoplanes in "Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz," and intelligent taxis called Scalawagons in "The Scalawagons of Oz." The Wizard has appeared in nearly every silent Oz film, portrayed by different actors each time. In "The Wizard of Oz", The Wizard's character is similar to that found in the earlier books: a bumbling "humbug."