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 faculty members. In 1956 Florence Moore made a historic gift to Menlo in financing the construction of the Florence Moore Science and Engineering Building, housing math and science facilities as well as an auditorium. Construction of a new student union, post office and dormitory was completed in 1958, and Menlo opened a new dining commons in 1962. The old dining commons was converted to the Bowman Library. 1969 brought to Menlo a new building for the School of Business Administration and the two-year school that included classrooms, faculty and staff offices, a theater and a computer center. This building, now