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
Church of the Nativity (Menlo Park, California) 20 years. The current pastor at the Church of the Nativity is the Rev. Msgr. Steven D. Otellini, brother to past Intel CEO Paul Otellini, and, because of the church's proximity to Saint Patrick's Seminary and University in Menlo Park, weekend assistants often include young or international priests. Nearby are the Vallombrosa Center retreat house and the Corpus Christi Monastery of Dominican sisters. The parish serves a predominately Anglo Catholic community and has an associated parochial school, Nativity School. With a relatively strong academic reputation locally, students from Nativity School have gone on to such local high schools as Sacred