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 School complete with their own boards, administrations and faculty. Although the School and College are adjacent, the Menlo Upper School and Menlo Middle School are now highly separate from their college counterpart. In 2008, the School and College entered into another separation agreement to further finalize their split, which included the formal legal subdivision of their land into two separate parcels. The only portion of the campus that will continue to be jointly owned and managed is the Menlo Athletic Quad, consisting of the athletic fields and track. Following a fundraising effort beginning in the late 1990s, both the middle and