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 Graduate School of Business. The institution again changed its name, this time to Menlo School and Menlo College. The founding of the SBA made Menlo School and Menlo College eligible for complete tax exemption as a four-year, nonprofit educational institution. The savings in taxes were put into expanding and polishing Menlo. In 1953 the institution purchased property across the street from the campus to move the track and athletic fields to their current home. 1954 saw the development of two new dormitories for Menlo: Howard Hall and Michaels Hall, named after Dr. Lowry Howard and C. F. Michaels. In addition