his storerooms. The human hair was used for a wig on the first talking doll. In the dolls chest was a tiny phonograph speaker. Sadly, the West Orange Laboratory burned to the ground in nineteen-fourteen. Edison took the loss calmly, saying “All of our mistakes have been destroyed”. He also said, “In a new factory we can start our experiments with a clean slate” (Compton’s Encyclopedia 75).

In World War One, Edison was the head of the Naval Consulting Board for the government. He directed research on torpedoes and antisubmarine devices. In 1920, Congress established the first Naval Research Laboratory (Compton’s Encyclopedia 76).

During Edison’s life he had two wives. He married his first wife, Mary G. Stillwell, in 1871. He met her while she was working in his laboratory.He had hoped that she would be his partner in inventing but he said that she could not invent anything. While they were married they had three children, Marion, Thomas, and William. Thomas nicknamed his first two children “Dot” and “Dash”. Mary Stillwell died in 1884. Edison remarried in 1886 to Mina Miller. Mina and Thomas also had three children, Madeline, Charles, and Theodore. When Charles became older he became the governor of New Jersey. Mina and the children did not see Thomas much because and nineteen hours a day. He worked so much that he hardly knew if it was night or day. He only slept when he was tired and ate when he was hungry. Edison’s firm work theories helped him accomplish many things throughout his