Abstract:
Thomas Alva Edison once lived in the small town of Iron Station, between Lincolnton and Stanley, North Carolina. While Charlotte Frances Reinhardt Puckett's father was visiting Charlotte, became such close friends with Edison that Mr. Reinhardt invited him to live with his family. Edison was consumed with ideas about preserving sound, light, and finding alternate sources of fuel for automobiles. When Edison move back to New Jersey, he sent the family a “talking machine,†despite Mrs. Reinhart's implications that he was talking foolishness for such a thing to be accomplished.