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Without question, the inventions of Thomas Alva Edison have greatly affected how we live our lives. This extraordinary creator changed our culture in countless ways with the miraculous devices that flooded out of his New Jersey laboratory.

It’s common knowledge that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb and the phonograph, but did you know he also developed concrete furniture and a phone to communicate with the dead? 10 inventions by Thomas Edison that you’ve never heard of are explained in this article such as:

• Electrographic Vote-Recorder: In Edison’s vote-recorder, a voting device was connected to the legislative clerk’s desk. A friend of Edison’s bought an interest in his machine for $100 and took it to Washington, but Congress wanted no part of any device that would increase the speed of voting.
• Method of Preserving Fruit: In 1881, Edison filed for a patent for a method to preserve fruits, vegetables, etc. in a glass vessel. The vessel was filled with the items to be preserved, and then all the air was sucked from it with an air pump. The vessel tube was sealed with another piece of glass.
• Concrete Furniture: Why should a young couple go into debt to purchase furniture that will last only a few decades? Edison proposed that for half the money, they could obtain a house full of concrete furniture that would endure for eternity.

Full list at HowStuffWorks.com.

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