Edison's Telephone to the Dead
In 1920, Thomas Edison told a magazine he was working on a machine sensitive enough to pick up messages from the dead.
What was reported
In October 1920, Thomas Edison, inventor of the phonograph and the light bulb, gave an interview to The American Magazine. He said he had been thinking of building an apparatus so delicate that if personalities survived death, it could detect them.
The story went around the world. Edison said little more about it, and after his death in 1931, no such machine was found among his papers or inventions.
Explanations offered
Some think Edison was joking, or teasing a reporter; others think he was serious, as he did write about life after death. In 2015 a French edition of his diaries included a chapter on the idea. The 'spirit phone' became a legend among ghost hunters.
- When
- Announced in 1920
- Where
- West Orange, New Jersey, USA
- Witnesses
- A magazine interviewer
- Status
- Never found
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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