Born in 1847, Thomas Alva Edison was a scientific genius and businessman influencing the world throughout his lifetime with his inventions. He held a world record patenting 1093 responsible for the long standing light bulb to the conception of the phonograph. Believing anything could be created with sufficent time and the correct tools he proved to the world anything was possible.
In the 1920's, much of America experienced a spiritual uprising likely resulting from the signficant loses of World War I. Edison was agnostic by nature although both his parents were confirmed spritualist but with his mother's failing health he wished to communicate with her once she passed on.
His views in life after death quoted in Scientific American October 20, 1920 was, "If our personality survives, then it is strictly logical or scientific to assume that it retains memory, intellect, other faculties, and knowledge that we acquire on this Earth. Therefore it might be possible to construct an apparatus which will be so delicate, that if there are personalities in another existence or sphere who wish to get in touch with us in this existence or sphere, this apparatus will at least give them a better opportunity to express themselves than the tilting tables and raps and ouija boards and mediums and the other crude methods now purported to be the only means of communication."
Edison began corresponding with Sir William Crooke who conceived the vaccum tube which Edison used to invent the light bulb. Crooke was eager to help in anyway he could since he himself had a collection of his own spirit photography. Throughout this project, he also worked with Doctor Miller Hutchinson and had assistance with over 400 other scientists. His device was called "The Valve" while others termed the "TEC" the acyronm for "The Thomas Edison Communicator."
Unfortunately, in October 1931 Edison himself passed away leaving a project that some believe never happened in the first place because mysteriously there isn't a record indicating any schematics or prototype in existence.
On his death bed, he looked up at his doctor and said "It's beautiful over there." Whether it was his illness or ramblings of a dying man, Edison always held truth and science as his foundation thoughtout his life. Strangely, it was reported that the moment he died all his clocks in his workshop and his home stopped functioning.
We may never know if "The Valve" ever existed or find the prototype that he worked on with passion but nonetheless, Edison can be considered a true innovator as investigators and researchers probe for the soft whispers that unexplainably find their way onto recording devices of today.