Strommers Through America in Edison’s Footsteps

The first 120 miles from Dearborn to Milan are complete. From the birthplace of Tim Edison at Ford Motor Company to the birthplace of inventor genius Thomas Alva Edison. He saw the light of day 175 years ago. No, not a lightbulb, that came much later. For us, this is the perfect reason to travel across America in the footsteps of our namesake, who filed over 1000 patents in his lifetime and shaped the modern world with his inventions for data transmission, power generation, sound and image reproduction. We know as we do today.

He also worked on electric cars in the early 20th century. To this end, together with his employer at the time, Henry Ford, he developed a nickel-iron battery that was more powerful than lead-acid batteries at the time. However, ranges of 300 kilometers and above are not possible even with this. That’s why he came up with the battery replacement system. He wanted to save taxi drivers in New York, and he wanted to sell his first electric cars with long charging times. But neither the new battery nor the battery replacement system caught on. Henry Ford went into business for himself – with a factory, thanks to assembly line production, gasoline-powered cars were produced at unbeatable prices.

Thomas Alva Edison and Henry Ford were lifelong friends. In 1910, Edison made a record run from New York to Mount Washington in New Hampshire with two electric cars. Since “Electrify America” ​​was not even considered, Edison took a mobile charging station with him on his tour of the mountains – a generator that produced electricity using petroleum and was able to charge the batteries of the test car.

On the way to Menlo Park

Hopefully we won’t need such equipment on our tour after 112 years, although the charging infrastructure in the Appalachians is worse than between Dearborn and Milan, or between Milan and Menlo Park, New Jersey. By 1931 there was a laboratory and residence.

Our motorhome, a long-range version of the Ford Mustang Mag-E, has a completely different range than the electric car Edison was driving at the time. Up to 490 kilometers or 305 miles, as they say here, should be possible without stopping. Let’s see: After the first 120 miles, the battery is still 60 percent full. 500 more miles to Menlo Park – need to recharge at least once. Let’s see what happens tomorrow.

Here’s our path to getting the mood we want to master with the Ford Mustang Mach-E in the coming days.