The Chest of Mysteries #1 - Thomas Edison and the Necrofone

Dear Steemians, I welcome you to my first rubric here on Blog: The Chest of Mysteries.

I start with a title that should appeal to everyone. Yes, there was someone who tried to set up a phone to talk to the dead! Do not believe? See then the rest of the article!

Thomas Edison, a controversial figure who is still loathed by many, had a rivalry well known in his time with Nikola Tesla, the best-known inventor of modern times. But attention, many may not like it, but it was he who invented things like the phonograph, the first incandescent lamp, among many other things.

The "Great" Invention

Now that we have an introduction of this inventor, let's talk about the point that matters. Around the beginning of the twentieth century, Thomas decided to try to invent the telephone. For you it can be a normal thing since today we all have a smartphone, do not we? But at that point, he wanted to invent not the normal phone, but a phone to talk to the dead. In short, he wanted to develop a product that could communicate with those on the other side.

This brilliant idea came about around 1920, when Edison had a short conversation with American Magazine (left the air after 1956), and commented on the idea and had nothing to do with sinister rituals.

Edison's explanation for the magazine was that he believed that when a person died, he left "units of life", ie pieces of memory that were scattered throughout the universe and could be detected by special devices, which he would later build, accordance therewith.

Obviously, this news spread very quickly and generated a lot of public interest from that date. However, it was not any prototype presented, and quickly the rumor came that it was all false and that it was just a joke of Thomas Edison.

The Final Result

The result would be expected: the telephone of the dead was forgotten, and never heard of. As long as in 2015 a French journalist named Philippe Baudoin came across an old Edison diary and discovered a chapter in which himself relating every detail on how the phone could communicate with the deaths.

It was named after the book "Le royaume de l'au-delà" or "The Kingdom of the Beyond". The "joke" turned out to be not really a joke because apparently, he wanted to build even one. Bizarre is not it? Many might consider him crazy, but for this, it is necessary to realize the time in which he lived.

The idea of the telephone, later called "Necrophone", was presented at the end of World War I, due to all the losses suffered in the war. And that's where ideas of "invisible" things like electricity or sound come through cables and wires. So, think to myself, is Edison really crazy to think that the energy left by people could be convertible into something palpable?

Tell me your opinion!