Light's Golden Jubilee

[4] The events began with a train procession to Dearborn, with Edison getting off at the Smith Creek Station, where he had been ejected as a young telegraph operator many years before.

[5] Once the inventor had arrived in Dearborn, in what Benedict Anderson has called "an experience of simultaneity", millions from around the country were invited to join in the commemoration of the ‘father of light.’[6] The entire country was urged to turn off their lights for the evening, only to flick the switch back on at the exact moment when the elderly and emotional Edison, seated in his now-relocated laboratory in Greenfield Village, connected two wires to recreate the exact moment of the invention of the light bulb, a moment broadcast over the radio airwaves on as many as 140 stations.

[7] The evening concluded with numerous speeches at a formal candlelight dinner, which took place in Ford's still unfinished replica of Independence Hall at Greenfield Village, complete with its own Liberty Bell.

[8] In response to the praise lavished upon him, Edison, overcome with emotion, said, "The experience makes me realize as never before that Americans are sentimental and this crowning event of Light’s Golden Jubilee fills me with gratitude.

"[9][5] The preceding year had similarly been filled with smaller-scale demonstrations of the influence of Edison's innovations: electrical displays across the country; Broadway signs temporarily darkened to show the difference their light made in the atmosphere of cities across the country; and an "open season" for biographies, newspaper articles, and commemorations of the inventor.