Ah, the cylinders. Yes, I saw them. We had a field trip to...what was it, not a museum but where he lived and worked. They walked us through the lab and then into the area where his desk was. They showed us the clock that they said someone ran in and stopped the moment he died. I can't tell you how much I wanted to sit there and read through all of those papers!
How very cool! And of course Edison, NJ is named after him. I read a lot about him when I was very young because he and I share the same birthday. Later I found out so did James Joyce, and I read a lot of his work in school, but he wasn't really my cup of tea after that.
Edison, btw, was close friends with Henry Ford, and they spent a lot of time together in Florida down near Ft. Myers on the southern gulf coast, the southwestern part of Florida. They had estates next to each other, which are now part of a museum and historic site:
"Edison and Ford Winter Estates
www.edisonfordwinterestates.orgThe Edison and Ford Winter Estates contain a historical museum and 21 acre botanical garden on the adjacent sites of the winter homes of Thomas Alva Edison and Henry Ford beside the Caloosahatchee River in southwestern Florida."