Thomas Edison is still recognised for his illustrious career as one of the most influential inventors ever. He was idolised by many and one of those who considered the inventor an idol was his automotive pioneer Henry Ford. It is believed that Ford commissioned the retrieval of his friend’s last breath. Yes, you read that right. Henry Ford Museum, located in Dearborn, Michigan has a test tube that is believed to contain Thomas Edison’s last breath.
Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, on February 11, 1847. The renowned inventor shared a close bond with Henry Ford, who is popular for his Model Ts and assembly lines. If the reports are to be believed, at the time of the death of Edison, his terminal breath was trapped by one of his sons in a test tube who sealed it, and sent it to Ford. The interesting observation did not come as a surprise as Ford always wanted to keep something in remembrance of Edison.
According to legend, Ford asked Thomas Edison’s son Charles to catch his final breath and keep sitting by his bedside with a test tube next to Edison’s mouth.
However, the truth is that there were a series of eight test tubes left near his bed as he lay dying. As Charles once revealed the truth, he said, “Though he is mainly remembered for his work in electrical fields, his real love was chemistry. It is not strange, but symbolic, that those test tubes were close to him at the end. Immediately after his passing, I asked Dr. Hubert S. Howe, his attending physician, to seal them with paraffin. He did. Later I gave one of them to Mr. Ford.”
After the death of Ford in 1947, his belongings including the test tube that had Edison’s last breath were donated to the Henry Ford Museum. The museum stored the test tube in a box for more than 20 years. Later, in 1978, museum employees rediscovered the test tube and it has been displayed ever since.