In August 1893, Thomas A. Edison visited the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. His time at the World’s Fair bears little resemblance to the story portrayed on screen in The Current War. According to the report below, from the September 2, 1893, issue of Electrical Review, Edison kept a low profile and showed little interest in the electrical exhibits.
Thomas A. Edison, accompanied by his family, arrived in Chicago last Monday evening, and went immediately to a house on Lake avenue, in the southern part of the city, where he will live while he is here. Mr. Edison is visiting the Fair incog., and his coming was unsuspected, except by a very few. He will be here only two weeks, and as yet has not visited Electricity Building, and says he has no intention of going there. Mr. Edison’s object in coming to the Fair incog., is to avoid the people who want to show him things he doesn’t want to see. He wants recreation and is determined to see the Fair as a private citizen at his ease. He brought along with him a lot of his big black cigars, and is having lots of fun, mostly by himself.
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Mr. Edison told the editor of the Electrical Review several months ago that he had given up experimenting in electricity, and would henceforth devote himself to chemistry, metallurgy and his magnetic ore separator. Consequently, the first thing he did at the Fair was to visit the Mines and Mining Building, which he went over thoroughly. Mr. Edison thinks that no man who makes his living by his intellect can afford to stay away from the Fair, and says the White City is wonderful and amazing to him in its grandeur.
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On Wednesday some of Mr. Edison’s friends thought he was lost, and rushed off post haste to Professor Barrett’s office for assistance in finding him. Chief Barrett, Dr. Hornsby* and a lot of General Electric officials organized search parties, and all started intuitively for the Midway Plaisance. But he wasn’t there. Building after building was searched without avail. Finally some one went into the Agricultural Building, about the last place one would expect Edison to visit. The searcher passed down one of the side aisles and there beheld Mr. Edison with a pancake in one hand and a cracker spread with jelly in the other. He was quietly enjoying his lunch.
* Prof. John Patrick Barrett, author of Electricity at the Columbian Exposition (R. R. Donnelley & Son’s, 1894), served as Chief of the Department of Electricity and Electrical Appliances. Dr. J. Allen Hornsby was his first assistant.
