Edison dies in West Orange; the laboratory becomes a public historic site later
On 18 October 1931 Edison died at West Orange. In the causal graph this event strengthens Digital Learning Access, a driver that weakens Learning Poverty Rate (low- and middle-income countries) — an improving welfare path.
Read the full account
On 18 October 1931 Edison died at West Orange. The laboratory closed as a private invention factory. The site later became Thomas Edison National Historical Park, which publishes history and preserves notebooks.
Context
He did not designate a UNESCO listing. NPS enabling legislation is later. Contribution is complex and small on the park itself.
Thomas Edison is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.
Why it matters
Knowledge-access path through an archive-site. High confidence on the death date; medium on park-visit welfare.
Who was responsible
Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.
Thomas Edison
PersonDirect responsibility
responsibility level 0.2 · verified
Complex: he died. Later public preservation of notebooks and machines is a successor-state/NPS act.
What changed
Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.
- FactEdison dies in West Orange; the laboratory becomes a public historic site later
- strengthensDriverDigital Learning Access
- weakensIndicators (3)Learning Poverty Rate (low- and middle-income countries)
impact weight 0.55 · Effect from 18 October 1931 · verified
Closing a private lab and later opening it as a public historic site increased access to primary industrial records, with lag measured in decades.
Weakens · Relationship strength 0.22 (weight 0.55 × strength 0.4)
Observed
70% of 10-year-olds · 70 above the normal line (2022)
Worse than normalTwo readings: 57% of 10-year-olds (2019) and 70% of 10-year-olds (2022).
20192022 Above normal = worse
Strengthens · Relationship strength 0.19 (weight 0.55 × strength 0.35)
Observed
472 PISA score points · 28 below the normal line (2022)
Worse than normal7 readings, 2003–2022: fell from 499 PISA score points to 472 PISA score points.
Above normal = better
Weakens · Relationship strength 0.17 (weight 0.55 × strength 0.3)
Observed
11% of primary-school-age children · 11 above the normal line (2023)
Worse than normalAbove normal = worse
Evidence
The sources behind this fact and its verification state.
- 1.Britannica — Thomas EdisonEncyclopaedia Britannica · High credibility · verified
- 2.Thomas Edison National Historical Park — historyU.S. National Park Service · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish
NPS and Britannica independently date the death and describe the preserved laboratory.
Established: death 18 October 1931 at West Orange; later public preservation of the laboratory. Not established: that death itself improved energy security.
Causal path
How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.
- ActorThomas Edison
- contributed toFactEdison dies in West Orange; the laboratory becomes a public historic site later
- strengthensDriverDigital Learning Access
- weakensIndicatorLearning Poverty Rate (low- and middle-income countries)
Cite this page
Factrail. (2026). Edison dies in West Orange; the laboratory becomes a public historic site later. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/us-edison-death-estate-1931
https://factrail.ai/facts/us-edison-death-estate-1931
Accessed 16 October 2026.
By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed
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