The success of Edison's Portland cement plant is not matter for our attention here, so we will pass over those busy years to the time of Edison's retirement to devote all his time to scientific research.
For many years he had watched the cities grow, had seen the great tenements become more crowded, and less comfortable each year. He had seen the children playing in the streets, and had compared their lives to the happy lives of the children whose parents could afford to live away from the great cities, where boys could have yards to play in. He decided that the boys of the city streets would have a far better time, that their mothers and fathers would have a far more cheerful life if they could live in comfortable little houses in the country with yards, and gardens, and plenty of room for every one.
Edison saw that what was needed was a building material cheap enough, and a method of using it cheap enough, so that dwellings could be put up at a cost that would place them within the means of workingmen and their families.
Concrete, he decided, was the material to solve the problem, and Edison set himself to the task of making houses poured complete into one mould so as to make the cost of labour as low as possible. The "one-piece" house was an assured thing from that time on. All that remained was for the "Wizard of Orange," as he is called, to work out the difficult details of a properly mixed cement and a practical system of moulds.
An incident that occurred at the time of the failure of his ore crushing plant in the New Jersey mountains was one of the things that brought the whole situation home to him. When the plant was closed and the buildings vacated, the fire insurance companies cancelled the policies, declaring that the moral risk was too great.
The inventor's reply was short and to the point. He made no protest against the cancellation of his policies, but simply said he would need no more policies, as he would erect fireproof buildings in which there would be no "moral risk."
This promise of Edison's, made at the time of his so-called failure and pondered during the years of his tremendous activities, was not redeemed until he had retired from the business of invention as a means of gaining riches. "I am not making these experiments for money," Edison has said many times. "This model represents the character of the house which I will construct of concrete. I believe it can be built by machinery in lots of 100 or more at one location for a price which will be so low that it can be purchased or rented by families whose total income is not more than $550 per annum. It is an attempt to solve the housing question by a practical application of science, and the latest advancement in cement and mechanical engineering."
HUGE CONCRETE MOULDS AT PANAMA