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February 1997

Unlocking the Legacies of the Edison Archives

150 years after Thomas Edison's birth, his record of 1,093 diverse patents is still unrivaled. A massive effort to catalogue his voluminous collection of papers and artifacts is yielding clues to account for his phenomenal success.

By Seth Shulman

Leonard DeGraaf, sporting the familiar beige and green uniform of the U.S. National Park Service, leads the way through a narrow subterranean passageway to one of the country's invaluable and rarely viewed wonders. Rounding a final turn, DeGraaf points to the chamber before him. "This is always a thrill for me, no matter how many times I come here," he says in the kind of hushed, reverent tone you might expect from a park ranger approaching the rim of the Grand Canyon or spotting a bald eagle. DeGraaf's enthusiasm, however, is directed toward the massively thick steel door of an underground bank vault.

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