Supernatural S03E01

Backstory

Like other historically based cases, it may be somewhat, but only somewhat, important to distinguish fact from fiction in Thomas Edison's backstory for this episode. Edison really did speak out about contacting the dead "personalities" and really did have a suppressed chapter on Spiritualism. Whether the Edison Estate is still control freaks or a more malicious entity haunted by an actual event in the past remains to be seen. Whether or not anyone made Edison's particular patent on the "spirit phone" also remains to be seen as every known example looks completely different from one another. Some basic internet and youtube trolling will dig this up (ectoplasm fueled technology, anyone?) The one supposition the episode makes is that the event in the article - the attempt to contact the dead - was true. Edison being the person he was, would not give up trying if he thought there was a glimmer of a chance (see any other invention of his) and the chapter he wrote belies an interest keener than passing. Therefore, he'd gather bright minds and colleagues - even those on the opposite end of the friend spectrum as he - and be willing to collaborate in order to succeed (and likely take the credit, but that's another story). Thus, if it did happen, something horrible happened, and it drove everyone there either fanatical or mad - or both.

Edison sought help from Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge, FRS, who researched wireless technologies and became big in psychometry... to his own discredit among academic circles. Despite their enmity, Nikola Tesla agreed to come and offer input on the device at the test at Edison's winter home in Florida in 1920. Edison's friend Henry Ford was there, as well as a veritable who's who of scientific minds of the time... and a handful of spiritualists and family members. But instead of a failure, the horror seen that night led to a cover-up to prevent others from going that route to open up the portal to the dark woods and the writing monstrosity that attempted to come into the parlor of Seminole Lodge, stopped only by something the maid, rushing in, instinctively threw at it. While Edison pressured Lodge to destroy his own copy of the device, his family would, after seeing the effect on Edison, go to the media to put the stories to rest with a "dark and stormy night" tale of failure. While Tesla would research weaponry to destroy the monsters in the dark, Edison's family pressured him to stop this route of investigation.

But their pressure to stop did not halt Edison; it only made him secretive. Edison's invention needed a lot of work and many iterations, leading to prototypes that only half worked or had other... effects. Some can be found in museums, some are long gone, and others are scattered around the country passed on and left to garage sales disguised as regular phonographs or dictaphones. The Men of Letters tried hard to scoop them up or at least tag the ones in relative safety and destroy or lock up the harmful ones. Edison wished to learn what it was that he saw and he thought he could through the dead.. or maybe whatever other planes there were besides this one.

Edison Facts

These are 100% true stories, that are just interpreted differently for the case being, well, True.

1920: Edison states interest publicly and begins work on a device to communicate with surviving personalities of the dead. It is published in Scientific American, prompting a caveat from editors and outburst from the public (both negative and positive) with over 600 letters in response. He mentions it at least until 1922. It is publicly "redacted" and called a "joke" by family, but unclear at what point. Edison is not a joking man, but the public considers it a hoax.

1927: John and Louisa Rhine "read notes from Edison, Tesla, and Dr. Charles Steinmetz" and were going "to build the machine described in the S.A. article."

1931: Edison slips into a coma and dies after several days. At one point he reportedly awakens, turns to his wife Mina and says, "It is so beautiful over there."

1933: Mechanix Article of his attempt in 1920, claims attempt failed but was very interesting. Sets scene in Florida. See article at [1]

1941: A medium holds a seance at which she is possessed by the spirit of Edison. The "spirit of Edison" says that his assistants have the plans for the device. Inventor J. Gilbert Wright, a G.E. employee, is present, and works on the device for the rest of his life until his death in 1959. He worked on it with his partner, one Henry Gardner.

1948: 1st printing of Diary. Chapter on spiritualism and writings on Gold Standard and Economy hence redacted. Printing halted. See Lost Diary Chapter at [2]