History of Edison, NJ

Edison Township, comprising former sections of Piscataway and Woodbridge townships, was settled in the 17th Century. The earliest village was Piscatawaytown, which is centered around St. James Church and the Piscatawaytown Common near the intersection of Plainfield and Woodbridge avenues in south Edison.
The town was previously known as "Raritan Township", not be confused with the current-day Raritan Township in Hunterdon County.

In 1876, Thomas Alva Edison set up his home and research laboratory on the site of an unsuccessful real estate development in Raritan Township called Menlo Park. While there he earned the nickname "the Wizard of Menlo Park." Before his death at age 83 in 1931, the prolific inventor amassed a record 1,093 patents for creations including the phonograph, a stock ticker, the motion-picture camera, the incandescent lightbulb, a mechanical vote counter, the alkaline storage battery including one for an electric car, and the first commercial electric light.^[12]
It was in his Menlo Park (N.J.) Laboratory that Thomas Edison came up with the phonograph and a commercially viable incandescent light bulb filament. Christie Street was the first street in the world to use electric lights for illumination.^[13] Edison subsequently left Menlo Park and moved his home and laboratory to West Orange in 1886.^[14] His Menlo Park lab has been called one of the greatest laboratories ever.^[15]

20th century

Near Piscatawaytown village, a portion of the Township was informally known as "Nixon," after Lewis Nixon, a manufacturer and community leader. Soon after the outbreak of World War I, Nixon established a massive volatile chemicals processing facility there, known as the Nixon Nitration Works. It was the site of the 1924 Nixon Nitration Works disaster, a massive explosion and resulting fire that killed twenty persons and destroyed several square miles of the Township.
In 1954, the township's name was changed to honor inventor Thomas A. Edison.^[7][16] Also on the ballot in 1954 was a failed proposal to change the community's name to Nixon.^[17]

21st century

Edison is currently one of the fastest growing towns in New Jersey. As of the United States 2000 Census, it was the fifth most-populated municipality in the state, after the cities of Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, and Elizabeth. Its July 1, 2009 U.S. Census Bureau estimated population is 99,738, up from 97,687.^[18]
Edison is primarily a middle-class and upper middle-class community with more than 75 ethnic communities represented. Edison has a large Jewish community next to Highland Park, with multiple synagogues located in Edison. Edison also has a growing Indian community and a number of temples serving the religious needs of the community. Reflecting the number of Edison's residents from India and China, the township has sister city arrangements with Shijiazhuang, China,^[19] and Baroda, India.^[20]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison,_New_Jersey