HiDee Bro Ben, & Thanks for the Great Pics of a Great Tree. I've visited Edison's Winter Home Museum...even tried to trade 'em out of an 1898 Fan Motor that was in their Collection..offering them the World's First Tape Recorder..to no avail, tho they'd have given it to me (Since it was a non-Edison Item) IF my potential Fan Museum was Non-Profit. (Can't be IF my sons are gonna inherit anything..alas!)

Anyways, I've got cuttings of it that've rooted..in my backyard.

Edison's tree was a gift from Harvey Firestone in 1925. Big as it is, it's a Pipsqueak compared to some of the others in the world, especially in India:

1) {& Guinness Book of Records winner:} "Thummammimna marimani" near Gooty, in Andhra Pradesh. 500 years old. Covers 5 Acres.
2) At Botanical Gardens in Kolkuta
3) Andyar Tree at Cherwai (Or -mai..my longhand's a bit hard to read this AM)
4) Big Banyan Tree at Bangalore.."3 Acres/500 years old"

Immediately after this listing at Google was the following, from Minister of Ag in Bangladesh:
"NO"..we've got a tree here that's "4.5 Acres and is 430-440 years old"...

And, there's also a Behemoth at Lahaina, Maui that's 200 years old and "1.5 Hectares"...which I got no idea how that translates to Acres, but sounds pretty big!

The Srimaha Bodhi Banyan tree, planted in 228 BC, is the "Oldest Living Human-Planted Tree" in the world. (Supposedly from a cutting off the tree that Buddha originally sat under.) (At 2238 years old..it, too, must be a Biggie..)

Sidebar: Oldest living tree: Bristlecone Pine..California.."Methuselah"..dated 4,838 years old. There WAS one, now called "Promethius"...that a Researcher broke his core-borer tool off in it/got Park Service permission to cut it down to retrieve it/& then discovered it was 5000 years old/Oldest Living non-clonal life-object on the Planet. (R.I.P., Promethius!)

Edison was an inventive Genius..but not the world's best Businessman, if ya study the Evolution of the Early-to-Mid Year GE Company History..& WHY "Edison General Electric" got shortened to "General Electric" ca 1930. (He didn't set-foot in a GE Plant for 30 years after that.) He was also VERY jealous of a Serbian-Croatian Hireling of his named Nikola Tesla..(Later to be known as the Father of AC Electrical System)..& Edison DESPISED AC..vs DC.

Tesla got hired by Geo. Westinghouse after quitting Edison's Employ. Today's AC Distribution System is ALL traceable back to Tesla's original patents..ditto most AC Induction Motors in use today.

Edison understood PR far-better than Tesla...& made a Big Bequest to the Smithsonian WITH the understanding that Very LITTLE of Tesla's would be included there.

Tesla died near-broke (since he'd forgiven Geo. Westinghouse about $5 Mil Owed him in Patent Royalties..during a "Crunch"..in thanks for his being-hired when he needed-it) feeding pigeons in NYC. (I'll add he'd quit Edison after not-receiving $15K-promised early in his hire for improving a Dynamo's performance 25%.)

I've always found "Roots" to be Interesting. (Sorry for the Overkill)..
Stan