What nickname did Thomas Edison become known by because of his Menlo Park laboratory?

Thomas Edison became known as “The Wizard of Menlo Park.”

The nickname arose from the remarkable stream of inventions and demonstrations produced at Edison’s New Jersey laboratory during the late 1870s and early 1880s. Newspapers and the public portrayed the laboratory as a place where mysterious technological breakthroughs appeared rapidly.

Menlo Park became especially associated with Edison’s work on the phonograph, incandescent lighting, and electric power systems. Edison also helped popularize a team-based research approach there, employing machinists, chemists, draftsmen, and other specialists.

Edison later moved his main laboratory operation to West Orange in 1887. Because of that move, people sometimes incorrectly replace Menlo Park in the nickname. “The Wizard of Menlo Park” specifically refers to the earlier laboratory and the publicity surrounding its inventions.