Today is Thomas Edison's birthday (1847 to 1931). Our interest in insulators may have not been the same without this great man! (even if he did prefer DC over AC).

Pictured here is the interior of the Thomas Edison Laboratory in East Orange, New Jersey in 1880. The great one is posed in a chair, looking straight ahead just left of center of the photo. Note the many wires draped from cleat insulators on the ceiling and early gas and electric lights.