New Jersey Books

While Thomas Edison was a product of the 19th Century and patented his incandescent light bulb in 1879, he lived until 1931 and worked on inventing and industry until very near the end. He befriended icons of 20th Century such as Henry Ford and his reputation glowed in the popular culture of my youth in the 1960s. While his presence in the popular culture has faded somewhat, his reputation and what he contributed to our modern way of life should remain. This fine book presents a couple of hundred pictures taken from the archives of the Edison National Historic Site. The book is in seven sections:

The Early Years (1847-1875)
Menlo Park Laboratory (1876-1882)
West Orange Laboratory (1887-1931)
The Phonograph and Motion Pictures (1886-1930)
Edison in World War I (1914-1918)
Family and Friends (1871-1931)
Fame and Legacy

We see Edison from his youth through his funeral. We see him in his labs with his fellow insomniacs and many of his projects. You know about the light bulb, phonograph, and his work in movies. Did you know about the process he developed to crush rock containing low amounts of iron ore and pulled it out using magnetism? What about his attempts to build low cost, good looking, and sturdy concrete homes?

Not everything Edison attempted was a success. The talking doll he made that used a miniature phonograph was too fragile for practical use and had to be recalled, as did his type E batteries. Nor did he optimize his return from every invention (he was granted more than 1,000 patents). In fact, he lost some battles. For example, he wanted to power the world with direct current, but for many reasons alternating current became the standard we use today.

The book also shows us his family life. His first wife, Mary, died young and they had two sons and a daughter together. He married Mina and they were together the rest of his life. They also had three children.

All of the pictures are fascinating, but I love the cubic foot of copper on page 40. The copper industry wanted to thank the man who had done so much to create demand for electric wires, motors, and so forth. They asked him what gift he would enjoy and he asked for a cubic foot of solid copper. Edison knew how difficult that would be to cast and it took them eleven tries before they got it right and gave it to him on October 13, 1911.

The captions are terrific, as are the helpful section introductions. These were written Leonard DeGraaf who is an archivist at the Edison National Historic Site. This is a very well done book and will help its readers to become more familiar with the very important Thomas Alva Edison. Well done!

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

The author of this book is my high school swim coach, and is an incredible man. He is the most knowledgeable man in any field that i have ever encountered. This book is an incredible piece of literature, with an unheard of amount of information. Bruce Johnson is of amazing character and dedication, and I would request that you order this book, if not for sheer respect for a man so highly regarded in the world of high school swimming.

Expecting a dry and unreadable account of a modern physics department, Allen Robbins history of Rutgers University Physics was a most enjoyable read.

It tracks both the key developments in physics, alongside the efforts of a major University to both keep up and stay ahead of changes in knowledge.

Also of interest are the challenges of maintaining support for basic science and research which must contend with other claims on university resources.

The Robbins account serves as a good example of an important component of modern intellctual history.

5 stars

I live in New York and found this guide to be a very useful resource

An excellent resource guide for those interested in holistic health care. This guide covers contacts on every issue from naturopathy to chiropractic care. This guide is so interesting and can increase your interest in alternative healing such as crystals, etc.

This excellent book is full of great facts about people from New Jersey who were successes in the film and television industry. Since I was born and raised in New Jersey and transplanted near Hollywood for the last decade, never have I thought that so many of my past "neighbors" made their debut in movie star city. I loved reading about various singers like Frank Sinatra and Bruce Springsteen, comedians like Abbott and Costello and Rodney Dangerfield, actors like Danny DeVito and Kelly Ripa, and the shows like Ozzie and Harriet, inventors, producers, writers, editors, and even trivia like George Burns meeting Gracie Allen and getting their start on stage in NJ. The book just doesn't talk about films and acting, but also demonstrates the great technological inventions and advances in the film and TV industry. It was fun to read and is not just for New Jersey residents. You will learn about Hollywood history and behind the scenes. This book puts to shame all the jokes about New Jersey, and truly confirms the state as the small and mighty. I congratulate Mr. Tobin on writing a remarkable book that is more than just words, but on true passion and dreams. He displays positive images about the Garden State and the thousand plus celebrities! Outstanding.

Alloway Creek is a tributary of the Delaware River in Salem County, southwestern New Jersey in the U.S.

The headwaters of the creek are to the southeast of Daretown, in Upper Pittsgrove Township. It flows roughly parallel and to the south of Commissioners Pike, meeting Cool Run before turning west and flowing under the pike. Entering a marshy area, it meets an unnamed tributary and flows under Alloway Road. Here the creek enters Alloway Lake, formed by a dam at the town of Alloway and the largest lake in Salem County. Cedar Brook also feeds the lake, entering from the south.

Below the dam at Alloway, the creek becomes a tidal marsh and meadow estuary. About a mile west of the dam, Deep Run enters from the south. The meanders of the creek become pronounced as the creek turns to flow southwest towards Quinton, where it receives the outlet of Laurel Lake, the water supply for Salem. Route 49 crosses the creek at Quinton. Below Hancock's Bridge, the creek enters the marshes fringing the Delaware. A network of estuarine channels known as Abbotts Meadow lies on the north side. On the south side, a channel has been cut across a meander; Alloway Hope Halfway, a tidal channel connecting with Hope Creek, enters the south side of the meander loop there. The island in the middle of the loop and the land on the south bank from the meander to the mouth are part of Mad Horse Creek Wildlife Management Area.

The Alloway Creek watershed is 75 square miles (194 sq km), accounting for about 20% of Salem County land area, and providing a habitat essential for commercial and sport fishing, hunting and trapping.

A volunteer organization called Delaware Riverkeeper has a monitoring site at the Route 49 bridge in Quinton. As of 1995, Riverkeepers regularly tested the surface water and recorded stream conditions. The goal of Riverkeeper is to ensure that the Delaware River and every tributary stream of the watershed is actively protected by local residents.

This guide was of invaluable assistance to me in forming my new corporation. It makes what can be a daunting task seem relatively simple: it is clearly written, well-organized, and extremely thorough, and its tone is friendly and encouraging. Not only does it have the (correct!) phone numbers, addresses, and fax numbers for all the relevant filing agencies, but any forms that you might need are available electronically, at no additional cost, from the author. Staff is also available by phone to answer questions; I called several times and found them to be consistenly helpful and responsive. I can't recommend this book highly enough if you are planning to start your own business!

This is a valuable book (resource) for budding entrepreneurs. It seems to try to cover all the bases for starting a small business, but it can't do them all well in the space available between its covers. The book is only 288 pages long. If you are in the planning stages of starting a small business, then I highly recommend you get a copy of this book. Read it, study it, and outline it. There are helpful checklists to help you grasp the subjects. You will come up with a plethora of keywords and terms that you will want to google to find Web pages giving more detailed (and maybe more current) information.

I am a SCORE counselor (Senior Corps of Retired Executives) who typically does face-to-face counseling sessions three nights a month. It would really be neat if my clients would read this book BEFORE they came to their session with me because they would pretty much be "educated customers" ready to ask educated questions. Our sessions would be so much more beneficial.

My favorite chapters were:

1. Initial business concerns
2. Your business' structure
3. Business start-up details
5. Sources of business assistance (SCORE is mentioned here)
7. Your smart business plan (and a good sample plan is included)
8. Obtaining the financing you need

The book is weak when it comes to how the Internet can be used in corresponding, hiring, and marketing. But this is just one example of how googling keywords and concepts found in the book will make the book more complete. Don't treat the book as authoritative on the law. It isn't. Nor was it ever intended to be. It is light on tax information as it relates to small business.

I was particularly impressed with the material presented in Chapter 2: Choice of Legal Entity. That subject is sorely ignored in most small business books, and it is critically important. It is a subject I regularly must spend a great deal of time discussing at my SCORE sessions. This book does a pretty good job on the topic.

Chapters 4 and 9 through 12 are easy to find fault with. The topic of each could fill a book. But having these topics covered definitely will help a budding entrepreneur know some of the issues they raise.

I would have liked the book more if Chapter 6 (marketing) had been less superficial. When I read it I got the impression that the author was more a public relations expert than a marketing expert. I generally categorize public relations as a subset of marketing. Marketing includes advertising, public relations, and a whole host of other promotion techniques. I did not get this message when I read the book. I also would have liked the book better if the Internet, email, and Web sites had been discussed more. But there are many books on those subjects. Therefore, I can't complain too much about the limited discussion of computers.

When you read this book it may feel a little like it was produced on an assembly line. Maybe it was? There are 50 versions of this book sold; the only state I haven't found a copy for is Montana. Content is king, and this book has it. 5 stars!

I'm from the Left Bank so I was able to recognize most of the landmarks. This book is great for anybody interested in the history of the greater NYC area. Being from West New York, NJ made this book a must have for both my brother and I.