My friend told me that Thomas Edison had a gate to his property that was very difficult to open because the gate was set up to pump a gallon of water from his well to his house. Is this true?
does anyone know anything about this???
I heard a similar story once, so you’re not the only tree falling in the forest.
Eh, not that I can see. Way TMI. Give us a hint?
Ace, we’re not ignoring you, I think you just stumped the panel. Not everything’s on the Internet. I did look around on Google when you first posted this (Wednesday night?), but nothing came up. I think we’re talking “serious library book-type research” here.
Is there money riding on this?
I just sent an e-mail to the site that *Doublemint gave.
Supposedly they will search for the answer to questions unless they take more than one hour.
If anyone should know, they oughta.
Got a prompt response from the archive at Edison’s home/lab in NJ. The answer is “no” as far as they know.
WTG, Sam! 
I’ve heard the story as well, but about Thomas Jefferson, not Edison. Alas, I was also unable to find anything on Google.
Very odd, I would think. Even if this is just an urban legend, one can usually at least find re-tellings of such on the Web.
And just got a reply from Edison’s winter home in Fl.
They said they know nothing about it but
I then lectured her on how much mis-information is contained in “Guide’s scripts” at historic sites.
Well, I’m off to e-mail Monticello, per Chronos’ suggestion about Jefferson.
Ok people, let’s get real here. Someone please calculate the effective amount of excedent work which can be done by someone pushing on a gate and apply that to pumping water from a reasonable depth and see how much water you get after opening the gate a reasonable number of times per day. My guess is that it is so ridiculously small that it is not worth the trouble or the investment.
I have seen water pumped by hand and it takes a lot of work to pump water. The gate pump sounds like a fanciful UL to me.
As another postscript, I believe I have heard the story FROM a guide, presumably following their script. IIRC, it would be the guide at Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village, where a replica of Edison’s Menlo Park laboratory resides.