homas Edison invented the phonograph, the incandescent light — and a patented system for concrete homes. Displaying a model at the 1907 Cement Show in the Chicago Coliseum, the Wizard of Menlo Park believed he was paving the way for a mass-produced, $1,200 house that would be poured into molds in six hours and dried in six days. Although he once cast the houses as “my greatest invention,” Edison abandoned the idea after the concrete proved undesirable — the molds cost $175,000, and the invention he boasted was “almost bomb-proof” resisted remodeling efforts without the aid of dynamite. But almost 100 years later, at least 10 prototypes still stand. Highlighted at venues such as the International Builders’ Show, concrete homes now account for 17.5 percent of new housing starts in 2005.
homas Edison invented the phonograph, the incandescent light — and a patented system for concrete homes. Displaying a model at the 1907 Cement Show in the Chicago Coliseum, the Wizard of Menlo Park believed he was paving the way for a mass-produced, $1,200 house that would be poured into molds in six hours and dried in six days. Although he once cast the houses as “my greatest invention,” Edison abandoned the idea after the concrete proved undesirable — the molds cost $175,000, and the invention he boasted was “almost bomb-proof” resisted remodeling efforts without the aid of dynamite. But almost 100 years later, at least 10 prototypes still stand. Highlighted at venues such as the International Builders’ Show, concrete homes now account for 17.5 percent of new housing starts in 2005. 
