ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Volta Laboratory and Bureau

Okay kiddo, have you ever heard of a famous inventor named Thomas Edison? He was a really smart guy who came up with lots of cool ideas, like the light bulb and the phonograph. Well, he used to have a place where he and his team of helpers would work on their inventions. They called it the "Volta Laboratory and Bureau."

The "Volta" part of the name comes from a scientist named Alessandro Volta, who was famous for inventing the battery. Edison's laboratory was called "Volta" because they did a lot of work with electricity there, and batteries are a way to store electricity.

The "Bureau" part of the name just means that they had an office there too. It was like a workspace where Edison and his team could sit down and plan out their inventions.

At the Volta Laboratory and Bureau, Edison and his helpers worked on all sorts of things related to electricity and sound. They made improvements to the telephone, which was a new invention at the time, and they even created a machine that could record and play back sound (that's the phonograph).

So, in short, the Volta Laboratory and Bureau was a place where a really smart guy named Thomas Edison and his team of helpers worked on cool inventions like the light bulb, the phonograph, and improvements to the telephone.