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In one of the first public miracles attributed to Jesus, the Gospel of John describes a certain “wedding at Cana (in Galilee)” where Christ, Mother Mary, and a few disciples were in attendance. As the marriage feast continued, the stewards found that the wine for the guests was running out. When this came to Mary’s notice, she turned to her son, and asked him to help the bride and groom. Jesus then asked for several containers to be filled with water, with a small portion being drawn out and presented to the chief steward for sampling. When the man tasted the liquid, lo and behold, he pronounced it the finest quality wine.
A similar miracle, albeit of a scientific and not spiritual nature, was ascribed to Thomas Alva Edison. On a Monday morning in April of 1878, readers of The Daily Graphic periodical awoke to a news report that would not have been amiss in one of Jules Verne’s novels. “A Food Creator”, proclaimed a headline in bold typeface. Below, in a slightly smaller font, there was an explanation of sorts: “Edison Invents A Machine That Will Feed The Human Race”.
The journalist was a William Croffut, who breathlessly reported on a memorable dining experience that he had just partaken of. He had been served a most wondrous meal, complete with a meat-based main course (headcheese — cold cut or meat jelly — of woodcock), a coffee-like drink, and a jelly dessert. This menu, however, was not from some fashionable establishment favoured by the upper crust. Instead, Croffut had dined in the rather more academic environs of the Menlo Park laboratory of Thomas Alva Edison.
Imagine the scene if you will: the wood-furnished room with several long work tables taking up most of the floorspace, the walls lined with shelves of neatly categorised substances and chemicals in glass containers, mystical-looking glass and wood implements balanced carefully on the tables. In his chair, Edison — the darling of American society thanks to his invention of the phonograph — seated calmly as he took in Croffut’s enthused response to the dishes set before him. Croffut brimming over with questions for Edison, and recording them verbatim for the benefit of The Daily Graphic’s audience.
For there was much to make note of: unlike the culinary marvels a chef would whip up, there was something very unusual about Edison’s dishes. You see, the ingredients list for them read simply: “earth, water and air”. Croffut reported that Edison had devised a machine that could produce biscuits, meat like the one he had eaten, vegetables and wine out of air, water and “common earth”. Cereal could be manufactured using soil. This wasn’t the full extent of the machine’s fantastical powers: somehow, Edison had also harnessed the power of alchemy to it, such that it could transform even "cornmeal into gold dust".
Several American newspapers rushed to follow in the footsteps of The Daily Graphic and came up with their own editorials and thinkpieces on the subject of Edison’s food machine — an invention that had put the solution to global hunger within easy grasp. It was altogether a sensation.
Except — readers had missed a critical detail about the Daily Graphic edition in which Croffut’s story had appeared: the date. The story came out on April 1st and was nothing more than an elaborate hoax. Croffut and Edison enjoyed a warm friendship, and the latter had sportingly participated in the prank. There was no marvellous food machine; although Edison did have another (real) world-changing invention in the works, which he unveiled in 1879 — the light bulb.
