The Wizard of Menlo Park

by Randall E. Stross

  A man who did odd jobs: David Trumbull Marshall, Recollections of Edison (Boston: Christopher, 1931), 26.

  he first sketched out: “Edison at Home,” Denver Tribune, 25 April 1880, PTAED, SM015018a.

  It was the picture: Marshall, Recollections of Edison, 17–18.

  “The smell was terrific”: Dyer and Martin, Edison, 634–635.

  In early June: Grosvenor Lowrey to Kate Armour, 5 June 1880, HFM & GVRC, Box 10, Folder 34.

  The first bamboo hunter: Dyer and Martin, Edison, 636–637.

  Edison placed the blame: TAE to Vesey Butler, 4 November 1880, PTAED, LB006521.

  another emissary, William Moore, Dyer and Martin, Edison, 300–301. Before departing from San Francisco in October, Moore visited the Columbia and wrote back to Edison that half of the bulbs had burned out, leaving the captain rather desperate for replacements. William Moore to TAE, 17 October 1880, PTAED, D8020ZHY.

  John Branner: Dyer and Martin, Edison, 301–302. Dyer and Martin misspell Branner’s name as “Brauner.” Many decades later, Branner served as president of Stanford University, from 1913 to 1915. Edison funded another bamboo hunter, Frank McGowan, who was sent to Brazil in September 1887 and returned a year and a half later with bamboo and incredible stories of his inland travels. See “Frank McGowan’s Journey Through South American Wilds,” NYS, 2 May 1889, PTAED, MBSB2457.

  Edison designated Menlo Park itself: Francis Upton to Elijah Upton, 9 May 1880, PTAED, MU048.

  The work was well advanced: Friedel and Israel, Edison’s Electric Light, 179.

  In October, Edwin Fox: Edwin Fox to TAE, 22 October 1880, PTAED, D8020ZHZ.

  As far as Edison was concerned: “Electric Light,” NYH, 18 November 1880.

  installed a working exhibition: “Lights for a Great City,” NYT, 21 December 1880.

  Edison must have been upset: George Barker to TAE, 26 November 1880, PTAED, D8020ZJC.

  cartoons that turned: Cartoon captioned “The Decadence of the Wizard of Menlo Park,” General Electric Corporation, 1880, cited in David E. Nye, The Invented Self: An Anti-Biography from Documents of Thomas A. Edison (Odense, Denmark: Odense University Press, 1983), 116–117.

  The Brush Electric Light Company: “The Electric Light,” New York Post, 21 December 1880, PTAED, MBSB21560X; “Rival Electric Lights,” New York Star, 21 December 1880, PTAED, MBSB21559X.

  The debut of Brush lighting: “Lights for a Great City”; “Broadway Illuminated,” NYH, 21 December 1880; “Electric Light,” New York Post.

  Department of Public Works tried: “Electric Light,” New York Post.

  Edison’s consent: Lowrey had Edison handwrite the invitation, which was a very straightforward invitation to see “an exhibition of Electric Lighting,” without reference to a special feast. Letterpress invitation to exhibition of lighting at Menlo Park, 18 December 1880, HFM & GVRC, Box 47, Folder 47–40,

  All were alight: “The Aldermen Visit Edison,” NYT, 21 December 1880.

  Two years before: Jehl, Reminiscences, 690–693.

  one reporter described Edison: “Rival Electric Lights.”

  “That’s the last”: “The Wizard of Menlo Park,” NYH, 21 December 1880.

  It fell to Lowrey: Jehl, Reminiscences, 781–782.

  Edison did not know: “The Aldermen Visit Edison.”

  The guests then followed: “Aldermen at Menlo Park,” New York Truth, 21 December 1880, PTAED, MBSB21557X.

  the aldermen would not back down: “Lightning over Snow,” NYH, 20 January 1881, PTAED, MBSB21573.

  Brush Electric had not had to pay: “The Aldermen and the Electric Light,” NYH, 21 January 1881, PTAED, MBSB21571X.

  He also made noises: Charles Bazerman, The Languages of Edison’s Light (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1999), 226.

  His representatives: Friedel and Israel, Edison’s Electric Light, 207.

  In the meantime: Ibid., 192–193.

  on Fifth Avenue: Jehl, Reminiscences, 924.

  With the installation of a gas-powered power plant: Edward Johnson to Uriah Painter, 9 February 1881, PTAE, 5:983–984.

  In early February 1881: Ibid.

  At the end of the month: Jehl, Reminiscences, 926.

  make himself available: Samuel Insull, The Memoirs of Samuel Insull: An Autobiography, ed. Larry Plachno (Polo, Ill.: Transportation Trails, 1992), 32.

  he would do wicked impressions: Jehl, Reminiscences, 996.

  In its first year: Dyer and Martin, Edison, 361.

  The Menlo Park laboratory: Jehl, Reminiscences, 862.

  CHAPTER 6. IMMERSION

  Only “the very rich”: James D. McCabe, New York by Sunlight and Gaslight (Philadelphia: Douglass Bros.; repr. by Greenwich House, 1882; 1984 repr.), 62–63.

  Edison had drawn up blueprints: Commerford Martin, Forty Years of Edison Service, 1882–1922 (New York: New York Edison Press, 1922), 34.

  When the directors: TAE to George Gouraud, 7 March 1881, PTAED, LB008024. This letter book copy is exceedingly difficult to read. A typeset and annotated copy is provided in PTAE, 5:996–997.

  Etna Iron Works: Roach’s property was located on Goerck Street, a street that later disappeared in the course of urban renewal.

  The two partners decided: Jehl, Reminiscences, 744.

  One reporter marveled: “The Doom of Gas,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 1 May 1882, PTAED, MBSB52192.

  The family doctor: Leslie D. Ward to TAE, 18 January 1882, PTAED, D8214C.

  Often he napped on the premises: Dyer and Martin, Edison, 400.

  He insisted on custom building: Friedel and Israel, Edison’s Electric Light, 173.

  Edison had originally planned: Dyer and Martin, Edison, 385.

  H. O. Thompson, the city’s commissioner of public works: Ibid., 393.

  They read in the newspaper: “Killed by an Electric Shock,” NYT, 11 August 1881, reprinted from the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, 8 August 1881.

  In England: Untitled article in Morning Advertiser, 10 January 1882, PTAED, MBSB51975.

  a German proposed building: “A Chair for Criminals,” NYT, 28 July 1881.

  Edison’s company: “Underground Wires,” Bulletin of the Edison Electric Light Company, no. 4 (24 February 1882), 9.

  fibrillation follows: Today, defibrillators apply a jolt of electric current to the chest to restart the heart’s regular beating pattern, but it is direct current that supplies the corrective shock.

  When the Pearl Street station: Jehl, Reminiscences, 1059–1061.

  The police officers present: Dyer and Martin, Edison, 408–409.

  the newspapers had received word: Jehl, Reminiscences, 1059–1061.

  The president of Edison Electric: “Horses Shocked,” NYT, 25 August 1882.

  Edison was privately telling Charles Clarke: Jehl, Reminiscences, 1059–1061. Faulty Edison Electric lines beneath the street knocked horses down in an incident a few years later. Here, too, “people who saw the affair thought it was very funny.” See “Horses Thrown Down,” NYT, 2 June 1889. The problem of street-level electrical shocks is not merely a curiosity of that early era. On 16 January 2004, a young woman, Jodie Lane, was electrocuted while walking her dogs in the East Village. The dogs stepped on a metal plate that was electrified by stray current; they survived, but Lane did not. Regrettably, Major Eaton’s inclination to deny, deny, deny lives on in his latter-day successors in New York City. Consolidated Edison was less than forthcoming about the origins of the accident, and reporters uncovered 539 complaints of electrical jolts delivered by the streets of New York in the five years preceding Lane’s death, only a small portion of which had been reported to the city authorities. “Con Ed’s Shocking Plea for Mercy,” New York Daily News, 13 March 2004. Lane’s family reached a $7.2 million settlement with Con Ed, which included $1 million that funded a scholarship in the victim’s name at Columbia University. “Utility Will Pay $7.2 Million in Electrocution,” NYT, 24 November 2004.

  The Bulletin: “Danger from Gas,” Bulletin of the Edison
Electric Light Company, no. 6 (27 March 1882), PTAED, CB006:4–5; “Danger from Gas,” Bulletin of the Edison Electric Light Company, no. 7 (17 April 1882): 9–10.

  the simple physical fact: “Light Ahead,” Los Angeles Times, 12 February 1882.

  The gas industry: Untitled article, Morning Advertiser, 10 January 1882, PTAED, MBSB51975.

  An electric corset: “A New Use of Electricity,” NYT, 12 January 1882.

  The prospective advantages: Owen Gill to TAE, 27 January 1881, PTAED, D8120X.

  Such installations: TAE to Owen Gill, 29 January 1881, PTAED, LB006874.

  One New York company: “Hinds, Ketcham & Co., New York,” Edison Electric Light Company Bulletin (24 February 1882), PTAED, CB004:2.

  The Blue Mountain House: Dyer and Martin, Edison, 446.

  Brush was selling: “The Electric Light,” New York Post, 1 December 1881, PTAED, MBSB41778.

  In the three months: “Edison’s Electric Light,” NYT, 1 March 1881.

  The laying of the mains: “The Electric Light,” New York Post.

  a new possibility had appeared: Peter Tocco, “The Night They Turned the Lights on in Wabash,” Indiana Magazine of History 95 (December 1999): 352.

  In San Jose: Charles M. Coleman, P.G. & E. of California: The Centennial Story of Pacific Gas and Electric Company, 1852–1952 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1952), 72–74. The public subscription raised $3,456, but construction costs turned out to be more than expected and the tower was sold in 1882 to the San Jose Brush Electric Company. See “The Day the Tower Fell,” San Jose Mercury News, 18 September 1884.

  Wild fowl crashed: “The Famous Old Electric Tower,” San Jose Mercury News, 14 March 1965.

  In Detroit: Raymond Miller, Kilowatts at Work: A History of the Detroit Edison Company (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1984), 33.

  A British observer: “The Tower System of Lighting Towns,” Electrical Engineer, February 1885, 129.

  Wabash, the pioneer: Tocco, “The Night They Turned the Lights on in Wabash,” 352.

  shall search the roads: “Light Ahead,” Los Angeles Times, 12 February 1882.

  When a history of Detroit: George B. Catlin, The Story of Detroit (Detroit: Detroit News, 1923), 608.

  The only way Edison Electric: E. A. Mills, “The Development of Electric Sign Lighting,” Transactions of the Illuminating Engineering Society 15:6 (30 August 1920): 370–371.

  Edison was able to test: Friedel and Israel, Edison’s Electric Light, 217–218.

  Edison deployed: Dyer and Martin, Edison, 385–386.

  He also learned: “The Electric Light in Houses,” Harper’s Weekly, 24 June 1882, 394.

  In May 1882: “The Doom of Gas,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 1 May 1882, PTAED, MBSB52192.

  Edison also boasted: Ibid.

  William Vanderbilt was the first: Dyer and Martin, Edison, 373–374.

  The unhappy ending: “Doom of Gas.”

  J. P. Morgan wanted Edison: Herbert L. Satterlee, J. Pierpoint Morgan: An Intimate Portrait (New York: Macmillan, 1939), 207–208. The engineer’s technical expertise was needed to make repairs. Problems began on the very first day of operation, when a defective aperture threw off a shower of sparks. See Sherburne Eaton to TAE, 8 June 1882, PTAED, D8226S.

  The generating plant: Satterlee, J. Pierpoint Morgan, 208.

  Morgan prized: Ibid., 212–215.

  In Appleton, Wisconsin: Forrest McDonald, Let There Be Light: The Electric Utility Industry in Wisconsin, 1881–1955 (Madison, Wis.: American History Research Center, 1957), 35–36.

  It could have been ready: Ibid., 15.

  not all portions: “Edison’s Illuminators,” NYH, 5 September 1882, PTAED, SM016006b.

  On the afternoon of 4 September 1882: Friedel and Israel, Edison’s Electric Light, 222. The Herald places Edison in the Pearl Street workshop, not in Morgan’s office, when the power was turned on. “Edison’s Illuminators,” NYH, 5 September 1882, PTAED, SM016006b.

  It received the most complete coverage: “Edison’s Electric Light,” NYT, 5 September 1882.

  The official beginning: “Edison’s Illuminators.”

  It had taken four long years: Charles Bazerman, The Languages of Edison’s Light (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1999), 233–234.

  At the time of the first announcement: “Edison’s Newest Marvel,” NYS, 16 September 1878, PTAED, SB032123a.

  After a few weeks: “Edison’s Electric Light,” NYS, 20 October 1878, PTAED, MBSB20963.

  Characteristically, Edison announced: “Edison’s Electric Light,” NYH, 3 December 1878, PTAED, MBSB21047; Friedel and Israel, Edison’s Electric Light, 64.

  The only shortcoming: Harold Passer, The Electrical Manufacturers, 1875–1900 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1953), 183.

  Edison Electric did not charge: Dyer and Martin, Edison, 409.

  Short circuits: Jehl, Reminiscences, 1083–1084. Short circuits beneath New York’s streets produced sights more unusual than this. Almost twenty years later, a short circuit in an electric trolley sent up through the trolley’s street-level slot a sheet of flame four feet tall that traveled up the street. Fortunately, there were no injuries. “Electric Display at Bridge,” NYT, 4 October 1902.

  Some customers seemed: T. A. Edison, “Introduction,” in Edison Construction Department, “Questions for Central Stations Engineers,” 1883, PTAED, CD001: image 42.

  One such customer: Dyer and Martin, Edison, 437.

  J. P. Morgan: Martin, Forty Years of Edison Service, 61–62; Dyer and Martin, Edison, 410–411.

  The initial data: Martin, Forty Years of Edison Service, 66–67.

  He had said the previous year: “Doom of Gas.”

  Two months after Edison Electric: “Edison and His Light” clipping from unidentified publication [but likely a Port Huron, Michigan, newspaper], 13 March 1883, PTAED, D8320D1.

  After a year: Martin, Forty Years of Edison Service, 66–67.

  To Edison’s credit: Jehl, Reminiscences, 936.

  The second district: Passer, Electrical Manufacturers, 120.

  the nation’s first hydropower plant: McDonald, Let There Be Light, 35–37.

  The only line of products: Forrest McDonald, Insull (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), 29–30.

  he was invited to Boston: Jehl, Reminiscences, 997–998.

  CHAPTER 7. STARTING ANEW

  She was plagued: Paul Israel corrects a mistake perpetuated by previous biographers who assumed Edison was referring to his ailing wife when he telegraphed Samuel Insull in April 1884: “Send trained man nurse who is not afraid of person out of mind. Send as soon as possible.” TAE to Samuel Insull, telegram, 7 April 1884, PTAED, D8414F. Israel says the nurse was needed not for Mary but for her father, who died two days later. Israel, Edison, 232. We do have fragmentary evidence, however, that at that same time Mary was unwell, too, such as her complaint that “I am so awfully sick I am afraid…. My head is nearly splitting and my throat is very sore.” Mary Edison to Samuel Insull, 30 April 1884, PTAED, D8414I.

  what her doctor termed: Robert Lozier to John Tomlinson, 9 August 1884, PTAED, D8414O1.

  His daughter Marion: Marion Edison Oser reminiscences, quoted in Israel, Edison, 230. Israel suggests that Edison “felt a sense of guilt for the long, hard hours he had worked at the expense of his family.”

  Mary’s mother, Margaret: Conot, Streak of Luck, 22; Madeleine Sloane, Oral History, 1 December 1972, ENHS, Interview #1, 18.

  newspapers and magazines: Wyn Wachhorst, Thomas Alva Edison: An American Myth (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1981), 44–45.

  A book about prominent New Yorkers: Stephen Fiske, Off-Hand Portraits of Prominent New Yorkers (New York: Geo. R. Lockwood & Son, 1884), 108.

  With Edison’s blessing: Jehl, Reminiscences, 1000.

  marched down Madison Avenue: “Electrical Stunts in 1884,” Edison Monthly, October 1925, 237–238.

  the “Edison Darkey”: “The Edison Exhibit at the Philadelphia Electrical Exhibit
ion,” Scientific American, 18 October 1884, 246.

  One report said: “Electrical Stunts in 1884.”

  Longtime Edison associate William Hammer: Electrical Diablerie, n.d., Smithsonian/National Museum of American History, William J. Hammer Collection. The pamphlet credits two primary sources: NYW, 3 January 1885, and Newark Daily Advertising and Journal, 3 January 1885. The Smithsonian has placed the full text of the pamphlet online; see http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/d8069d.htm.

  Edison wrote privately: Dagobert D. Runes, ed., The Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas Alva Edison (1948; reprint, New York: Greenwood Press, 1968), 29.

  Reading a headline: “John Roach Embarrassed,” NYT, 19 July 1885.

  Just a year before: TAE to John Roach, 25 June 1884, PTAED, LBCD7013.

  William Croffut, the reporter: W. A. Croffut, “Edison’s Latest Invention,” Omaha Bee, 20 June 1885, PTAED, SB017010a.

  a director of the company: “Overhead Wires,” Philadelphia Press, 31 May 1885, PTAED, SB017083b and SB017014a.

  let go of the captain’s chair: In the summer and fall of 1884, Edison’s twenty-two-year-old assistant Samuel Insull had conducted a brilliant and successful proxy fight that bested J. P. Morgan and secured his employer’s control of the board. Forrest McDonald, Insull (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), 31–32.

  he asked his old friend: Israel, Edison, 234.

  the two men founded: Ibid., 237.

  William Croffut obligingly offered: “The Wizard Edison,” Chicago Tribune, 30 April 1885, PTAED, SM062040. This wireless technology is more interesting today perhaps than it would have been then. The technology relied upon the principle of induction, so cannot be said to be a direct antecedent of today’s cell phones or wireless broadband. But it does offer an early instance of the quest to employ electricity to communicate while on the move.

  Edison directed Samuel Insull: TAE to Samuel Insull, n.d. [early May 1885], PTAED, D8503ZEX.

  In his note of thanks: William Croffut to Samuel Insull, 15 May 1885, PTAED, D8541M.

  Edison had sent the shares: TAE to Samuel Insull, n.d. [early May 1885], PTAED, D8503ZEX.

  Insull soon concluded: Samuel Insull to TAE, 29 March 1886, PTAED, LB021464.