Edison met: New Orleans Picayune, 8 February 1886, PTAED, SB017124d. The clipping is untitled.
Edison invited Insull: TAE to Samuel Insull, 27 June 1885, PTAED, D8503ZBD. Edison failed to make his verb agree with the plural subject; he also omitted “of” after “lots.”
entertainment of the group: Edison refers at one point to the guests sitting around a table while making individual entries. Sharing must have begun before the ink was dry; Edison declared another’s efforts “very witty.” Runes, Diary, 20.
The first entry: Ibid., 3.
a later entry: Ibid., 22.
Edison reported: Ibid., 6–7, 8.
he submitted out of fear: Ibid., 14. On p. 29 he again refers to the shirts: “Donned a boiled and starched emblem of respectability.”
a book by Hawthorne: Ibid., 4.
two suicides: Ibid., 10.
his description of a clerk: Ibid., 31–32.
Edison’s trip into town: Ibid., 17.
When Marion showed her father: Ibid., 6–7.
Edison thinks Marion’s jealousy: Ibid., 22.
Edison had noticed: Ibid., 16.
A contemporary newspaper: New Orleans Picayune, 8 February 1886.
The first meeting: The two men could not have gotten to know each other very well, or Miller would not have had so much to tell his daughter two years later, after a stay with Edison that afforded “a better opportunity to get acquainted with him.” Lewis Miller to Mina Miller Edison, 26 April 1887, PTAED, FH001AAA.
traveled farther upstate: Israel, Edison, 247.
Looking back on the trip: “Autobiographical,” in Runes, Diary, 54–55.
story from family lore: Lillian P. Warren, interview transcript, 2 July 1973, ENHS, 3. Warren was the niece of Lillian Gilliland, Ezra T. Gilliland’s wife.
Edison said that Miller tapped back: “Autobiographical,” in Runes, Diary, 54–55.
Edison formally wrote: TAE to Lewis Miller, 30 September 1885, PTAED, B037AA. Paul Israel points out the possibility that Insull helped with the letter. Insull was a skilled writer and Edison was not. Insull’s role would explain how the letter was polished to a high gloss. Israel, Edison, 247.
Reporters were present: “Mr. Edison’s Wedding,” NYT, 25 February 1886. Edison was accompanied by his closest colleagues, including Insull, Edward Johnson, Charles Batchelor, and Sigmund Bergmann.
train trip south: “Edison to Invent a Cotton-Picker,” NYW, 27 February 1886, PTAED, SB017119c.
each entry dated: For an example, see the entry about incandescent bulbs for 18 March 1886 in PTAED, N314003.
she commuted daily: Norman Speiden, transcript of ENHS tour, 8 January 1971, ENHS, 24.
after almost forty years: Martha Coman and Hugh Weir, “The Most Difficult Husband in America,” Collier’s, 18 July 1925.
She weighed the advantages: Ibid.
planned suburban community: Samuel Swift, “Llewellyn Park: The First American Suburban Community,” House and Garden, June 1903,327. Llewellyn Haskell, the community’s founder, belonged to a religious group self-named the Perfectionists. For an early contemporaneous account of the community’s founding, see “Llewellyn Park,” NYT, 23 April 1865.
Henry Pedder: “Mr. Pedder’s Luxurious Habits,” NYT, 19 July 1884. Pedder was a longtime employee of the Arnold, Constable & Company department store (“Everything from Cradle to Grave”). He was a clerk, not a principal, but by dint of his seniority, he was privy to all the financial details of the business. The New York newspapers savored the story, but did not explain why no one at Arnold, Constable had wondered before then how a clerk earning $30,000 a year had managed to pay cash for a home that cost at least $200,000.
The real estate agent: Edward P. Hamilton & Co. to TAE, 12 January 1886, PTAED, D8603L.
So eager was the department store: W. A. Croffut, Interview with TAE, New York Mail and Express, 8 October 1887, cited in Nerney, Edison, 277. The price of $125,000 is the amount listed in the county records. See Kristin S. Herron, The House at Glenmont: Historic Furnishings Report I (West Orange, N.J.: National Park Service, Edison National Historic Site, 1998), 14n16.
exhibition space: In the 1990s, Bill Gates, uneasy about the expense of his own budget-busting family home, wanted the public to know that its Tomorrowland furnishings would help Microsoft show company guests the way to the future. Bill Gates, Nathan Myhrvold, and Peter Rinearson, The Road Ahead: Completely Revised and Up to Date (New York: Penguin, 1996), 249–258.
Chandeliers had gas burners: Charles Edison, Oral History, 14 April 1953, ENHS.
Speaking tubes: Theodore M. Edison, Oral History, 26 July 1970, ENHS.
He wrote in his diary: Runes, Diary, 8.
The three-story main building: TAE to James Hood Wright, August 1887 [conjectured], PTAED, NA011005.
When his fund-raising efforts petered out: Andre Millard, Edison and the Business of Invention (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), 46, 54–55.
About this time she directed: Herron, House at Glenmont, 18, 19. The list of household staff members is based on a note written in September 1892, which also included mention of a nurse, a position that was likely added after the birth of Madeleine.
Earlier, in 1887: Lewis Miller to Mina Miller Edison, 26 April 1887, PTAED, FH001AAA,
After spending about $180,000: TAE to Henry Villard, 19 January 1888, PTAED, D8805AAI.
When Edison subsequently revised: Israel, Edison, 269.
In 1884: Fiske, Off-Hand Portraits, 113.
After reviewing the legal issues: TAE to Edward H. Johnson [conjectured], 22 November 1887, PTAED, D8750AAK.
The Graphophone Company, for its part: Tate, Edison’s Open Door, 135–136, 139.
Company officials tried: George Gouraud to TAE, 2 July 1887, PTAED, D8751AAA.
He fired off a tart note: TAE to George Gouraud, 21 July 1887, PTAED, D8751AAB.
Gouraud congratulated Edison: George Gouraud to TAE, 1 August 1887, PTAED, D8751AAC,
Alfred Tate, a senior manager: Tate, Edison’s Open Door, 136.
Edison spoke dismissively: Ibid., 138.
A story made the rounds: Proceedings of the First Annual Convention of Local Phonograph Companies (Nashville, Tenn.: Country Music Foundation Press, 1890 [reprint 1974]), 110–112. A business magazine, Manufacturer and Builder, attempted to sort out the conflicting claims of the two sides. After reviewing the relevant patents, it declared unequivocally that it was indeed Tainter, not Edison, who deserved the credit for the principal improvement, which was successfully using wax as the recording medium. “The Graphophone,” Manufacturer and Builder, August 1888, 177.
Tate described the scene: Tate, Edison’s Open Door, 155. The two men referred to in the quoted passage were Thomas Dolan and Thomas Cochrane.
The Edison phonographs that were produced: Ezra Gilliland to TAE, 16 December 1887, PTAED, D8750AAU.
When the press heard: “Edison Was Out $250,000,” New York News, 18 January 1889, PTAED, SB019002E. The actual amount would have been half that reported, or $125,000.
Edison was shocked: Tate, Edison’s Open Door, 172.
Even though Edison announced: “Perfected Phonograph,” Manufacturer and Builder, June 1888, 128.
he continued to tinker: Alfred Tate to Frank McGowan, 2 July 1888, PTAED, D8818AOH.
Edison privately told Batchelor: TAE to Charles Batchelor, 7 May 1889, PTAED, LB029325.
The governor of Wyoming: Proceedings of the First Annual Convention of Local Phonograph Companies, 73.
A distributor in New York: Ibid., 191–192.
The Atlantic Monthly: Philip G. Hubert Jr., “The New Talking-Machines,” Atlantic Monthly, February 1889, 258.
Edison, however, was exasperated: TAE to Charles Batchelor, 7 May 1889, PTAED, LB029325.
“I was the ‘dog’”: Tate, Edison’s Open Door, 161. The same image would reappear in the contemporary software industry, when employees at Microsoft, for example, would “eat our own dog food,” usi
ng the prerelease version of their software for their own regular work, not just in artificial tests.
He noticed that acids: Ibid., 161–162.
Eight thousand Edison machines: Ibid., 247–248.
Quality problems: Proceedings of the First Annual Convention of Local Phonograph Companies, 36, 39.
At the first convention: Ibid., 195.
did not give the business issues as much attention: Millard, Edison and the Business of Invention, 81.
Tate speculated: Tate, Edison’s Open Door, 302.
talking doll: “Dolls That Really Talk,” New York Evening Sun, 22 November 1888, PTAED, SC88130a.
In the spring of 1890: “Edison’s Phonographic Doll,” Scientific American, 26 April 1890, 263.
He and toy distributors: “A Boom That Collapsed,” Philadelphia Times, 2 January 1891, PTAED, SC91001A.
On a parallel track: Tate, Edison’s Open Door, 247–248.
Edison had declared publicly: “Wizard Edison at Home,” NYW, 17 November 1889, PTAED, MBSB62500.
CHAPTER 8. BATTLE LOST
Edison had earned a reputation: Josephson, Edison, 428. Josephson does not provide a source for the quotation and suggests that he himself relied on a secondary source when he wrote, “Ford…was reported to have said of Edison…”
attributed to Henry Ford: The full quotation is the following: “Edison is easily the world’s greatest scientist. I am not sure that he is not also the world’s worst business man. He knows almost nothing of business.” Henry Ford, in collaboration with Samuel Crowther, My Life and Work (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page, 1922), 235.
He spoke well: Forrest McDonald, Insull (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), 35–36.
Technically gifted individuals: Tesla came up with many ingenious electrical devices, including a brilliant design for an electric motor; Sprague designed, and then commercialized, electric streetcars.
the cocky lad: Samuel Insull, The Memoirs of Samuel Insull: An Autobiography, ed. Larry Plachno (Polo, Ill.: Transportation Trails, 1992), 25, 31.
One evening: Ibid., 38–39.
The financial reports: Edison Electric Illuminating Company, Monthly Reports, 1886, HFM & GVRC, Box 16, Folders 16–2, 16–3, 16–6, 16–7.
One wag wrote: William D. MacQuesten, “The Edison United Manufacturing Co.,” typescript, 1886, PTAED, D8629E.
the two hunched over the books: Insull, Memoirs, 43–45.
It seems I had: Dyer and Martin, Edison, 381–382.
they were pleased to discover: Ibid., 382. On another occasion, Edison described what must have been the same incident with slightly different details—one week, rather than two weeks, passed—and drew the following lesson: “That’s the way to settle difficulties—give the people no chance to talk.” See “Edison Compares the Swiss People to the Japanese,” NYW, 26 August 1911.
no more demands: Edison took pleasure in circumventing the power of organized labor. A few years before this incident, when lightbulb production had depended upon the esoteric skills that only members of the Glass Blowers Trade Guild possessed, Edison had protested when the guild demanded that he reinstate the son of a local guild official, who had been fired for sleeping on the job. Edison had to give in, but he set out to obtain revenge: He put some of his lab workers to work on a secret project to develop machinery for lightbulb production that could be operated by unskilled hands. The project succeeded, and Edison no longer had to deal with the Glass Blowers Trade Guild. See Paul Kasakove, untitled reminiscences, typescript, n.d., ENHS, 12.
The Machine Works was so cramped: Dyer and Martin, Edison, 381.
a piece of property: “Driven Away by Strikes,” NYT, 24 June 1886.
The new position: Insull, Memoirs, 48–49.
he reorganized the office: Samuel Insull to TAE, 5 November 1887, PTAED, D8736AEL.
After his first year: Insull, Memoirs, 51.
he berated Alfred Tate: Samuel Insull to A. O. Tate, 4 June 1887, PTAED, D8736ACI.
When he noticed: Samuel Insull to A. O. Tate, 2 September 1887, PTAED, D8719ABE.
In his second year: Samuel Insull to A. O. Tate, 5 July 1888, PTAED, D8835ADJ.
“The large and rapid calls”: Samuel Insull to A. O. Tate, 7 January 1888, PTAED, D8835AAI.
furious at new charges: Samuel Insull to A. O. Tate, 5 July 1888, PTAED, D8835ADJ.
Under Insull’s management: Insull, Memoirs, 49.
Looking back: Quoted in McDonald, Insull, 27–28.
A frustrated sales agent: W. J. Jenks to John H. Vail, 12 November 1887, PTAED, D8732ABP.
Edison’s longtime lieutenant: Edward Johnson to TAE, 9 December 1887, PTAED, D8732ABU.
“If our patents”: TAE to George Bliss, n.d., handwritten on back of Bliss to TAE, 12 May 1888, PTAED, D8805ACU.
A sample story: “Killed By an Electric Shock,” NYT, 7 October 1887.
When a manager: “Killed By an Electric Shock,” NYT, 6 December 1887.
In another incident: “Struck Dead in a Second,” NYT, 21 January 1887.
In April 1888: “Death Courses Overhead,” NYW, 17 April 1888.
An alert person: “Street Perils,” NYW, 16 April 1888.
The lethal potential of electricity: The report also recommended that after execution and postmortem the body be buried in the prison cemetery, closing off the opportunity for the deceased’s friends to obtain the body and indulge in “the most drunken and beastly orgies” that traditionally followed hangings. Report of the Commission to Investigate and Report the Most Humane and Practical Method of Carrying into Effect the Sentence of Death in Capital Cases (Albany, N.Y.: Troy Press, 1888), 88–90.
Edison personally favored: TAE to A. P. Southwick, 19 December 1887, PTAED, LB026116.
One associate suggested: Eugene Lewis to Sherburne Eaton, 1 June 1889, PTAED, D8933ABD.
The New York Times: Untitled editorial, NYT, 11 July 1889.
In Edison’s view: TAE to Edward Johnson, “Notes on Distribution of Alternating Current,” 1886, PTAED, ME004.
no competition stood in its way: In New Orleans, where Westinghouse, in combination with Brush, dramatically undercut Edison’s prices, Edison’s field manager told his supervisor that “they are robbing our business pretty badly, and are able to run away into districts that we at present cannot touch.” Edison’s direct-current system remained restricted to a tightly circumscribed area around the generating plant, a fact that Westinghouse’s agents happily pointed out to customers. Edison’s New Orleans manager pleaded with the home office to pay attention and to “fight them with their own weapons,” that is, with alternating current. “If we don’t wake up pretty soon to this fact, we shall suffer in the future for our negligence.” W. S. Andrews to John Vail, 12 May 1887, PTAED, D8732AAR.
In June 1888: George Westinghouse Jr. to TAE, 7 June 1888, PTAED, D8828ABV.
Edison turned down: TAE to George Westinghouse Jr., 12 June 1888, PTAED, LB026270.
He would later say: TAE to E. D. Adams, 2 February 1889, quoted in Harold Passer, The Electrical Manufacturers, 1875–1900 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1953), 174.
Stray dogs were used: Mark Essig, Edison and the Electric Chair: A Story of Light and Death (New York: Walker, 2003), 143.
Edison told the Brooklyn Citizen: “Edison’s New Ideas,” Brooklyn Citizen, 4 November 1888, PTAED, SM038071d.
Edison’s bounty offer: Essig, Edison and the Electric Chair, 143.
The very day: TAE to Henry Bergh, 13 July 1888, PTAED, LB026273.
Henry Bergh: Henry Bergh to TAE, 14 July 1888, PTAED, D8828ACI.
It had been his letter: TAE to A. P. Southwick, 19 December 1887, PTAED, LB026116.
had persuaded one member: Essig, Edison and the Electric Chair, 118.
a new attorney who volunteered: Ibid., 173.
What would happen: “Edison Says It Will Kill,” NYS, [24 July 1889], PTAED, MBSB62484A; Kemmler v. Durston hearing, 23 July 1889, PTAED, QE003A0623.
George
Westinghouse stepped forward: George Westinghouse, “No Special Danger,” letter to the editor, NYT, 13 December 1888; Harold P. Brown, “The Comparative Danger to Life of the Alternating and Continuous Electrical Currents,” 1889, PTAED, QE003A1016A. Brown reproduced Westinghouse’s widely circulated letter in order to rebut it, point by point.
On 11 October 1889: “Met Death in the Wires,” NYT, 12 October 1889.
among the witnesses: One of the witnesses, Charles Thompson, who was a superintendent of the Brooklyn American District Telegraph Company, collapsed with “apoplexy” the next day and was in critical condition. The New York Times said he had been in excellent condition and “had witnessed the frightful death of Feeks, and the sight made him veryill.” “Excited by Feeks’s Death,” NYT, 13 October 1889.
the fatal current could not be traced: A coroner’s jury that was convened heard testimony from representatives of many companies, each pointing the finger of blame at someone else. “How Feeks Met His Death,” NYT, 22 October 1889.
Edison did not add his support: “Death in the Wires,” Wilmington News, 14 October 1889, PTAED, SC89179B.
In October 1889, he urged: “Edison’s Remedy,” New York Evening Sun, 14 October 1889, PTAED, SC89182A.
When George Westinghouse read: Sherburne Eaton to TAE, 7 October 1889, PTAED, D8954ADC.
Westinghouse decided to speak: “Mr. Westinghouse Talks,” NYT, 24 October 1889.
“If all things involving”: Ibid.
seized an opportunity: TAE, “Dangers of Electric Lighting,” North American Review, November 1889, 628. Edison put the disquieting image of nitroglycerin to work once again: “If a nitro-glycerin factory were being operated in the city of New York and the people desired to remove the danger, no one would suggest putting it underground.”
sixty-four people were killed: George Westinghouse, “A Reply to Mr. Edison,” North American Review, December 1889, 661.
Don’t underestimate the power: Ibid., 657.
Westinghouse also dredged up: Ibid., 655.
Those customers who had a choice: Ibid., 664.
As historian Mark Essig: Essig, Edison and the Electric Chair, 290. Essig mentions a medical-journal article from the early twentieth century to illustrate his point that Edison’s fears about electric shocks for a long while appeared to have been borne out: “A Case of Death from the Electric Current While Handling the Telephone.”
The Wizard of Menlo Park Page 38
