Editorial Policy and User's Guide

The Papers of Thomas A. Edison: Research to Development at Menlo Park, January 1879-March 1881

Page xxxviiiEditorial Policy and User’s Guide

The editorial policy for the book edition of Thomas Edison’s papers remains essentially as stated in Volume 1, with the modifications described in Volumes 2–4. The additions that follow stem from new editorial situations presented by documents in Volume 5. In addition, we describe some of the features incorporated in this volume.

Selection

The fifteen-volume book edition of Thomas Edison’s papers will include nearly 7,000 documents selected from an estimated 5 million pages of extant Edison-related materials. For the period covered in Volume 5 (January 1879–March 1881), the editors have selected 422 documents from approximately 9,200 extant Edison-related documents. Most extant documents detail Edison’s inventive work and his business relationships; very few are concerned with his family or other personal relationships.

In selecting documents the editors have sought to include key notebook entries and other materials detailing his inventive work on the electric light and power system. More documents of this type are included from 1879, when Edison was personally involved in the research leading to the successful invention of his system of electric light and power, than from 1880, when Edison was directing development work undertaken by a variety of researchers, many of them recently hired. In selecting notebook materials from 1880 we have relied on a set of notebooks kept by Charles P. Mott, a member of the office staff, between March 1880 and March 1881. These “Mott Journals” contain daily summaries of work and events at thePage xxxix laboratory. In several instances the editors have chosen a Mott Journal entry rather than a group of notebook entries to deal with the diversity of laboratory activities. Readers will find references to the notebooks in the notes following these Mott Journal documents.

In selecting correspondence and other documents detailing Edison’s business relationships, the editors have typically chosen letters that either provide considerable summary detail or contain information about a wide range of issues and which can be annotated by reference to other related documents. When Edison himself was an active correspondent, as in his exchanges with Edward Johnson and George Gouraud, more of the correspondence is used than in instances, such as the French telephone business, where most of the documents consist of reports to him on actions taken by others. As with notebook entries, there are some documents that the editors have selected because they are important in their own right.

To provide some sense of the public and professional reaction to Edison’s efforts, several documents are included that discuss newspaper and journal articles, and extensive reference is made to others in the notes. In addition, the editors have chosen a few articles and letters to the editor as examples of the response to Edison’s work.

As in the other volumes, the editors have selected a few key artifacts. For carbon-filament lamps, however, because of constant design changes during the research and development effort—and even after the beginning of commercial manufacture in early 1881—a descriptive list of lamps at the Henry Ford Museum is presented in an appendix in lieu of artifacts (App. 3).

Transcription

The only significant changes in transcription practice from earlier volumes involve numbers. For purposes of clarity the editors have silently supplied decimal points in numbers. Colons have also been added for time designations, most commonly in the dateline of a telegram or in laboratory tests. In a few special instances commas have been supplied in large numbers for clarity.

Annotation

In the endnotes following each document, citations are generally given in the order in which the material is discussed. However, when there are several pieces of correspondence from thePage xl same person or a run of notebook entries, these are often listed together rather than in the order they are discussed to simplify the reference.

References to the Microfilm and Digital Editions

The editors have not provided a comprehensive calendar of Edison documents because the vastness of the archive makes preparation of such an aid impractical. Their annotations include, however, references to relevant documents in the microfilm edition. These references are indicated by the acronym TAEM. The citations themselves are to reel and frame numbers (e.g., 37:439). Thus, the book edition may serve as an entree into the microfilm edition, just as the latter may serve as an entree into the archives.

For the first time, the editors have included references to documents found on the Edison Papers web site (http://edison.rutgers.edu). The web site contains approximately 175,000 images from the first three parts of the microfilm edition of documents at the Edison National Historic Site. There are also nearly 5,000 additional images not found on the microfilm that come from outside repositories. Citations to images in the digital edition are indicated by the acronym TAED. The citations themselves are in two forms. Those to specific documents, such as a letter, are in an alpha-numeric code (e.g., D8120H). Those to documents found in volumes such as notebooks are indicated by both an alpha-numeric code and a set of image numbers (e.g., N117:137, 140). In a few instances one or more specific images in a lengthy document is referred to by an image number or numbers in parentheses (e.g., W100DEC002 [image 7]). All of these images can be seen by going to the Edison Papers homepage and clicking on the link for “Single Document or Folder” under “Search Methods.” This will take the user to http://edison.rutgers.edu/singldoc.htm, where the images can be seen by putting the appropriate alpha-numeric code in one of the two boxes to retrieve either a document or a folder/volume. If retrieving a folder/volume, the user should click on “List Documents” and then “Show Documents” in the introductory “target” for that folder/volume. Then click on any of the links to specific documents in the folder/volume and put the appropriate image number in the box under the “Go to Image” link. Putting image numbers in that box when viewing any document will take you to the specific image number.

The digital edition contains a number of other features notPage xli available in the book or microfilm editions, including lists of all Edison’s U.S. patents by execution date, issue date, and subject, and links to their images; a comprehensive chronology and bibliography; maps and images from Edison’s early life; a “document sampler” to introduce new users and nonscholars to the collection; and links to related resources on the web. In addition, a collection of essays, images, and patents concerning the African-American inventor Lewis Howard Latimer was mounted on the web site in 2002. Other materials, such as chapter introductions from the book edition, a transcription of the Mott Journals with links to the images, and biographical sketches, will eventually be added. Material from outside repositories, including items cited in this volume, will continue to be added.

Headnotes

Because of the limited scholarly literature and the technical complexities discussed in many of the documents, there are more introductory headnotes in these volumes than is common in historical documentary editions. Each chapter begins with a brief introductory headnote that highlights Edison’s personal, technical, and business activities during the period covered by the chapter. Within chapters there are occasional headnotes that appear before documents (see List of Editorial Headnotes). These are used for a variety of purposes. Artifacts and drawings without accompanying text are always preceded by headnotes (e.g., “British Demonstration Telephone”). In addition, the editors sometimes use headnotes to discuss particular technical issues (e.g., “Dynamo Design”); to describe the characteristics of a set of notebooks or other documents (e.g., “Charles Mott Laboratory Journals”); or to provide an overview of activities that are otherwise referenced only in scattered documents and endnote references (e.g., “Preparations for Commercial Lamp Manufacture”).

Just as the chapter introductions and headnotes serve as guides for the general reader, discursive endnotes often contain annotation of interest to the general reader. These notes also include business or technical details likely to be of more concern to the specialized reader. In general, the editors have provided more detailed information for technical issues that have received little scholarly attention than for topics that are already well treated in the secondary literature.

Page xliiAppendixes

As in Volumes 1–4 we include relevant selections from the autobiographical notes that Edison prepared in 1908 and 1909 for Frank Dyer and Thomas Martin’s biography of Edison (see App. 1). As in previous volumes, we also include a list of U.S. patents that Edison executed during the period covered by this volume (App. 4).

There are two new appendixes in this volume. The first (App. 2) is a list of Menlo Park employees who were known to have been at the laboratory from 1879 to 1880. Although it is not comprehensive, this is the most complete list we have been able to compile from the available documentation. It is presented primarily to indicate the range of workers at the laboratory. The second (App. 3) lists lamps made at Menlo Park during the period of this volume. These lamps are presently located at the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. As noted above, the list appears in lieu of selecting one or two lamp artifacts to represent design changes.