From Operator to Inventor-Entrepreneur
January-June 1869
The first half of 1869 marked a turning point in Edison’s career. After working for five years as an itinerant telegraph operator, he left Western Union to “devote his time to bringing out his inventions.”1 During this period he engaged in three new business-technology ventures. One employed his first printing telegraph for stock quotations; the second used his dial telegraph, the magnetograph, for private lines; and the third involved a new double transmitter. This last venture brought him to New York in April, where he eventually settled in order to take advantage of the support available in the nation’s telegraph center.2
Edison’s first important venture as a telegraph inventor involved an improved printing telegraph system that provided stock quotations for bankers and brokers.3 It marked the beginning of Edison’s inventive work in a field that helped him achieve a reputation as one of the premier American telegraph inventors. In contrast to the three-wire printing telegraph marketed by the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company in New York, his new printing telegraph employed only a single wire to transmit information.4 Although his printer could be used on private lines, Edison designed it primarily for bankers and brokers. He placed all instruments in a single circuit and operated them from a central office by means of a single transmitter. He later sold his first stock ticker invention to Gold and Stock.5
The budding inventor also began to develop and exploit his nascent entrepreneurial talents. In January he assigned the patent rights to his printer to two Boston businessmen, Joel Hills and William Plummer, in return for their financial assistance.Page 103 With their backing, Edison rented two rooms at 9 Wilson Lane, near the Boston Exchange, where he established headquarters for a stock-quotation service. He also attracted to this enterprise Samuel Ropes, Jr., a business promoter; Frank Hanaford, a former telegraph operator in Boston; and Dewitt Roberts, with whom he worked on the vote recorder. Forty years later Edison recalled that he established “a Laboratory over the Gold-room” and “opened a stock quotation circuit with 25 subscribers, the ticker being of my own invention.” Roberts later remembered that their first customer was the banking and brokerage house of Kidder, Peabody and Company, then headquartered on State Street in Boston.6
At this time Samuel Laws’s Gold and Stock Reporting Telegraph Company and the Bankers’ and Brokers’ Telegraph Company, a New York firm that provided telegraph service in competition with Western Union, were planning to build a line to Boston to establish a stock-quotation service. Laws already used the lines of Bankers’ and Brokers’ to provide a stock-quotation service to Philadelphia. He abandoned the Boston plan when his Gold and Stock Reporting Telegraph Company merged with the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company in September 1869. Edison may have had some connection with Bankers’ and Brokers’ at this time—the company operated from 9 Wilson Lane, and Edison used its letterhead stationery.7
Edison’s signature, from an autograph book containing names from the Boston Western Union office.
Edison also used the Wilson Lane address as headquarters for another enterprise. Supported by Boston businessman E. Baker Welch, Edison manufactured and marketed his dial telegraph, the magnetograph. Cheaper and less likely to get out of order than the printing telegraph, the magnetograph provided private-line communication between the head offices of businesses and their factories and warehouses. Jerome Redding later described the instrument as “a small low priced” indicating machine in which the operator spelled out words by turning the hand in the center of the dial to point to successive letters in an outer circle.8 Edison recalled that the instrumentPage 104 “was very simple and practical and any one could make it work after a few minutes explanation.”9 George Anders, a skilled mechanic employed by the telegraph manufacturing firm Edmands and Hamblet, resigned his position in late March to join Edison in the manufacture and sale of magnetographs at 9 Wilson Lane.10 In May, Edison assigned a patent application for this instrument to himself, Welch, and Anders, but it failed to receive U.S. Patent Office approval.
Edison also continued his interest in multiple telegraphy and assigned to Welch half of his interest in a new double transmitter and in any future improvements on it. Edison’s double transmitter seems to have been an unusual combination of duplex and diplex, which he and Welch intended to market to major telegraph companies. They received permission to conduct tests of the instrument on the New York to Rochester line of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company, which had previously tested Joseph Stearns’s duplex. With funds provided by Welch, Edison probably traveled first to New York City to set up his instruments there and then to Rochester, New York, to complete the installation and operate the instruments at that end of the line. Franklin Pope may have been the operator at New York.11 The instrument failed to perform satisfactorily, however, and Edison returned to New York, where he and Pope conducted further tests that engendered changes in the instruments.12 While he continued to keep informed of his Boston business ventures, which were not flourishing, Edison also made new contacts in New York that induced him to stay in that city rather than return to Boston.
1. Doc. 55.
2. See Chapter 4 introduction and Doc. 70.
3. In 1868 Edison already knew of opportunities for telegraph entrepreneurs to supply special services to bankers, brokers, and other businesses. Accordingly, he had developed an appropriate instrument for reporting stock prices.
4. Invented by Edward Calahan, the three-wire telegraph required two wires to turn the dual type wheels and one to lift the platen that carried the paper tape. See Doc. 91, n. 4.
5. See Doc. 97.
6. App. 1.A26; Dewitt Roberts to TAE, 28 May 1877, DF (TAEM 14:63); Dewitt Roberts to TAE, 16 July 1890 and 20 Jan. 1911, GF. On Kidder, Peabody and Co., see Carosso 1979.
7. New York City 349:974, RGD; Reid 1879, 605; Boston Directory 1869, 876. The 1869 directory entry for Edison gives his occupation as “telegrapher” and his address as 9 Wilson Lane (ibid., 216). For Edison’s use of Bankers’ and Brokers’ stationery, see Doc. 60.Page 105
8. Jerome Redding to Frank Wardlaw, 1929, Pioneers Bio.
9. App. 1.A26.
10. George Lee Anders (born c. 1836), mechanic and inventor, had been employed since 1866 by Edmands and Hamblet, where he gained experience in the manufacture of dial telegraphs (see Doc. 41, n. 2). Later he recalled that he also joined with Edison “in making instruments or perfecting instruments for stock quotations”—that is, Edison’s Boston instrument. Testimony for Anders, pp. 1, 4-6, Anders v. Warner; George Anders to TAE, 24 Sept. 1878, DF (TAEM 16:121).
11. See, for example, “Thomas Alva Edison,” Operator, 1 June 1878, 3; Pope to TAE, 27 Dec. 1882, DF (TAEM 63:566); and App. 1.D229. It is certain that Pope worked with Edison in trying to improve the instrument (see Doc. 68).
13. In Doc. 68 Edison indicates that he was having his instruments altered, but nothing is known of their original design (although it may be the instrument discussed in Doc. 50) or of the changes he made in New York.
Agreement with Samuel Ropes, Jr., Joel Hills, and William Plummer
[Boston,] January 21, 1867[1869]1 a
Whereas :b Thomas Alfred Edison2 of Boston has invented an “Improvement in Telegraphing” which he has this day taken measures to secure by letters patent of the United States, And, Whereas—Samuel W. Ropes Jr.3 has an interest in said invention and is desirous of acquiring an interest in the letters patent which may be obtained therefor— And— Whereas Joel H Hills4 and William E. Plummer5 both of Newton have advanced the sum of thirteen hundred dollars to said Ropes expended in perfecting and developing said invention— And have also agreed to pay the expenses of procuring letters patent of the United States for the same. And have also agreed to pay the said Edison the further sum of two hundred and fifty dollars when the practical utility of said invention shall be proved satisfactorily to them.
Now, therefore, be it known: that in consideration of the premises they have severally agreed with each other and among themselves as follows:
That said Edison shall sign papers necessary to obtain said letters patent which shall be issued to and in the names of said Hills and Plummer.6
The said Hills and Plummer shall pay the expenses of procuring said letters patent and also pay said Edison two hundred and fifty dollars when the utility of said invention shall be proved as hereinbefore recited. The said Ropes shall use all reasonable diligence to introduce said invention to the public and into general use, but no person or CorporationPage 106 shall have the right to use said invention without written license signed by said Hills & Plummer And said Ropes shall be entitled to one third of the profits or net monies accruing from said invention or letters patent. And whenever the said Ropes shall pay to the said Hills & Plummer the sum of thirteen hundred dollars out of his share of said profits or net monies or otherwise repay the amount advanced to him by them as hereinbefore recited, they shall transfer and assign to him one undivided third of said letters patent and the said letters patent shall thereafter be held for their joint and mutual benefit, and each shall receive one third of all profits or net monies accruing therefrom to be from time to time divided between them 7
In witness whereof the parties have hereunto set their hands and seals this twenty first day of January Eighteen hundred and sixty seven.
(signed) Thomas A. Edison
Joel H Hills
D (transcript), MiDbEI, EP&RI. aDate taken from text, form altered. b“Copy” written in top left margin.
1. Although this document is dated 21 January 1867 in the text and 1 January 1867 in the docket, all other evidence indicates it was signed in January 1869. Neither Edison nor Ropes is known to have been in Boston in 1867, and all other references to Edison’s association with Hills and Plummer are from 1869 or 1870. See n. 6.
2. The same error in Edison’s name appears in the text of the patent assignment. Libers Pat. 1-11:292.
3. Samuel W. Ropes, Jr. (d. 1871), was listed in the Boston city directory only in 1868—as a stock and exchange broker at 81 Washington St., residing in Dover. In addition to partially financing Edison’s experiments on stock tickers, he acted as a salesman in Edison’s telegraph enterprise. In 1871 Ropes helped introduce Edison’s printing telegraphs in Chicago. While working there as an agent for the Gold and Stock Telegraph Co., he died on 4 April 1871. Boston Directory 1868, 508; Jerome Redding to Frank Wardlaw, 30 Sept. 1929, Pioneers Bio.; Doc. 128; “Sudden Death of a Telegraph Agent,” Telegr. 7 (1870-71): 259.
4. Joel H. Hills (d. 1892) of Newton, Mass., and his brother, William Hills, were partners in a profitable Boston flour and storage business, Hills and Brother. R. G. Dun and Co. described them as “smart honest and energetic.” Boston Transcript, 23 June 1892; Boston Directory 1865, 205; ibid. 1869, 311; Mass. 71:125, RGD.
5. William E. Plummer (1844?-1890) of Auburndale, Mass., was a successful hide broker in Boston and an agent for Miller’s bark extract. He was active in local Democratic politics and was known to purchase interests in patents. Boston Transcript, 2 Aug. 1890; Boston Directory 1865, 329; ibid. 1869, 495; Mass. 84:492, 494, 531, RGD.
6. Edison executed the patent application (U.S. Pat. 91,527) and asPage 107 signed his rights to Hills and Plummer on 25 January 1869. Libers Pat. 1-11:292.
7. In 1870 Edison repurchased from Hills and Plummer the rights to the patent.
Joel Hills to William Plummer
[Boston,] Jany 25/69
Dear William,
You furnish Edison with money $41. to pay expenses to N.Y. including opperator—and I will divide the expense with you.1 Whether I con[c]lude to go any further or not. Yours Truly
ADDENDUMa
Boston Jany 25/69
Red. of W E. Plummer, the sum of Forty nine dollars, on a/c of the business above stated.
$49.2
ALS, MiDbEI, EP&RI. 2¢ Internal Revenue stamp attached and canceled by Plummer. aAddendum is a DS; written by Plummer.
1. At this time Samuel Laws and the Bankers’ and Brokers’ Telegraph Co. planned to construct lines from New York to Boston and to establish a stock-reporting circuit in Boston. See Chapter 3 introduction.
2. The discrepancy between this figure and the $41 may relate to an undated, signed note in Edison’s hand:
| Extra Expenses in N. York | 4.35 |
| Man on Tonight | 3.00 |
| 7.35 | |
| Recd Payment Thomas Edison |
MiDbEI, EP&RI.
To William Plummer
[Boston, January 25, 18691]
Mr Plummer
Took Model to Stearns2 signed and sworn to skeleton of Patent Papers and Signed Patent Ofs Assignment Can go up There any time and explain the technicalities to the Draftsman.3
ALS, MiDbEI, EP&RI.
1. On this date Edison signed the application for a printing telegraph patent that later issued as U.S. Patent 91,527 (see Doc. 54), and he alsoPage 108 signed the papers assigning rights to it to Plummer and Joel Hills. Pat. App. 91,527; Digest Pat. E-2:101.
2. This was Norman Stearns, of the firm of Teschemacher and Stearns, who were Edison’s patent attorneys. The application procedure required that Edison declare under oath his citizenship and his belief that he was the original inventor. Boston Directory 1869, 575, 596; Pat. App. 91,527.
3. Typically, a draftsman made the drawings that accompanied a patent application.
BOSTON INSTRUMENT Doc. 54
The Boston instrument1 embodied Edison’s first patented printing telegraph design.2 Edison had worked on such devices since April 18683 and finally executed a successful patent application on 25 January 1869.
Two classes of printing telegraphs existed at the time. The first class comprised the House,4 Hughes,5 and Phelps6 printers. They were large, fast, complex machines that required external sources of mechanical power and operators at both ends of a circuit. These were employed in America on only a few busy lines. The second class, to which the Boston instrument belonged, included in practice only Edward Calahan’s stock ticker. 7 First installed in the New York financial district at the end of 1867, this small machine required only batteries and a sending operator. It had won immediate acceptance and had opened up a new field of telegraphic invention.8
A small printing telegraph had to position and ink a type-wheel and to press paper against the wheel to print each successive character. Calahan’s printer used three wires and a local battery to accomplish these tasks; Edison’s design required only one wire and no local battery. Edison used a modified polarized relay as a switch to by-pass either the typewheel advance mechanism or the printing mechanism, allowing each to operate alone.9 He considered the circuitry “the most perfect device for producing two movements at a distance on one wire by magnetizm as it does not depend upon an even & rapid transmission of waves to effect the result but will act with the slowest as well as the most rapid pulsations.”10 It was a very clever simplification but had a serious weakness: when the switch failed to effect a good contact, both the printing and typewheel magnets acted simultaneously. That proved to be a major problem; several years later Edison wrote, “The permanent magnetism [of the polarized relay] was so feeblePage 109 that [even with] the most powerful current in the switch magnet the bar would scarcely make contact with the right or left point necessary to shunt the magnets and produce the desired results. Another defect was that the lightning depolarized the switch bars and necessitated remagnetization.”11 Edison and his Boston associates inaugurated a financial-news circuit with this instrument, but by the spring of 1870 the business had failed. 12
Edison encased his instrument in a wooden box with a glass front, unlike Calahan, who had placed his device under the glass shade later commonly associated with tickers. Edison had some of these instruments built at Charles Williams’s shop in Boston and built others with George Anders. 13
1. Edison called this printing telegraph the “Boston Instrument” in his notes. Cat. 297:48, Lab. ( TAEM 5:611).
2. U.S. Pat. 91,527.
3. See Docs. 31 and 35.
4. Royal House, a self-educated American inventor, patented a printing telegraph in 1846 (U.S. Pat. 4,464) and improved it through the 1850s, during which time it was used throughout the United States. It employed one wire to indicate the letter to be printed, and it transmitted as many as 40 words a minute. Power for printing came from compressed air that was supplied at the receiving end by a “grinder,” a man turning a crank or working a treadle. In the early 1870s steam or electricity began to replace the grinders. DAB, s.v. “House, Royal Earl”; Sabine 1872, 190-92; Prescott 1877, 605-9; “The Western Union Telegraph Company’s Manufactory,” Telegr. 8 (1871-72): 105; “Improvements in the New York office of the Western Union Telegraph Company.—A magnificent operating room,” ibid., 69.
5. David Hughes, a professor of music, was born in England but spent his youth in the United States. He patented his printing telegraph in 1856 (U.S. Pat. 14,917). A single wire transmitted the signal for printing; weight-driven clockwork powered the printing mechanism. Like the House system, Hughes’s printer depended on synchronized revolving typewheels at the sending and receiving stations and an attendant at the receiver. If the transmitter and receiver became unsynchronized, the receiving operator signaled the sender, who then repeatedly transmitted a single character until the receiving machine was reset. George Phelps rendered the Hughes instrument practical. Once improved, it could transmit thirty words a minute (later sixty) and was widely adopted in Europe, where it was used until around 1950. Sabine 1872, 179-90; Prescott 1877, 609-42; Reid 1879, 640-41; Garratt, Goodman, and Russell 1973, 23-24; Preece 1884, 14.
Hughes returned to Europe in 1857 to promote his printer and remained there. In the late 1870s Edison engaged him in a priority dispute over the invention of the microphone. DNB, s.v. “Hughes, David Edward”; Marsh 1980.
6. See Doc. 32, n. 1.
7. See Doc. 91, n. 4.Page 110
8. Reid 1879, 606-89.
9. Edison and George Anders discussed uses of the polarized relay in printing telegraphs during the winter of 1868-69. In the Boston instrument, Edison transformed the polarized relay into a double-pole switch by replacing what was usually an insulated screw with a second contact point. Preliminary Statement of George Anders, pp. 3-4, and George Anders’s testimony, pp. 4-5, Anders v. Warner.
10. NS-74-002, Lab. (TAEM 7:231-32).
11. NS-74-002, Lab. (TAEM 7:233-34). Edison also made this point in the patent specifications for U.S. Patent 96,681.
12. See Doc. 56; “The Printing Telegraph,” Telegr. 6 (1869-70): 269; “Thomas Alva Edison,” Operator, 1 June 1878, 3; and Chapter 3 introduction.
13. Jerome Redding to Frank Wardlaw, 1929, Pioneers Bio.; George Anders’s testimony, p. 5, Anders v. Warner.
Production Model: Printing Telegraphy 1
Boston, [January 25, 1869?]2
M (historic photograph) (est. 17 cm × 14 cm × 25 cm), NjWOE, Cat. 551:48. This photograph is from an album, assembled around the end of 1872, that contains fifty photographs of printing telegraph instruments. An annotated duplicate is at NMAH-DSI (Cat. 66-42, Box 44, WU Coll.). The artifact in the photograph is marked “Charles Williams & Co. Boston” on the upper left corner of the inner frame.
Editorial Notice in the Telegrapher1
New York, January 30, 1869.
Mr. T. A. Edison has resigned his situation in the Western Union office, Boston, Mass., and will devote his time to bringing out his inventions.
PD, Telegr. 5 (1868-69): 183.
1. This notice is from the “Personal” column, where news of operators appeared regularly.
Satnuel Ropes, Jr., to Joel Hills
[Boston,] Feb. 1st 1869.a
Sir,
With this please find statement of the affairs of the Telegraph concern; 1 please send your check for amount needed to day $(333.84) Three hundred and thirty three & 84/100. we cannot go ahead, until we receive it Very Respty
P.S. You will also find statement made up to Feb. 13th/69 showing assets on hand. R
ENCLOSURES
[Boston, February 1, 1869]b
| Amount due Feb. 1st 1869. | ||
| 2 Machines, Battery, Sounder, Key, | ||
| Model, Wire, for Offices Labor. | ||
| Operator in N.Y. | $. 258.01 | |
| Self. | 25. | |
| Paid out of my own purse as per Memo attached | 30.83 | |
| $. 313.84 | ||
| Due Edison | 20. | |
| $· 333-84c | ||
The mony paid T. A. Edison and charged to him, he has paid to men at the W.U. Tel Office for working nights, that he might be on hand mornings.2 consequently their is due him one weeks wages, $20
| For tools in use | 250.00 |
| Planer | 350.00 |
| Engine Lathe | 400.00 |
| 2 Fox Lathes3 80.00c | 160.00 |
| 1 No 3 Fox Lathe chocks &cf | 150.00 |
| 1310.00 | |
| Shafting Benches &c Belting | 150 —c |
Page 112
| 20 Instruments @ $50.00 | 1000 |
| Rent for—d[itt]o4—per week | 160 120 |
| Expenses | 100. per wkc |
Amount needed Saturday February 6th 1869
| 2 Printing Machines | $ 100.00 | ||
| 5 Battery Cups5 | 14.00 | ||
| Office wire | 2.50 | ||
| Labor of man | 10.00 | ||
| Edison | 20.00 | ||
| Self | 20.00 | ||
| Telegrams (about) | 50.00 | ||
| Incidental | 10.00 | ||
| Running wires | 13.50 | ||
| Battery fluid | 2.00 | ||
| Total | $242.00.c | ||
Amount needed Saturday February 13th 1869.
| 2 Printing Machines | $100.00 | ||
| 5 Battery jars | 14.00 | ||
| Office wire | 2.50 | ||
| Labor | 10.00 | ||
| Running wires | 15.00 | ||
| Edison | 20.00 | ||
| Self | 20.00 | ||
| Telegrams | 50.00 | ||
| Incidental | 15.00 | ||
| Fluid | 3.50 | ||
| Insulators | 10.00 | ||
| Total | $260.00.c | ||
Assets on hand February 13 th 1869.c
| 10.—Printing Instruments | $1500.00 | |
| 65 —Cups Battery | 150.00 | |
| —Office furniture6 | 125.00 | |
| —Sounder and Key | 30.00 | |
| —Tnansmitter | 40.00 | |
| —Office wire | 25.00 | |
| All our lines | 175.00 | |
| Battery Boxes | 15.00 | |
| Total Assets | $2060.00c |
ALS, MiDbEI, EP&RI. a“9 Wilson’s Lane.” written above. bThis enclosure is an AD; written by Ropes. cFollowed by centered horizontal line. dThis enclosure is a D; written in an unknown hand. eInterlined above.Page 113 f“chocks &c” interlined above. gThis enclosure is an AD; written by Edison.
1. This concern operated a stock-quotation service that used Edison’s Boston instrument. App. 1.A26.
2. On 1 February, Edison received $10.00 from Samuel Ropes: Edison Receipt to Samuel Ropes, 1 Feb. 1869, EP&RI.
3. George H. Fox and Co. manufactured lathes in Boston. Its successor was American Tool and Machine Co. Boston Directory 1868, 875.
4. Instruments.
5. “Battery Cups” referred to the unglazed cup-shaped earthenware partitions used in wet cells. The cups permitted the flow of ions between electrodes while separating one electrolyte from the other.
6. On 18 March, Edison signed a receipt for office furniture received from Hills and Plummer and valued at $109.80. The furnishings included two tables, a rotary chair, three armchairs, a parlor stove, and a green woolen carpet. Receipt from Joel Hills and William Plummer, 18 Mar. 1869, EP&RI.
Receipt from Charles Williams, Jr.
Boston, Mar 12 1869
M T. A. Edison Bought1 of Charles Williams, Jr.a
| 30 Glass & Brackets2 | 15 | 4.50 | |
| 8 Glass Insulators | .80 | ||
| 1 ¾ lb B. Vitriol3 | .37 | ||
| 2 oz Wire | .20 | ||
| 1 Mahogany base | .25 | ||
| 2 castings | .10 | ||
| 9 Block Insulators4 | 2.61 | ||
| 55b feet Kerite wire5 | 3.30 | ||
| 2 lb 9 oz Painted wire6 | 3.85 | ||
| 5 " 14 oz Kerite wire Cable | 10.00 | ||
| 1 ¼ mile 22 lb 14 oz Compound wire7 | 87.06 | ||
| 2 Indicating Telgh’ Inst8 | 30.00 | 60.00 | $173.04 |
| Re[ceive]d Payment |
ADS, NjWOE, DF, 60-002 (TAEM 12:34). Billhead of Charles Williams, Jr. a“Boston,” “186”, “M”, and “Bought ... Jr.” preprinted. bTraces of Internal Revenue stamp in left margin.
1. These purchases include materials for installing lines for clients. Edison recalled using the roofs of houses to string the wire in the same manner as Western Union. App. 1.A26.
2. Glass insulators with brackets (usually made of wood) were attached directly to telegraph poles or buildings to support the wire with a minimum of current leakage. Pope 1869, 59-60.
3. Blue vitriol (copper sulfate, CuSO4) was used as an electrolyte in many batteries. Pope 1869, 12-14.Page 114
4. Block insulators, named for their shape, were made of porcelain. Williams 1876, 4.
5. Kerite-insulated wire, patented in 1866 by Austin Day of New York, was coated with a mixture of tars, various oils, and sulfur. Knight 1876-77, s.w. “Kerite,” “Kerite-wire.”
6. Painted wire resisted rust and corrosion, which was especially important if the wire was exposed to large quantities of coal and coal gas fumes. Maver 1912, 511.
7. Regarding compound wire, see Doc. 44.
8. Probably Edison’s magnetograph.
Receipt from Charles Williams, Jr.
Boston Mar 31 1869
$180— Received of T. A. Edison One Hundred and Eighty — Dollars Xa 100 on accountb
ADS, NjWOE, DF (TAEM 12:35). a“X” written above “100”. b“Boston”, “186”, “$”, “Received of”, and “Dollars 100 on account” preprinted. cCanceled 2¢ Internal Revenue stamp at left.
Section from Franklin Popes Modern Practice of the Electric Telegraph1
New York, March2 1869
161. Edison’s Button Repeater.3 —This is a very simple and ingenious arrangement of connections for a button repeater, which has been found to work well in practice. It will often be found very convenient in cases where it is required to fit up a repeater in an emergency, with the ordinary instruments used in every office. Fig. 57 is a plan of the apparatus.
Page 115M is the western and M′ the eastern relay. E is the main battery, which, with its ground connection G, is common to both lines. E′ is the local battery, and L the sounder. S is a common “ground switch,” turning on two points, 2 and 3. In the diagram the switch is turned to 2, and the eastern relay, therefore, repeats into the western circuit, while the western relay operates the sounder, the circuit between 1 and 2 through the sounder and local battery being common to both the main and local currents. If the western operator breaks4 the relay M opens, and consequently the sounder, L, ceases to work. The operator in charge then turns the switch to 3, and the reverse operation takes place; the western relay repeats into the eastern circuit, and the eastern relay operates the sounder. The sounder being of coarse wire, offers but a slight resistance to the passage of the main current.
PD, Pope 1869, 107-8.
1. Franklin Leonard Pope (1840-1895), electrical engineer, inventor, and later patent attorney, held positions as telegraph operator, manager, engineer, and writer before becoming superintendent of Samuel Laws’s newly formed Gold and Stock Reporting Telegraph Co. on 11 November 1867. He made several improvements to Laws’s indicator for gold quotations, substituting parallel wheels for Laws’s overlapping discs. As editor of the Telegrapher from 15 August 1867 to 8 February 1868, Pope enlarged the journal and introduced scientific and technical articles (see Doc. 26). The first edition of his Modern Practice of the Electric Telegraph appeared in May 1869. It became one of the most popular telegraph manuals of the late nineteenth century. Reid 1879, 565-66, 666-67; DAB, s.v. “Pope, Franklin Leonard”; “Pope’s Work,” Telegr. 5 (1868-69): 272.
2. Taken from the preface to Pope’s book.
3. See Doc. 15.
4. Opens the circuit.
To Joel Hills
Boston Mas Apl 2 [1869]
Mr Hills
The Transmittors1 will be done by Tuesday next—
Thesee instruments which I intend to put in a[re] good ones but are out of order and Look quite dirty The Bases which they are on have been altered so many times that They are all full of Holes and Look bad I would advise taking the instruments all apart clean and adjust them and make an alteration in the Paper Cam. And placing Instrument and Transmitter all on one Base Black walnut or Mahogany The Cost of cleaning altering and fixing up the Instruments inPage 116 first class style upon New Bases, with all the Connections wSoldered will Cost 23 dollars and Looks arehave a good deal to do in the Success of an instrument Especially on the first Line I Advise you having it done quickly
reply by boy
ALS, MiDbEI, EP&RI. Starts at bottom of back and continues on front of message form of the Bankers’, Brokers’ & Commercial Lines of Telegraph.
1. The mention of a paper cam later in this document suggests that these are transmitters for printing telegraphs.
Patent Assignment to E. Baker Welch
Boston,a April 7th 1869
In consideration of various sums of money received by me at sundry times since July 1st 1868, and of forty dollars received this day of E. Baker Welch, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, I, Thomas A. Edison, of Boston, Massachusetts, do hereby sell, assign and transfer to said E. Baker Welch one undivided half interest in a double transmitter which I have invented and am about to put on the lines of the Atlantic & Pacific Telephone Company1—and I do hereby agree to apply for a Caveat or patent for the same at such time as said Welch shall recommend or request me to do,2 and to assign to him one half interest in the said patent, or in any rights or privileges accruing under a caveat or patent at any time—3 I do also hereby agree and bind myself to sell, assign and convey to said Welch, for the considerations before mentioned herein one undivided half interest in any improvements which I may make to the said double transmitter, and one undivided halfb interest in any other instrument or any other principle, method or system, which I may invent, or obtain a Caveat or patent for, to be used for the transmission of messages oron Telegraph lines both ways simultaneously4 signed—
D (transcript), NjWOE, DF (TAEM 12:17). In an unknown hand. aPreceded by “(Copy) Original sent to Patent Office January 27th 1875 to be recorded”. b“undivided half” interlined above. cFollowed by “The words ‘or patent at’ on the first page third line from the bottom [see location of endnote 3] are interlined in Edison’s handwriting with blue ink—the word at which was in the original being erased also with blue ink. The figure ‘7th’ in the date also put in by Edison with blue ink. Boston, January 27th 1875 Having seen the original of this paper signed by Thomas A. Edison and compared this copy with it, I certify that this is a true copy.— George L Anders”.Page 117
1. Edison was about to travel to Rochester, N.Y., to test the device on the lines of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Co. This company, organized in 1865 in the state of New York with a capitalization of $5 million, had built lines from New York to Cleveland via Albany, Rochester, and Buffalo (Reid 1879, 579-80). The company was correctly named “Telegraph” (instead of “Telephone”) in the version of the document used in Welch v. Edison. The concept of the telephone as a device to transmit complex sounds was already familiar by the time Bell made his invention in 1876. See, for example, “The Telephone,” Telegr. 5 (1868-69): 309; and OED, s.v. “Telephone.”
2. Edison filed neither a caveat nor a successful patent application for duplex telegraphy in 1869. See textnote a.
3. See textnote c.
4. On the basis of this statement, Welch later made a claim on Edison’s profitable invention of the quadruplex.
And Frank Hanaford Bill from Charles Williams, Jr.
Boston, April 10th 1869
M Boston T. A. Edison & Hanaford1 Bought of Charles Williams, Jr.a
AD, NjWOE, DF, 69-002 (TAEM 12:35). Billhead of Charles Williams, Jr. a“Boston,” “186”, “M”, and “Bought ... Jr.” preprinted. bTraces of Internal Revenue stamp below. cFollowed by “Red’ Payment April 16th C. Williams Jr.”
1. Frank A. Hanaford (n.d.), formerly an operator at the Franklin Telegraph Co. in Boston, became Edison’s partner at 9 Wilson Lane. For several months after Edison left Boston, Hanaford continued to manage the shop, but by the fall of 1869 he had returned to the Franklin Co. Boston Directory 1868, 280; ibid. 1870, 314.
2. Gutta-percha was a common electrical insulation made from the latex extracted from several species of Malaysian trees. Knight 1876— 77, s.v. “Gutta-percha.”
3. Porous cups, made of unglazed earthenware, separated the copper and zinc electrodes in a Daniell battery. Pope 1869, 13, 92, 94-95.
Editorial Notice in the Telegrapher
New York, April 17, 1869.
A New Double Transmitter.
On Tuesday evening last1 a new double transmitter, on an improved plan, invented by Mr. T. A. Edison, was tried between New York and Rochester, a distance of over four hundred miles by the route of the wire, and proved to be a complete success. Communications were sent and received at the same time over a single wire without the slightest interference, and the instrument accommodated itself to the disturbance caused by the working of other wires upon the same route as readily as the ordinary apparatus. This invention is materially different from any other of the kind yet brought out, and is much more simple, effective, and easily managed. This is the longest circuit which has ever been practically worked by this system.2
PD, Telegr. 5 (1868-69): 272.
1. 13 April.
2. Edison later called this a “duplex and diplex system” (see Doc. 50). He tested his system from the Rochester, N.Y., office of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Co. This journal notice was in error; Edison readily admitted that the trial failed. App. 1 .A29; draft reply to Louis Wiley, in Wiley to TAE, 9 Feb. 1925, GF; Doc. 68.
Promissory Note to E. Baker Welch
Boston May 1st 1869.
Six months after date, value received I promise to pay to E. B. Welch or order one hundred and twenty eight dollars with interest from date.1
Due 1/4 Nov. 1869
TD (transcript), MWalFAR, Welch v. Edison. See Doc. 36 textnote.
1. On the same date, Edison signed a second promissory note for the same amount due in twelve months. Welch v. Edison.
Agreement with E. Baker Welch and George Anders
[Boston?,]1 May 3, 1869a
Whereas Thomas A. Edison of Boston, County of Suffolk and State of Mass. has invented an improved “Magneto-graph” 2 for which he has made application for Letters Patent of the United States, and has assigned said invention to himself, E. B. Welch of Cambridge Mass. and George L. Anders of Boston aforesaid, according to the Assignment hereto annexed:—
Page 119Now therefore it is agreed by and between the said Edison, Welch and Anders that said Invention and any letters patent which may be granted for the same shall be held and owned by them as their joint and mutual property, and shall be worked under for their mutual benefit: that is, that all profits which may accrue from the manufacture and sale or use of said “Magnetographs” either by them together or by either alone or his assigns or representatives shall be for the mutual profit of the parties hereto in the proportion of one third to each:— And neither party shall sell or assign his interest in said invention and said letters patent, without the consent of the others first had and obtained, but the sum realized by either for the sale of his interest shall accrue to the party selling: and either party so disposing of his interest shall do so subject to this agreement.b
In testimony whereof We have hereunto set our hands and affixed our seals, this Third (3rd) day of May a.d. 1869. Thomas. A. Edisonc
In presence of—Carroll D. Wright
D (transcript), MdSuFR, Libers Pat. V-11:188. aDate taken from text, form altered. bRepresentation of 5¢ Internal Revenue stamp in right margin. cRepresentation of seal follows each signature. d“Recorded July 14th 1869” written in right margin.
1. The place where this document was written is problematic, for Doc. 68 (written 8 May) implies that Edison had not seen Welch since going to Rochester. The assignment was not registered at the U.S. Patent Office until 14 July 1869. Digest Pat. E-2: 116.
Advertisement in the Telegrapher for the Edison & Anders magnetograph.
2. The magnetograph was an alphabetic dial telegraph for use on private lines. Like James Hamblet’s dial telegraph, the magnetograph did not require a battery, and thus avoided the necessity for customers to cope with messy acids. Instead, signals were manually generated by turning an armature in a magnetic field—a magneto—until a pointer reached the proper letter on an alphanumeric dial. At the other end a similar pointer moved to the corresponding letter on another dial. ThePage 120 receiver easily read the message from the dial, letter by letter. Edison and Anders manufactured magnetographs in the spring of 1869. On 6 July, Anders assigned his share to Samuel Laws, though no patent was issued. In 1870 Franklin Pope offered a pair of “Edison & Anders’ Magnetograph[s]” for sale. App. 1.A26; Anders’s testimony, p. 6, Anders v. Warner; Digest Pat. E-2:116, 126; F. L. Pope advertisement, Telegr. 6 (1869-70): 401.
And Frank Hanaford from D. N. Skillings & Co. 1
[Boston,] May 5th 1869
Sirs,
We are very much gratified with the Telegraph you have put up for us from our office in Kilby St. to our Yard at E. Cambridge. The simplicity, and certainty with which it works, makes it a very great Convenience in our business and we recommend with pleasure your apparatus to every person in want of Telegraphic facilities Yours, Truly
L, NjWOE, DF (TAEM 12:19). aCompany name written in a different hand from body of letter; followed by “Downer. Kerosene. Oil Co. Wm. B Merrill Genl Agent” in a third hand.
1. David N. Skillings & Co. was a prosperous lumber company that had been in business since the 1850s and had a downtown office at 5 Kilby St., Boston (Boston Directory 1869, 558; Mass. 71:1a, RGD). For more on the Downer Kerosene Oil Co., which also signed this document, see Doc. 71, n. 3.
Testimonial from Continental Sugar Refinery
Boston, May 5h 1869a
We have now in use between our Office and the Refinery at South Boston, Edison’s telegraph with his patent indicators—1 It works to our satisfaction, and we cheerfully recommend it to those in need of anything of the kind.
L, NjWOE, DF (TAEM 12:20). Letterhead of Continental Sugar Refinery. a“Boston,” and “186” preprinted.
1. This is not the magnetograph. See Docs. 71 and 73.
2. Continental Sugar Refinery, established about 1865 and owned by Jonathan Cottle, Horatio Harris, and W. A. Kinsman, was described in an 1869 R. G. Dun credit report as “the smartest sugar concern in Boston.” The offices were located at 36 Central St., Boston, and the refinery was at the corner of First and Granite Sts. in South Boston. Boston Directory 1869, 156; Mass. 77:196, RGD.
3. David Townsend was a commission merchant with offices at 36 Central St., Boston. Boston Directory 1869, 606.
To E. Baker Welch
New York,1 May 8, 1869.
Mr. Welch:
I went to Rochester to put in double transmitters and waited four days to get a chance, but did not get one until late at night, and then the wires worked very poorly on account of bad insulation, and I came to the conclusion not to wait there on expense any longer but return to New York and wait till they trimmed the line which they are doing now. They will get wires all trimmed to Rochester in about three weeks.2
When I returned I tested my instruments on the Bankers and Brokers, 3 but they were made for such a long line (A & P) 4 and delicate current that they did not give satisfaction to myself although they worked. What delays me here is awaiting the alteration of my instruments which on account of the piling up of jobs at the instrument makers have been delayed and I will probably have to wait one week longer, and then if everything works as it has got to do for I’ll never say “fail” I have the Pacific and Atlantic from Phila. to Pittsburg, from Pittsburg to Cincinnatti, from Cincinnatti to Louisville and Nashville. Two or three sets for the B & B including line to Boston—The Cuba Cable,5 all bona fide offers. So you see that there is no use letting anything stand in the way of successfully getting this apparatus perfected. Me and Pope6 have experimented considerably upon it and have several improvements only one thing stands in the way now and that is Induction, and my alterations will overcome that, so I have concluded to stick here till I am successful. 7
What is the matter with the shop? If you only knew how many of those instruments8 could be sold here you would make things howl. Five days ago a man who saw the instrument I brought over (which by the way is in very bad condition) came to me and wanted six of them to put on lines where Chester’s Dial9 was working the lines being 14 miles long and the great objection was the battery. He wanted them immediately and I promised to have them here Saturday. He is very anxious and excited about getting them as Chester’s arrangement don’t work and it will be to our advantage to have them here quickly or may lose sale to that person although can sell all you send on. Chester Patrick & Co. of Philadelphia wants the exclusive right to sell them in Philadelphia,10 and as they are a go ahead firm would advise letting them have it. N.Y. appears to be quite different to Boston. People here come and buy without your soliciting. Rochester wants a set. Dyer wants a set. Jacobs here six instruments. Compound Wire Co., set.11 All quick as possible.
Page 122I wrote full explanation to Field12—Rec’d letter from Adams—He says:—Big field here for brokers, am awaiting arrival of instruments—etc—13
If you cannot sell any instruments there send them all here and I will sell and deposit proceeds with your brother14 and George 15 can draw on him for money to build more instruments, or will deposit cost with your brother and remit George net profits. $225. per set is what I asked. Respy.
I have enough money to last ten days.
TL (transcript), MWalFAR, Welch v. Edison. See Doc. 36 textnote. aFollowed by “Care Pope, Box 6138 N. York.”
1. Edison’s return address is that of Samuel Laws’s Gold and Stock Reporting Telegraph Co. See textnote a.
2. “Trimming” meant cutting tree limbs away from the wires. Maver 1892, 549.
3. Edison did this with fellow telegrapher J. B. Collins. Collins to Stockton Griffin, 27 Dec. 1878, DF ( TAEM 16:548).
4. Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Co.
5. At this time there were two cables between the United States and Cuba. The second, from Florida to Havana, had been completed in February 1869. J. Teleg. 5 (1869): 77, 92.
6. Franklin Pope.
7. James Ashley, in an editorial in the Telegrapher on 16 June (5 [1868-69]: 352), declared that the best double transmitter yet invented was Edison’s but noted that it had “not yet been introduced on any line, although it is being tested on the lines of one of our telegraph companies.” Edison continued to experiment with the instrument through 1870. Edison’s preliminary statements, 27 Apr. 1878 and 31 Mar. 1879, Nicholson v. Edison.
8. Magnetographs.
9. The most widely used American-made alphabetic dial telegraph was that of Charles Chester, patented in 1863 (U.S. Pat. 40,324). The firm of Charles and John Chester of New York—“Telegraph Engineers, Manufacturers of Instruments, Batteries and Every Description of Telegraph Supplied”—manufactured the device. They also made Laws’s gold indicators. Chester’s dial telegraph required a battery to operate, whereas Edison’s magnetograph did not. Prescott 1877, 578-79; Charles T. & John N. Chester advertisement, Telegr. 5 (1868-69): 300; Reid 1879, 603, 622, 627; New York Times , 14 Apr. 1880, 4.
10. Chester, Partrick and Co., owned by Stephen Chester and James Partrick, was founded in 1867 and described in 1869 as a “young but enterprising” telegraph manufacturing company. Partrick had previously served as assistant manager of Western Union’s Philadelphia office. Telegraph manufacturers frequently advertised that they were the sole agents for particular inventions. “Miscellanea: A New Firm,” Telegr. 4 (1867-68): 99; “Chester, Partrick & Co.,” ibid. 5 (1868-69): 80, 343.
11. Rochester may refer to the Rochester office of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Co. Joseph Dyer was superintendent of the Bankers’Page 123 and Brokers’ Telegraph Co. in Philadelphia from 1865 to 1871 (Taltavall 1893, 212). Jacobs is unidentified. Regarding the American Compound Telegraph Wire Co., see Doc. 44.
12. Unidentified.
13. Milton Adams left New York in March 1869 for San Francisco, where operators’ jobs had been advertised. Milton Adams to E. Baker Welch, 8 Mar. 1869, Welch v. Edison; “Personals,” Telegr. 6 (1869-70): 74.
14. Probably Joseph Welch, a New York lawyer. E. Baker Welch had two brothers living in the New York area. Wilson 1869, 1161.
15. George Anders.
To Frank Hanaford
N York= Jaune 10[, 1869]
Friend Frank =
Please write and Let me know how matters stand with you = What about the rent of the shop, did you pay it etc and have you got any Show for building any Lines— Has Williams finished all the instruments and how many have you now altogether— What instrument is O’Doud1 going to use. Do you work by the day for him—. Do you know what he gets. Did he use the wire and is Farrar and Folletts bill paid.2 Did you sell him any insulators? Has Hills been round what did he say—? What appears to be the matter with the Shop— I have sold six instruments which were to be delivered Last Monday and I think I have lost the sale in consequence of the delay = When will they be done, in your opinion\\\ Does the anti-qudated, fossil parientia D D Cummings3 still exist arround the sacred precincts of that dilapidated, mansion Does He still pursue the ignatus fatus4 of Private Telegraphs, that Bright beacon light upon the headlands of of eternity whereon the bright prospects of two sanguine young men were totally wrecked and obliterated and their hopes flown to that far off land from whence no traveller, Line repairer of Telegraph Operator return. Alas! that the bright vision of untold wealth should vanish like the fabric of a dream, that two ambitious mortals gifted by the genii of enterprise, and strength, should drink the bitter dregs of premature failure in their grand dreams efor the advancement of science, etc— — — Keno5 Does Cummings Jr still exercise his matchless skill, preserverence, and abiquity, which the Lamented Valentine, 6 was wont to pride himself upon Has no tidings of the lost one reached his sorrowings colaborers, or does he still wanders sad and sorrowful among the busy haunts of men bent upon sthe self destruction which inevitably awaits those who pamper to the tastes of “Collateral Brokers”—
Page 124Such is the Kingdom of heaven!
Please answer the questions of w in the foreground of this salubrious document and oblige yours Truly—
only one PS.b What is the prospects in the future E
ALS, NjWOE, DF (TAEM 12:21). aInterlined above. b“only one PS.” divided from body of letter by a drawn line.
1. Peter O’Dowd, formerly a telegrapher in Boston, was at this time agent of the Merchants and Manufacturers Telegraph Building Co. He and Hanaford built the lines for the magnetographs and installed the instruments. Boston Directory 1865, 311; ibid. 1869, 469; ibid. 1870, 827; Jerome Redding to Frank Wardlaw, 30 Sept. 1929, Pioneers Bio.
2. Farrar, Follett & Co., owned by Daniel Farrar and Dexter Follett, was an importer of metals and manufacturer of wire located at 73 and 75 Blackstone St., Boston. Edison and Hanaford purchased galvanized telegraph wire from this company for $8.74 in May. Boston Directory 1868, 222, 931; ibid. 1869, 226, 241; receipted bill of Farrar, Follett & Co., 3 May 1869, 69-002, DF (TAEM 12:36).
3. Unidentified. There is a receipt of payment to a J. L. Cummings for $11 dated 12 March 1869. 69-002, DF ( TAEM 12:34).
4. “Ignis fatuus” means a will-o’-the-wisp or fleeting light.
5. Or “that’s life.” Keno was a popular game of chance similar to bingo.
6. There is an 1869 receipt of payment to an unidentified Valentine for $.65, signed with an “X.” 69-002, DF (TAEM 12:36).
Buy This Book in Print