- Chronology of Thomas A. Edison, 1847–1873
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- Johns Hopkins University Press
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Page xxxviiiChronology of Thomas A. Edison
1847-1873
1847 | |
11 February | Is born in Milan, Ohio. |
1847–54 | Lives in Milan. |
1854–63 | Lives in Port Huron, Mich. |
1859–60 | |
Winter | Starts selling newspapers and candy on the trains of the Grand Trunk Railroad. |
1862 | |
Spring | Publishes and prints on the train his own newspaper, the Weekly Herald. |
Fall | Studies telegraphy with James Mackenzie, station agent at Mount Clemens, Mich. |
1862–63 | |
Winter | Begins work as a telegraph operator in Micah Walker’s book and jewelry store in Port Huron. |
1863 | |
Late Spring–Summer | Starts job as a telegrapher for the Grand Trunk Railroad at Stratford Junction, Ont. |
1863–64 | Returns briefly to Port Huron. |
Works the night shift as a railroad telegrapher near Adrian, Mich., where he meets Ezra Gilliland for the first time. | |
Is employed for two months as a railroad telegrapher in Fort Wayne, Ind. | |
1864–65 | |
Fall–Winter | Works in the Indianapolis, Ind., office of the Western Union |
Telegraph Co. and experiments on improvements in telegraph repeaters. | |
1865 | |
Spring–Fall | Works in the Cincinnati, Ohio, office of Western Union and experiments on self-adjusting relays. |
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17 September | Becomes a founding member of the Cincinnati District of the National Telegraphic Union. |
September | Is promoted to telegraph operator first class. |
Begins designing devices for multiple telegraphy. | |
1865–66 | |
Fall–Spring | Becomes the regular press-wire operator in the Memphis, |
Tenn., office of the South-Western Telegraph Co. Conducts repeater experiments. | |
1866 | |
Spring | Enters Western Union’s Louisville, Ky., office as a press-wire operator. |
4 June | Transfers his membership in the National Telegraphic Union to the Louisville District. |
1 August | Leaves for New Orleans, La., planning to embark for Brazil. |
Fall | Returns to the Western Union office in Louisville after a short stay in Port Huron. |
1867 | |
Summer | Returns to the Western Union office in Cincinnati. |
October | Returns to Port Huron. |
1868 | |
March–April | Begins work as an operator at the main Western Union office in Boston, Mass. |
11 April | Publishes in the Telegrapher the first of several articles on his telegraph inventions and on the Boston telegraph community. |
11 July | Makes the first of several agreements with E. Baker Welch, a Boston businessman who helps finance his early inventive work. |
28 July | Signs a caveat for a fire alarm telegraph and assigns the invention to Welch. |
13 October | Signs a patent application for an electric vote recorder, which later issues as his first patent. |
1869 | |
21 January | Sells rights in his first successful printing telegraph, the Boston instrument, to Boston businessmen Joel Hills and William Plummer. |
30 January | Announces his resignation from his job with Western Union in order to devote himself full time to inventing and to pursuing various telegraph enterprises. |
Winter–Spring | Joins Frank Hanaford in establishing a business to produce and sell private-line telegraphs at 9 Wilson Lane in Boston. |
13 April | Tries and fails to make his new double transmitter work between Rochester and New York City. |
April–May | Moves to New York City. |
Page xl | |
22 June | Is issued his first telegraph patent (for the Boston instrument). |
c. 1 August | Replaces Franklin Pope as superintendent of Samuel Laws’s Gold and Stock Reporting Telegraph Co. in New York City and makes improvements on Laws’s stock printer. |
12 September | Moves to Elizabeth, N.J., and boards with Pope’s mother. |
2 October | Joins his partners Pope and James Ashley in advertising their newly formed Pope, Edison & Co. as a firm of electrical engineers and telegraph contractors. |
Fall | Operates a small shop in the electrical instrument factory of Leverett Bradley in Jersey City, N.J. |
1870 | |
10 February | Signs two contracts with George Field and Elisha Andrews of the Gold and Stock Telegraph Co. that provide funds for developing inventions and establishing a shop. |
c. 15 February | Joins William Unger in establishing his first major shop, the Newark Telegraph Works. |
18 April | Joins Pope and Ashley in assigning to the Gold and Stock Telegraph Co. their rights to printing telegraph patents. |
May | Engages Lemuel Serrell as patent attorney. |
1 July | Joins Pope, Ashley, Marshall Clifford Lefferts, and William Allen in establishing the American Printing Telegraph Co., an enterprise for providing private-line telegraphs. |
3 August | Signs an agreement with Daniel Craig to invent an improved perforator for automatic telegraphy. |
1 October | Signs an agreement with George Harrington making them partners in the American Telegraph Works and providing Edison with funds for automatic telegraph experiments. |
19 October | Negotiates with Marshall Lefferts to sell his newly designed universal private-line printer to Gold and Stock. |
c. 26 October | Charles Batchelor begins employment at the American Telegraph Works. |
28 November | The Automatic Telegraph Co. is incorporated and Harrington is named president. |
1 December | Pope, Edison & Co. announces its dissolution. |
1871 | |
Winter–Spring | Designs perforators, transmitters, ink recorders, and typewriters for automatic telegraphy. |
4 April | Gives Harrington power of attorney for disposition of Edison’s share in all inventions relating to automatic telegraphy. |
9 April | Edison’s mother, Nancy, dies in Port Huron. |
April–May | Moves the Newark Telegraph Works from Railroad Ave. to Ward St. and changes the company’s name to Edison and Unger. |
Page xli | |
April–May | Manufactures his cotton instrument, developed for Gold and Stock under his contract with Field and Andrews. |
26 May | Sells the rights to his existing and future printing telegraph patents to Gold and Stock and becomes the company’s consulting electrician. |
28–29 July | Begins series of four notebooks to record his inventive work on printing, automatic, and other forms of telegraphy. |
August | Begins manufacturing his universal stock printer for Gold and Stock. |
October | Employs Mary Stilwell for his News Reporting Telegraph Co., which sought to provide general and commercial news in Newark. |
22 November | Purchases his first house, located on Wright St. in Newark. |
28 November | Buys stock in the street railway of his brother, William Pitt Edison, in Port Huron. |
25 December | Marries Mary Stilwell. |
1872 | |
15–17 January | Designs a district telegraph that he assigns to the American District Telegraph Co. |
27 January | Transforms his universal private-line printer into an electric typewriter for automatic telegraphy. |
January–February | Fills laboratory notebooks with variations for his universal stock printer and his universal private-line printer. |
5 February | Becomes a partner in J. T. Murray and Co., which later becomes Edison and Murray. |
May | Delivers first models of improved universal private-line printer to Gold and Stock. |
May–June | Supplies his universal stock printer to the Exchange Telegraph Co. of London. |
3 July | Agrees to purchase Unger’s share in Edison and Unger, thereby dissolving their partnership. |
5 November | Makes an agreement with Josiah Reiff to provide Edison with an annual salary while he works on automatic telegraph improvements. |
14 December | The Automatic Telegraph Co. opens for business using Edison’s automatic telegraph improvements. |
Fall | Conducts tests of his automatic telegraph system on the lines of the Automatic Telelgraph Co. and the Southern and Atlantic Telegraph Co. |
1873 | |
c 10 February | Meets with William Orton, president of Western Union, and makes a verbal agreement to develop duplex telegraphy. |
18 February | Edison’s first daughter, Marion Estelle (“Dot”), is born in Newark. |
Page xlii | |
31 March | Agrees to develop a roman letter automatic telegraph for Harrington and Reiff. |
9–22 April | Prepares ten patent applications on duplex telegraphy. |
23 April | Leaves for England. |
23–27 May | Conducts tests of his automatic telegraph system for the British Post Office. |
c. 1–15 June | Conducts tests of his automatic telegraph on a cable stored at the Greenwich works of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Co. |
25 June | Arrives back in the United States. |