B. FIRST BATCH

The following is from a typescript that Edison revised (“Pencil indicates Mr. Edison’s revision” is written on the front); see Volume One, p. 646. Two of its 81 paragraphs ostensibly Page 692 deal with the period covered by this volume; however, there is no evidence to corroborate the date of section 51, and in section 59 Edison misdated his acoustic transfer telegraph experiments and the visit of William Thomson to 1879.

[51]^a When I started at Menlo Park, I had an electric furnace for melting rare metals I did not know about clearly. I was in the dark room, when I had a lot of chloride of silvesulphur,^b a very corrosive liquid. I did not know that it would decompose by water. I poured a beaker full of water, and the whole thing exploded, and threw a lot of it into my eyes. I ran to the hydrant and leaned over backwards, opened my eyes and ran the hydrant water right into them. But it was two weeks before I could see.

D. BOOK NO. 2

This undated notebook contains a mix of narratives, questions, and notes in Edison’s hand; see Volume One, p. 648. Ten items pertain to the period covered by this volume; section 225 also refers to work with an elevated railway years later.

[167] Trouble with Bear

[225] When TCM 1st met u fall 1877 u wr rather deafPage 693 whats true story of beginning of this deafness its attributed to injury to ear drum by angry conductor or train official in 1877 it didn’t interfere in any way with work on telephone or phonogh nor with tests for elevated RR stoping noise.^a

[248] Kelvin says referg to his visit Phila Centennial 1876— “saw Es auto telgh delivering 1015 words in 57 sec Can you tell us anything abt this exhibit it was never referred to before—

[249] Have you any personal reminiscences of taking up telephone—

[253] K Killing potato bugs Bisulphate^b

[292] 1st Exhibit in Scientific Ams ofs^b

[304] Invented Hello for telephn^c

[328] One week blinded kby putting water in Chi Sulpher^c

[340] 1876— Exhibted 8 message at once over wire tuning forks Foreign electns couldnt grasp Kelvin did at once & commenced Explain it to his friends—^b

[341] [---] Bear got loose Menlo—^b

AD, NjWOE, Lab., N-09-06-27. ^aFollowed by centered horizontal lines. ^bEntry overwritten with a large “X”. ^cEntry overwritten with a large check mark.

G. MR. EDISON’S NOTES

The following is a transcription of relevant portions of a typescript titled “Mr. Edison’s notes in Book No. 2,” probably prepared by William Meadowcroft in 1908 or 1909 (see Volume Two, p. 781). Six of its sections either involve the period of Volume Three to some extent or refer to Menlo Park but are of otherwise indefinite date. Another section, 19, which confuses together accurate and highly inaccurate points relating to widely disparate years, is included here for its reference to Jay Gould’s conflict with Western Union Telegraph Co.

[17] In 1876, I started again to experiment for the W.U. and Mr. Orton, this time it was the telephone. Bell invented the first telephone, which consisted of the present receiver, which was used both as a transmitter and a receiver. It was attempted to introduce it commercially, but failed on account of its faintness and the extraneous sounds which came in on the wires from various sources. Mr. Orton wanted me to take hold of it and make it commercial. As I had been also working on aPage 694 telegraph system employing tuning forks simultaneously with both Bell and Gray, I was pretty familiar with the subject. I started in and soon produced the carbon transmitter now universally used (see final litigation on telephone—Berliner—Judge’s opinion).

[18] Tests were made between N.Y. and Phila. Also between N.Y. and Washington, using regular W.U. wires. The noises were so great that not a word could be heard with the Bell receiver when used as a transmitter between N.Y. and Newark. Mr. Orton and W. A. Vanderbilt, and the Board of Directors witnessed and took part in the tests. The W.U. then started in to put them on private lines. Mr. Theodore Puskas of Budapest, Hungary was the first man to suggest a telephone exchange and soon after exchanges were established. The telephone department was put in the hands of Hamilton McKay Twombly, Vanderbilt’s ablest son-in-law, who made a success of it. The Bell Company in Boston, also started an exchange, and the fight was on the W.U. pirating the Bell receiver and the Boston Co. pirating the W.U. Transmitter. About this time, I wanted to be taken care of. I threw out hints of this desire. Then Mr. Orton sent for me. He had learned that inventors didn’t do business by the regular process and concluded he would close it right up. He asked me how much I wanted. I had made up my mind that it certainly was worth $25,000, if it ever amounted to anything for central station work, so that was the sum I had made up my mind to stick to and get obstinate; still it had been an easy job and only required a few months and I felt a little shaky and uncertain. So I asked him to make me an offer. He promptly said he would give me $100,000. All right I said, it yours on one condition and that is that you do not pay it all at once, but pay it to me at the rate of $6,000. per year for 17 years—the life of the patent. He seemed only too pleased to do this and it was closed. My ambition was about four sizes too large for my business capacity and I knew that I would soon spend this money experimenting if I got it all at once, so I fixed it so I could’nt. I saved 17 years of worry by this stroke.

[19] Soon after, the Page patent, which had been in the patent office for years was finally issued. It covered the use of a magnet contact point and sub-magnet. There was no known way, whereby this patent could be evaded and its possessor would eventually control the use of what is known as the relay and sounder and this was vital to telegraphy. Gould was pounding the W.U. on the exchange, disturbing its railroadPage 695 contracts and being advised by his lawyers that this patent was of great value, bought it. The moment Mr. Orton heard this, he sent for me and explained the situation and wanted me to go to work immediately to see if I could’nt evade or discover some other means that could be used in case Gould sustained the patent. It seemed a pretty hard job, because there was no known means of moving a lever at the other end of a telegraph wire except the use of a magnet. I said I would go at it that night. In experimenting some years previously, I discovered a very peculiar phenomenon, and that was that when a piece of metal connected to a battery was rubbed over a moistened piece of chalk, resting on a metal connected to the other pole, that when the current passed the friction was greatly diminished, and when the current was reversed the friction was greatly increased over what it was when no current was passing. Remembering this, I substituted a piece of chalk rotated by a small electric motor for the magnet and connecting a sounder the combination claim of Page was made worthless, a hitherto unknown means was introduced in the electric art. Two or three of the devices were made and tested by the Company’s expert. Mr. Orton, after he had me sign the patent and got it in the Patent Office, wanted to settle for it at once. He asked my price. Again I said—make me an offer; again he named $100,000. I accepted providing he would pay it at a rate of $6,000 a year for 17 years. This was done, and this with the telegraph money received $12,000. yearly for the period from the W.U. Tel. Co.

[24] In 1877, I invented the phonograph. The invention was brought about in this way. I was experimenting on an automatic method of recording telegraph messages on a disk of paper laid on a revolving platten, exactly the same as the disk talking machine of today. The platten had a volute spiral groove on its surface, like the disk. Over this was placed a circular disk of paper, an electromagnet with an embossing point connected to an arm travelled over the disk and any signals given the magnets was embossed on the disk of paper. If this disk was removed from the machine, and put on another similar machine provided with a contact point, the embossed record would cause the signals to be repeated into another wire. The ordinary speed of telegraphic signals is 35 to 40 words a minute, but with this machine several hundred words were possible. From my experiments on the telephone I knew of the power of a diaphragm to take up sound vibrations, as I had made a little toy which when you recited loudly in the funnelPage 696 would work a pawl connected to the diaphragm and this engaging in a ratchet wheel served to give continuous rotation to a pulley. This pulley was connected by a cord to a little paper toy representing a man sawing wood. Hence, if one shouted Mary had a little lamb, etc., the paper man would start sawing wood I reached the conclusion that if I could record the movements of the diaphragm properly I could cause such record to reproduce the original movements imparted to the diaphragm by the voice and thus succeed in recording and reproducing the human voice.

[25] Instead of using a disk, I designed a little machine using a cylinder provided with grooves around the surface. Over this was to be placed tin-foil, which easily received and recorded the movements of the diaphragm. A sketch was made and the piece work price $18. was marked on the sketch. I was in the habit of marking the price I would pay on each sketch. If the workman lost, I would pay his regular wages; if he made more than the wages he kept it. The workman who got the sketch was John Kreuzi, who in after years became Chief Engineer of the General Electric Company. I did’nt have much faith that it would work, expecting that I might possibly hear a word or so that would give hope of a future for the idea. Kreuzi, when he had nearly finished it, asked what it was for. I told him that I was going to record talking, and then have the machine talk back. He thought it absurd. However, it was finished, the foil put on; I then shouted Mary had a little lamb, etc. I adjusted the reproducer and the machine reproduced it perfectly. I never was so taken back in my life. Everybody was astonished. I was always afraid of things that worked the first time. Long experiments proved that there was great drawbacks generally found before they could be got commercial, but here was something that there was no doubt of.

[26] I worked at it all night and we fixed it up to get the best results. That morning I took it over to N.Y. and walked into the office of the Scientific American, walked up to Mr. Beech’s desk and said I had something new to show him. He asked what it was. I told him I had a machine that would record and reproduce the human voice. I opened the package set up the machine and recited Mary, etc., then I reproduced it so it could be heard all over the room. They kept me at it until the crowds got so great that Mr. Beech was afraid the floor would collapse and we were compelled to stop. The papers next morning contained columns. None of the writers seemed to understand how it was done. I tried to explain it was so veryPage 697 very simple, but the results were so surprising that they probably made up their mind beforehand that they could never understand it, and they did’nt.

[37] At Menlo Park one day a farmer came in and asked if I knew any way to kill potato bugs; he had 20 acres of potatoes and the vines were being destroyed. I sent men out and culled two quarts of bugs and tried every chemical I had to destroy them. Bisulphide of Carbon was found to do it, instantly. I got a drum and went over to the potato farm and sprinkled it on the vines with a sprinkling pot; every bug dropped dead. The next morning the farmer came in very excited and reported that the stuff had killed the vines as well. I had to pay $300. for not experimenting properly.

TD (transcript), NjWOE, Meadowcroft. Because this transcription of Edison’s manuscript is presented only as a reference text, typographical errors have not been reproduced or noted.