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  • Page xxxiChronology of Thomas A. Edison

1878

1–3 January Exhibits phonograph at Western Union offices in New York.
3 January? Designs flywheel phonograph.
7 January Contracts for the development and manufacture of phonographic toys and clocks.
8–10 January Tests telephone at Western Union’s New York offices, further straining relations with company electricians.
12 January With George Prescott and Gerritt Smith, makes William Orton trustee of British quadruplex patent rights.
23 January Theodore Puskas leaves for Europe as Edison’s agent for the phonograph and telephone.
29–30 January With Charles Batchelor, visits Ansonia (Conn.) Clock Co. and experiments with applying the phonograph to clocks.
30 January Signs agreement for commercial exploitation of the phonograph in the United States.
January Makes flywheel phonographs to give to prominent scientific and technological figures.British investors in Edison’s automatic telegraph assert claim to the quadruplex, beginning prolonged legal contest.
January–February Edward Johnson undertakes lecture tours promoting Edison’s phonograph and carbon telephone.
1 February William Preece and John Tyndall demonstrate the phonograph at the Royal Institution in London, the first exhibition outside the United States.
4 February With Henry Bentley, begins testing the carbon telephone transmitter between New York and Philadelphia.
c. 6 February Completes design of small demonstration phonograph to be sold at the Paris Universal Exposition.
19 February Issued first phonograph patent.
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22 February Plans series of experiments to develop a telephone receiver that does not infringe Bell patents.
28 February Executes extensive phonograph and telephone caveats and executes three patent applications, for telephone stations and call-signal apparatus, for preventing interference between telephone lines, and for the aerophone.
1 March Sends James Adams to Philadelphia to assist Henry Bentley with telephone tests.
2–8 March Edward Johnson becomes general agent of prospective phonograph company and orders manufacture of first commercial phonographs.
11 March Theodore Puskas demonstrates the phonograph at the Academy of Sciences in Paris, the first public demonstration in Continental Europe.
c. 12 March Devises improved carbon telephone transmitter.
c. 15 March Begins negotiations with Western Union president William Orton for a new telephone contract with the company.
19 March Sends James Adams to London with telephone transmitters and receivers to be tested on British Post Office lines.
20 March First public demonstration of improved carbon telephone transmitter at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
Winter–Spring Experiments with hand-powered phonographs and attempts to develop clockwork-driven cylinder and disk phonographs. Expands Menlo Park laboratory staff.
22 March Signs agreement, negotiated by Theodore Puskas, with the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Co. for commercial exploitation of the phonograph in Great Britain.
26 March Notification of patent interferences marks beginning of long contest over telephone patents.
29 March The New York World publishes first description of Edison’s medicinal preparation for relieving pain (“polyform”).
March Newspapers begin extensive coverage of Edison, which helps to spread his fame and produces crowds of visitors to Menlo Park.
March–April Discusses with Gardiner Hubbard the possibility of BellTelephone Co. acquiring rights to the carbon transmitter.
1 April The New York Daily Graphic publishes April Fool’s hoax describing Edison’s “Food Creator.”
4 April Returns signed membership forms to the Theosophical Society.
6 April Makes first of several loans to Joseph Murray to pay back rent on Ward Street shop in Newark.
8 April Biographical sketch by George Bliss published in the Chicago Tribune.
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10 April Dubbed “Wizard of Menlo Park” by the New York Daily Graphic.
18–19 April Demonstrates phonograph for the National Academy of Sciences, members of Congress, and President Rutherford B. Hayes.
19 April The Washington Star publishes first account of Edison’s tasimeter principle and describes his hearing aid device, prompting numerous inquiries.
22 April William Orton dies.
24 April Edison Speaking Phonograph Co. is incorporated.
April Publishes “The Future of the Phonograph,” ghost-written by Edward Johnson, in the North American Review.
1 May Universal Exposition, with Edison exhibit, opens in Paris.
6 May Observes transit of Mercury with borrowed telescope.
c. 8 May Prompts Charles Harris to hire John Ott to develop toy phonograph at Menlo Park.
16 May Develops new tasimeter design.
22 May Visited by a delegation of Boston newspaper reporters and demonstrates telephones, the tasimeter, phonograph, and other acoustic devices.
29 May Executes second phonograph caveat, based on European patent specifications completed in early May.
30 May Demonstrates phonograph with Charles Batchelor and several other associates at the Convent of Mount St. Vincent, a Catholic girls’ school near Yonkers, N.Y.
31 May Executes agreement assigning telephone patents to Western Union for six thousand dollars annually for seventeen years.
May Edison Speaking Phonograph Co. hires James Redpath to manage phonograph exhibitions and begins training exhibitors.
May–June Develops new hand-crank phonograph for exhibition.Arranges phonograph and telephone sales agencies for Australia and Central and South America.
1 June Makes George Gouraud his agent for telephone in Great Britain.Stockton Griffin becomes Edison’s secretary.
2 June Starts nephew Charles Edison on experiments to develop a non-infringing telephone receiver, which continue through the end of the year.
8 June Publishes letter in the New York Daily Tribune asserting priority to microphone principle claimed by David Hughes, beginning protracted dispute.
12 June Orders twenty-five transmitting and receiving telephone sets for sale abroad from Partrick & Carter in Philadelphia.
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26 June Receives first honorary doctorate, from Union College in Schenectady, N.Y.
Spring Attempts to develop hearing aid and other acoustic devices.
3 July With Charles Batchelor, begins to investigate causes of noise along New York’s Metropolitan Elevated Railroad.
8 July Writes letter to the Chemical News asserting priority over Edwin Houston and Elihu Thomson for the telephone repeater.
13 July Leaves from New York with George Barker for solar eclipse expedition to Rawlins, Wyo., and a month-long vacation in the western United States.
17 July Begins funding Patrick Kenny’s facsimile telegraph experiments.
20 July Purchases hunting and fishing equipment in Laramie, Wyo.
29 July Attempts to measure heat of solar corona with tasimeter during total eclipse.
July–August Charles Batchelor and Edward Johnson make improvements to exhibition phonograph.
1–3 August Visits San Francisco.
c. 6–7 August Tours Yosemite and stays overnight in nearby Mariposa, Calif.
9 August Spends night at Virginia City, Nev., where he inspects mines and discusses problems of heat and ventilation in the shafts.
c. 15 August Goes hunting and fishing in Wyoming.
21 August Visits George Bliss in Chicago.
22 August Receives news of award of a Grand Prize from the Paris Universal Exposition.
23 August Presented as new member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at the annual meeting in St. Louis, and delivers a paper on the tasimeter.
24 August Returns to Chicago.
26 August Arrives in Menlo Park.
27 August Begins electric light experiments.
c. 1 September Edward Johnson begins exhibition of improved phonograph in New York City and later includes other Edison inventions.
8 September With Charles Batchelor, George Barker and Charles Chandler, visits William Wallace’s shop in Ansonia, Conn., to see electric light and power apparatus.
10 September Drafts first electric lighting caveat.
13–16 September Announces he has solved problem of incandescent electric lighting.
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c.14 September Receives dynamo from William Wallace.
19 September Begins to receive offers from prospective electric lighting investors.
21 September Theodore Puskas forms company for commercial exploitation of Edison and Elisha Gray telephones in France.
27 September Drafts second electric lighting caveat.
3 October Agrees to allow Grosvenor Lowrey to conduct negotiations with prospective investors.
5 October Executes first patent application for electric lighting.
5–18 October Works on new phonograph for business dictation.
16 October Edison Electric Light Co. incorporated, principally by investors connected with Western Union and Drexel, Morgan & Co.
23–26 October Confined to bed by facial neuralgia.
26 October Edison’s second son, William Leslie, is born in Menlo Park.
30 October Angered by investors’ concern over William Sawyer’s and Albon Man’s joint claim to priority in electric lighting.
October Executes four patent caveats on electric lighting.Purchases a new steam engine, a Weston dynamo, and a second Wallace dynamo.Begins construction of new machine shop and office buildings.
6 November Conducts telegraphic conversation with Lemuel Serrell about filing new lamp patent in Britain.
13 November Hires Francis Upton to conduct search of relevant technical and scientific literature in order to allay fears of Edison Electric Light Co. investors.
15 November Agrees to assign lighting patents to Edison Electric Light Company for thirty thousand dollars plus stock and royalties.
c. 20 November Designs two dynamos, one of which is included in a British patent application.
22 November Begins negotiating with Gold and Stock regarding new electromotograph telephone receiver.
23 November With Edison’s support, Uriah Painter and Edward Johnson take control of Edison Speaking Phonograph Co.
29–30 November Designs first electric meter.
November-December Displays various electric lighting devices at Menlo Park for Edison Electric Light Co. investors.Compares operating costs of gas, arc, and incandescent lighting systems.Negotiates through Grosvenor Lowrey with Drexel, Morgan & Co. for foreign rights to electric lighting inventions.
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3 December Executes first patent application for an electric generator, based on earlier tuning-fork engine.
14 December Laboratory workers begin moving equipment into new building.
c. 15 December Hires Francis Upton as mathematical and experimental assistant.

Acquires Siemens and Gramme dynamos and begins extensive tests of existing generator technology.
Late December Designs and begins to build new dynamo.

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