Seeking to replicate the success of his New York electric central station throughout the United States and in Europe and Latin America, Thomas A. Edison vowed to become a "business man for a year." This bold decision began a remarkable transition period for America's greatest inventive thinker. The seventh volume of Edison's papers chronicles the profound changes in his professional and personal life, including the unexpected death of his wife. It concludes with Edison returning to the laboratory to develop new communications technology.
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In its superabundance of detail — steely facts and figures, great plates of text riveted with nouns and graffitied with cryptic drawings (Edison was an untrained but natural draftsman) — the book has the same kind of physical impact as that which stuns you when you enter his laboratory in West Orange, N.J.
(Edmund Morris New York Times Book Review 2012)Review
A mine of material... Scrupulously edited... No one could ask for more... A choplicking feast for future Edison biographers—well into the next century, and perhaps beyond.
(Washington Post )What is most extraordinary about the collection isn't necessarily what it reveals about Edison's inventions... It's the insight into the process.
(Associated Press )Those interested in America's technological culture can eagerly look forward to the appearance of each volume of the Edison Papers.
(Technology and Culture )His lucidity comes through everywhere... His writing and drawing come together as a single, vigorous thought process.
(New York Times )A triumph of the bookmaker's art, with splendidly arranged illustrations, essential background information, and cautionary reminders of the common sources on which Edison's imagination drew.
(New York Review of Books )In the pages of this volume Edison the man, his work, and his times come alive... A delight to browse through or to read carefully.
(Science )Beyond its status as the resource for Edison studies, providing a near inexhaustible supply of scholarly fodder, this series... will surely become a model for such projects in the future... The sheer diversity of material offered here refreshingly transcends any exclusive restriction to Edisonia.
(British Journal for the History of Science )
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From "The Thomas Edison Papers" at Rutgers University: <<During much of the period covered in this volume, Edison was busy overseeing the construction of central station plants in towns and cities across the United States, as well as in Europe and South America. Edison's hope was to replicate the success of the central station electrical plant he had opened on Pearl Street in New York in 1882. Edison also had to deal with the tragic loss of his first wife, Mary, and this volume provides the first detailed account of her death.
Meeting resistance to his ideas from the directors of the Edison Electric Lighting Co., Edison, resolved to become "a businessman for a year" formed a new entity--the Construction Department--to carry on the work of building central stations in the U.S. By the end of 1884, sixteen such plants had either been built or were under construction. Ultimately, a generally depressed capital market and the difficulties Edison encountered in collecting monies owed to him and his companies hampered his ability to develop the central station business. This led him to reorganize his lighting businesses in 1884 and return to the laboratory.
Volume 7 also deals with the loss of Edison's first wife Mary, who died suddenly at Menlo Park on 9 Aug. 1884, an event that left him, according to his daughter Marion, "shaking with grief, weeping and sobbing." The official diagnosis was "congestion of the brain," sufficiently vague to leave an air of mystery about Mary's death, a mystery which subsequent rumor and speculation have deepened. While Volume 7 does not provide definitive answers regarding Mrs. Edison's last days, new research does lay to rest some erroneous speculations and provides some new information about the circumstances of her death and her husband's reaction. In the month following his wife's death, Edison became reacquainted with Ezra Gilliland, an old friend from his days as a telegrapher. Gilliland was in charge of American Bell Telephone's experimental shop in Boston, and he enlisted Edison's aid in improving telephone transmitters for long-distance lines. This brought Edison back to where he was most at home--the laboratory--and he dedicated the remainder of 1884 to developing new inventions.>>
Meeting resistance to his ideas from the directors of the Edison Electric Lighting Co., Edison, resolved to become "a businessman for a year" formed a new entity--the Construction Department--to carry on the work of building central stations in the U.S. By the end of 1884, sixteen such plants had either been built or were under construction. Ultimately, a generally depressed capital market and the difficulties Edison encountered in collecting monies owed to him and his companies hampered his ability to develop the central station business. This led him to reorganize his lighting businesses in 1884 and return to the laboratory.
Volume 7 also deals with the loss of Edison's first wife Mary, who died suddenly at Menlo Park on 9 Aug. 1884, an event that left him, according to his daughter Marion, "shaking with grief, weeping and sobbing." The official diagnosis was "congestion of the brain," sufficiently vague to leave an air of mystery about Mary's death, a mystery which subsequent rumor and speculation have deepened. While Volume 7 does not provide definitive answers regarding Mrs. Edison's last days, new research does lay to rest some erroneous speculations and provides some new information about the circumstances of her death and her husband's reaction. In the month following his wife's death, Edison became reacquainted with Ezra Gilliland, an old friend from his days as a telegrapher. Gilliland was in charge of American Bell Telephone's experimental shop in Boston, and he enlisted Edison's aid in improving telephone transmitters for long-distance lines. This brought Edison back to where he was most at home--the laboratory--and he dedicated the remainder of 1884 to developing new inventions.>>
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By J. Sullivan
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The these annotated papers to TE Edison are essential additions to the personal libraries of anyone interested in this monumental figure in American history.
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