Letterhead of William J. Hammer, Consulting Electrical Engineer
1406 Havemeyer Building,
26 Cortland St.
New York,
May 20th, 1902.
Thomas A. Edison, Esq.,
Orange, N. J.
My Dear Mr. Edison:-
Mr. Eugene Lewis called me up on the telephone yesterday to inquire what the status was regarding your patent No. 485,971 on "Means of Transmitting Signals Electrically."
He said that he was expecting to bring the question of the purchase of this patent before the Marconi Company, and that Mr. F. H Betts had informed him that Mr. Hammer had already brought the matter up through Mr. Bradfield, Mr. Marconi's assistant.
Mr. Lewis wanted to know just how matters stood so that there would not be any complication in presenting the matter to the Company.
I told him that you had authorized me to see some wireless telegraph pole, and I had already approached two different companies; that you had informed me subsequently that Mr. Lewis was going to present the matter to the Marconi Company; and that you had assured me that you would personally take care of me should the Marconi Company take the patent over.
I told Mr. Lewis that I would send you a letter to this effect.
<Write Hammer not to see Mr Fish or any telephone people: that I did not want him as a business negotiator but only asked him to ascertain who [illegible] using them that I can personally negotiate very much better than he could>
<E>
<Answered May 22 1902>
[TAE Marginalia] I have also seen a number of [parties?] regarding several other patents of yours; and in looking over various incandescent lamp patents and motor patents I find that nearly all of these have been assigned to the General Electric Company.
I have prepared a very complete classification of all of your patents, and have as far as possible endeavored to find out which patents have been assigned to the General Electric Company and others.
After consulting with Mr. Dyer's office I find that to make certain about some of the letter patents it would probably be necessary to have some one go to Washington and make a search of their records, as the various assignments of your patents have passed through different offices,- principally those of Messrs. Eaton and Lewis and of Mr. Blodgett, formerly at Schenectady, and certain others through Dyer's office.
I have returned to Mr. Randolph a copy of all the papers which I took from your files for use of the Board of Patent Control, and have given him a binder containing those various papers, including the Edison-Villard contact, Edison-Biederman contract, etc., in case you desire to refer to these.
I have gone over your contract of 1890-'95 between yourself and the Edison General Electric Company and the North American agreement covering the same date between yourself, the Edison General Electric Company and the North American Company, and I hope to see you shortly regarding the bearings of these contracts on R. R. pat- If you have no objection I should like to have Mr. Randolph look up your old Western Union contracts and see whether the Western Union or Bell Company have any claim on your recent telephone patents. I think I could make an arrangement with the Bell Telephone Company through Mr. Fish, or a gentleman in this city prominently connected with the Independent Telephone interests.
Hoping to see you regarding these matters at an early date, I remain,
Yours very truly,
W. J. Hammer

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