March 11, 90
FOREIGN [illegible] BUSINESS.
My dear Mr. Edison,-
I attended a meeting of the Directors of the Toy Phonograph Co. in Boston yesterday, and the offer of Mr. Schneckel details of which I gave you in my letter under date March 8th, was rejected. I am trying to convince these people that their policy is to establish a genuine business abroad and consider the matter of selling out if they please afterwards. He could get two or three times as much for an established trade so we can get now for something which the Capitalize value chiefly from a standpoint of patents. The Boston people seem to be inclining my way.
PHONOGRAPH WORKS. On Saturday there were employed at the
Phonograph Works 510 men
Mr. [illegible] 209
Number of employed this week 855[?]
Of that, [illegible] are at work at the phonograph proper, and [illegible[ are employed in connection with the manufacture of dolls. This will reduce the pay roll at the works plants [illegible] work DOLL DELIVERIES. As you know there has been a great deal of delay in getting the dolls out of the factory. The Inspector of the Toy Company has accepted 1050 dolls up to Saturday last. Yesterday he accepted 32, and today will accept 100. During the past few weeks Mr. Batchelor has given this matter a great deal of his personal attention, as a result of which dolls are commencing to come out in good shape. I think that within a couple of weeks, the Phono. Works can turn out 500 per day.
DOLL PRICES. I enclose herewith a copy of a letter which I addressed to the General Manager of the Toy Phono Co. quoting prices in connection with manufacture. Those figures were given me by Mr. Batchelor, and the Toy people are very well satisfied with them.
NICKEL-SLOT BUSINESS. I have just had a telephone message from Lippincott, saying that as yet he hasn't heard anything from [illegible] people in regard to the proposition which he submitted to them some time ago, a copy of which I sent you. Early in the [illegible] of these negotiations, Lippincott restricted all of his own companies not to enter into contract for [remainder of page illegible] delay is not the result of any underhand work on the part of Cheever's people in the way of entering into fresh contracts. with sub-companies, unless, of course, the latter disregard for Mr. Lippincott's notification, which I do not think probable. Cheever says the trouble is that Gilliland has been sick, I know that this is true. He had a very close call.
BATTERY. As you know, I have made estimates for a large number of railways for the equipment of their telegraph lines. These are now commencing to bear fruit. I received an order this morning from the Fall Break Coal Co., Corning, N.Y., for the equipment of one of their wires, 150 cells of our 300 ampere hour Telegraph Model. The statistics on the battery business are as follows:-
Sales
"A" cells (15 ampere hour, Telephone Model)
Practically all of the above are cells purchased by dealers for test. Kelly has not yet got down to solid business on their work.
"E" (150 ampere hour cell) 31. The minority of them have been sold for open circuit work in connection with railway signals &c., and they have not been in service long enough for us to obtain any reports on them, as I was only able to get them from the factory ten days or two weeks ago, I advised you previously.
"G" (300 ampere hour, Telegraph Model.) I have included in this number the cells ordered by the Fall Brook Coal Co. The balance of these are in service on the R.R. in a few are in use [illegible] with the Phonoplex. Total number sold 1,901
"K" (30C ampere hour, Phonograph Model,) about 700 of these are in connection with the Phonoplex, and the balance are distributed among the various Phonograph Companies.
Of, our other types, "F" (600 ampere hours), and "I" (900 ampere hours), a few have been sent out for test--about half a dozen. This makes a total of about 2,600 cells in use, which, of course, is small, but will rapidly increased when we get through this preliminary work.
LABORATORY BILLS. You will be glad to know that I have completed the work of getting out the bills for experiments of 1889. These bills cover every experiment which you conducted, excepting three, which are "Bug Killer," Kinetoscope and "Preserving Beef." They are all, of course, in our customary form, all detailed, and as requested by Mr. Insull; I have left blank the names of the people to whom they are to be rendered. All that is necessary to do is to go through the list and name the [illegible] to whom we are to charge these various experiments. I have, of course, sent off our regular accounts, much as Gouraud [illegible] & Co., Phono, Works, Lamp Co., & c. In regard to Gouraud's bills, I have a letter from [illegible] today in which he states that Gouraud will send me a check for about [illegible]. Gouraud said that [illegible] bills through in [illegible]. I thought that through my accident[?] we might leave them behind [illegible] and there by cause further delay, so I had a duplicate set made and sent them to his London office, with the request that they be checked immediately. In this duplicate set I attached to each bill covering the various shipments, a duplicate shipping receipt from the Express Companies which carried the goods, and copies of our letters of notification which were addressed to Gouraud's office in London at the time we made the shipments. The chances are that when the Colonel gets to London he will find that these bills have already been checked and ourselves notified of the fact.
Yours very truly,
A.O. Tate

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