The Thomas A. Edison Papers Digital Edition

Transcription

Marenisco Mich
My Dear Edison:
July 17 '02
I enclose letter from Rafn which I have just received and answered.
I have also written Stewart saying that if he was free when the foreign letter patents were exploited I would try & use him if we could make a satisfactory [illegible]. Regarding Austria I said that I could give him no answer now and could not say how I would handle that country. This letter I return herewith. R W. Wallace's letter is most interesting. Personally he is a most interesting gentleman & did do some good work for which I have always given him credit.
He has a smattering of chemistry & electricity which has cost him a great deal of money & his friends have not profited by this knowledge.
Many times he has tried to draw me out regarding the battery at [illegible] he has given me but I always said I knew nothing of its workings or of the patent matters. And he asked me to cable you asking that he be placed in charge of your patent matters and I refused. He has the reputation of being a most brilliant patent lawyer & has won many large important cases in the past but of late he has been interested largely in compromises. He is Chairman of the British Automobile Club also the Aero Club. He does not understand the principles on which your battery works and his recital of the way your patents should be drawn was most extraordinary. He is a shrewd brilliant fellow who is most anxious to make a stroke to better his impaired financial condition which should not really count against him. This is the only man in England who has had a clear understanding & conception of Dunderland & he is right when he says that he urged haste in the flotation. Personally I like him & under firm hands and perhaps on account of his great experience be a good man in the battery business but not in the way he proposes. As he does not understand your battery I believe that he really is honest in thinking he is doing you a favor in writing you that he controlls the Junger patents. As I have always refused to talk battery with him on the ground that I knew nothing of them or their workings I believe it would be best for you to reply to his letter. I heard in London that he sunk $190,000 trying to improve the present lead battery. He owns [some] very fine electrical turnouts in London and is Chairman of a Company which makes electric vehicles. This by the way has been recently reorganized by him after sinking about £100,000
I don't understand why he should urge that the Construction Co should exploit the foreign battery patents. He heard you say that this matter was in my hands when we were all lunching at your house. He has urged me let him in in some way when I began the  business abroad. His holding of the Construction Company stock is so small that it would hardly count in a division of the spoils.
I don't believe their is hardly a corporation in England  more incompetent to do work of this character than the Construction Company. I don't understand what he means when he says that he told me he controlled Jungers patents. He did not tell me this and the only knowledge I had of his interest in Junger was what Stewart told you and I at the Laboratory at the time both Wallace Laurence were in America
You will probably also remember that neither Mr Lawrence or Wallace mentioned Jungers patents when they were there although Stewart who was there at the same time said that they had an [option] on them.
He says in his letter that he has the option so it may be that Lawrence did not go in with him. Mr Lawrence has not mentioned Junger patents to me. I imagine you will write him on the lines that you intend to stand "pat" this time on your invention
I noticed by the patent list Dyer sent me (I asked him to send you a copy) that in several of the countries taxes are due early next year.
[Working?] due in France early next year (Feb 5). Same in Italy & Spain. We can fix that up when I come down this autumn. If necessary we can assemble a few batteries in each of these countries or take such other action as you think best.
Yours sincerely
H E Dick