[D8239ZGB1], Letter from Thomas Alva Edison to Edison Electric Light Co Ltd, November 1882
https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/document/D8239ZGB1
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Title
[D8239ZGB1], Letter from Thomas Alva Edison to Edison Electric Light Co Ltd, November 1882
Editor's Notes
[TAE autogrpaph draft of D8239ZGE]: [probably 1st half of 1882] {Useful reference & highly quotable.} Memorandum of things the British parent co. should do. Cut expenses. Have man sent here for training in how to determine network for conductors. Establish licencees, take small sum in cash and more in shares. Bergmann & Co., Tube Co, and Machine Works will bid for work. Lamp Co will furnish lamps. Suggest forming co to take over Holborn and light 1/2 square mile London district. Don't sell lamps to anyone who wants them, this is "small fry business and will hurt the reputation you will acquire in the future" because people judge an entire installation by the lamps. Don't worry if you fail to stop an infringer; wait and try him on another point later. If we're proven infringers on any point I can get around that. Am now taking out new patents that are well drawn and "will probably stand the test, it is fugure patents that will secure the system that replaces gas with great profit. The patents I am now taking out are more valuable than those already taken. Those already taken were to secure if possible the science of the thing. Those I am now taking are commercial." Don't stop an infringer who's losing money but "give him plenty of rope." Sell light or power ONLY, don't sell electricity. It's been said that my estimate shows we can't compete with gas but "the cheapening process has been going on since that estimate" so will estimate anew. "I have nursed the baby so far and I believe I can continue to do so without any extraneous aid, especially from those who said the baby would never be boen and when born would never live, and now that it lives wants to change the manner of nursing. If I should fail in any particular, it will then be time to call in other inventors."
Supplied year and month
Author
Recipient
Date
1882-11-00
Type
Subject
Folder/Volume ID
D8239-F
Microfilm ID
68:214
Document ID
D8239ZGB1
Publisher
Thomas A. Edison Papers, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University