[D8942AAG], Letter from Waterhouse Winterbotham and Harrison to Thomas Alva Edison, September 26th, 1889
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Title
[D8942AAG], Letter from Waterhouse Winterbotham and Harrison to Thomas Alva Edison, September 26th, 1889
Editor's Notes
26th Sept 1889####Dear Sir####Your Indian & Colonial Electric Light Patents####We enclose a copy of a letter which we addressed to you yesterday, sending it under cover to Sir John Pender at Foots Gray, & this morning in pursuance of that letter hoping to find you at sir John’s town house one Mr. Harrison attended at Arlington Street & learnt that you had left London for Paris this morning.####We therefore beg to enclose the Deed of Assignment of Patents referred to in our letter of yesterday for execution by you in the presence of one Witness who if possible should have a London address.####All costs of this Assignment have to be borne by the Australian Cos. If however you require a License to use the Patents for locomotion such license must be at your cost. We have therefore only provided in the Dead that the License shall be granted if & when you require it.####We are sorry that we missed you whilst you were in this country as we should have preferred to explain the matter to you personally. You may take it however that the Deed of Assignment has been most carefully perused by us on your behalf & that it goes no further than the terms of the Agreement of March 1883 between yourself and Edison’s Indian & Colonial Electric Cos as modified by the Agreement between that Company and the Australasian Electric Light Power & Storage Cos of May 1886.####We enclose an envelope for return of the Deed.####We should be glad to avoid troubling you on business while you are in Paris but the extreme urgency of the matter must be our excuse.####We are, dear Sir,####Yours very faithfully,#### Waterhouse, Winterbottom & Harrison####[Enclosure]:####1 New Court####Lincoln’s Inn####25th Sept 1889####Dear Sir####Your Indian & Colonial Electric Light Patents####We take the opportunity of your presence in this country to address you on this subject.####You will remember that the consideration to be paid to you by Edison’s Indian & Colonial Electric Cos for the Colonial Patents was the sum of £25,000 cash 5,000 A shares & 10,,000 B shares. This sum of cash was paid to you on the exchange of the Agreements for sale & the A shares were shortly after allotted to you. By a special Resolution in 1884 the 10,000 B shares were reduced to 5,000 & as far as we are aware these shares were never allotted to you. Under the Agreement they were not to be issued & allotted until the assignments of the Patents by you to the Company which has not been completed. We are now informed that by Agreement dated the 20th of May 1886 the interest of the Edison Indian & Colonial Electric Cos in the Patents was made over to the Australasian Electric Light Power & Storage Cos you being a party to the Agreement & by this Agreement --- we are informed you waived your right to receive the 5,000 B shares above referred to & released the Edison Colonial Cos & the Directors from any claim in respect thereof.####Of the above facts you were probably informed through Mr. [Berman?] of Messrs. J.S Morgan & Co: in whose name the A shares were registered jointly with yourself & Messrs [Fabbre & Lowrey?]. We are now asked by the Australasian Cos to obtain your execution to the Deed of Assignment of the Colonial Patents to that Company & the Draft of such a deed has been sent to us for perusal on your behalf & we expect to receive the agreement for execution by you tomorrow morning.####If the representations made to us are correct you are now [bound?] to execute the Deed of Assignments reserving only to yourself the use of the Patents for purposes of locomotion on railways, tramways or on common roads & you have no claim to the above mentioned B shares. We have approved the Draft on your behalf on this basis & have inserted in it a covenant by the Australasian Cos at any time on demand to grant to you the exclusive license above mentioned.####We write this in order that you may recall the facts before you receive the Deed of Assignment for execution which we hope to send to you tomorrow morning. This it is desired if possible you should execute before you leave this country as time is of importance to the Company.####May we ask you to be kind enough to let us have a line if possible by return of post to say where it would be convenient for you to execute the Deed in question & whether you would wish to see any member of our firm before executing it.####We are, dear Sir,####Yours very faithfully,####(Signed) Waterhouse, Winterbotham & Harrison######Thomas Alva Edison Esq####To Sir John Pender####Foots Cray####[name mentions: Waterhouse, Winterbotham & Harrison, Thos Edison, Edison Indian & Colonial Electric Co, Australasian Electric Light Power & Storage Cos, Sir John Pender, [Fabbre & Lowrey?], J.[P?] Morgan & Co.]
Recipient
Date
1889-09-26
Type
Folder/Volume ID
D8942-F
Microfilm ID
126:678
Document ID
D8942AAG
Publisher
Thomas A. Edison Papers, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University