[D8942AAM], Letter from Harold P Brown to Thomas Alva Edison, December 30th, 1889
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Title
[D8942AAM], Letter from Harold P Brown to Thomas Alva Edison, December 30th, 1889
Editor's Notes
Dec. 30, 1889 My dear Mr. Edison, I inclose a clipping from the London (England) St. James Gazette of Dec. 21, which evidently shows sir John Pender has been misquoting a certain Mr. Edison of the U.S of America. ---- reply which you came to make I can have cabled to the London News. Sincerely yours, Harold P. Brown Please return clipping [ENCLOSED CLIPPING] The Electric Light In the Metropolis##Mr. Edison’s Opinion##sir John Pender presided yesterday at the second ordinary general meeting of the Metropolitan Electric Supply Company, Limited, which was held at Winchester house, Old Broad-street, and in moving the adoption of the report, said they looked upon the period of last year as one wherein the foundations of success had been effectually laid. The areas of the company embraced most of the theatres, restaurants, and shops in the neighborhood of Holborn, Oxford-street, and the strand, Chancery-lane and Lincoln’s Inn and other residential places, which gave them ample scope for work. They had laid down four miles of mains, and were under contract to supply the Hotel Victoria, and the Gaiety and Drury Lane Theatres. They were able to put in more than double the present number of installations, and new contracts for 6,000 lights had been taken up. At present they were supplying 15,000 lights, and it was estimated that these would produce a revenue of about £20,00 a year. When two other stations were completed they would supply 80,000 lights with a gross revenue of £9,000. When Mr. Edison was in England in the autumn, he (the chairman) took him over the works, and Mr. Edison said, :You are on the right way. You are applying the science in a thoroughly practical way. You are doing that which cannot fail to be a success. There is no city so well suited for electric light as London. You have a large area and a large population, and about the worst weather you can possibly have—(laughter)—so that electric lighting becomes a practical necessity.” That day he (the chairman) has received a telegram from Mr. Edison stating there were sixty companies of a similar character in America paying from 6 per cent, to 20 per cent, that city were now paying 9 per cent, while a large increase was expected when they got into full-working order. Sir Robert Fowler, M.P., seconded the motion, which after a brief conversation was unanimously adopted.##[next page: directors
Author
Recipient
Mentioned
Date
1889-12-30
Type
Folder/Volume ID
D8942-F
Microfilm ID
126:690
Document ID
D8942AAM
Publisher
Thomas A. Edison Papers, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University