[D9202AAX], Letter from Sherburne Blake Eaton to Thomas Alva Edison, March 12th, 1892
https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/document/D9202AAX
Transcription
New York, March 12, 1892 Received Mar 141892 Ans’d March 14th 1892 Dear Mr. Edison: We have brought Hernig on from St. Louis to prove that the rubber spring now found on your old motor at Menlo Park was really there in 1880. H. remembers all about it and makes positive statements showing that the Spring was there at that time. Still the best testimony is that of the Inventor. In order to be absolutely certain to prove the existence of the Spring in1880 we have to examine you to prove that one fact. We shall not do so, however, unless it is agreed that you shall not be occupied more than half an hour or so by both sides. Of course I shall not trouble if we can possibly avoid it. Our attempt to get some legislation on corporation law out of the New Jersey Legislature was a failure. We arranged to have a bill passed during the last two days of the Session, which ended yesterday, at a cost of $5,000. But the Reading Railway and Lehigh Valley Railway came to the Legislature on those two days to get a bill passed legalizing the recent railway lease. They had $250,000 to spend. On Thursday they distributed $65,000 among the members of the Assembly. On Friday they spent an additional $100,000 among the members of the Senate, paying $50,000 for the last two votes required. The Legislature adjourned on Friday. The excitement and demoralization caused by these big bribes made it impossible for us to get attention paid to the small fry of our bid. Very truly yours, S.B. Eaton