[MBLB3052], Letter from Charles Batchelor to Thomas Alva Edison, October 1st, 1881
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Title
[MBLB3052], Letter from Charles Batchelor to Thomas Alva Edison, October 1st, 1881
Editor's Notes
[copy of D8135ZCC] "Barker is working very hard for us. The main jury have delegated 20 men to make all the experiments and Barker has worked it so that there is not a single Englishman on the experimentaljury in incandescent lamps. Thinking this would not stand he has proposed Crookes who is very much opposed to Swan but who is favorable to Maxim however we are not sure he will serve. Barker is the only man who has done anything on testing incandescent lamps so will no doubt have it all his own way. He proposes to use my apparatus which I think will be accepted. I have carefully sounded Barker and he evidently depends on something you have said to him before. Anyhow he is working hard for us and ought to be taken care of as the others would gladly get him if they could. The doctor I am sorry to say is a perfect failure. I have had my hands full ever since I came here dispelling ideas he has put in Baileys Fabbris and Lowrey's head at different times regarding the worthlessness of our patents and I think there can be no greater dampener to a big thin like this than to have a man like him around, a man who is always hunting up any weak points in our system and laying them before the very men whose confidence we want most. I have had a number of rows with him about it but he evidently thinks he is doing good for the company. I will cite one instance of his injudiciousness. Some time ago, and after we had put the injunction on Maxim he got it into hi shead (from something Maxim's lawyer said to him; who he frequently goes to see) that we had better not press the Maxim case, as there was a probabbility that Maxim would give the whole thing to the world if pressed, because of the Fox article being published in Euruope. I showeed him our patent for spiral lamp of carbon wh ich was at least 1 month before Fox letter could have been written and though I had convinced him. For all that he rushed off to Fabbri and Lowrey and raised their fears on it so that they come to me to see if there is anything in it. Now Fabgri is that kind of a m an that if you put such an idea into his head it is difficult to get it out again. The doctor has kept me busy with such things as these ever since I have been here. If he would only turn his attention to getting articles in the papers he could put in 4 or 5 everyday, but that he wont do and when I promise articles in French he says he will give them but never does. Altogether I'm afraid he is a failure. I see now the Engineer apologizes for the nastury slur they gave us. Also they sayd that Swan showed the lamp to Sir Wm Armstrong not Sir Wm Thomson as I telegraphed you I guess it was an erro in the Electrician."
Author
Recipient
Mentioned
Date
1881-10-01
Type
Folder/Volume ID
MBLB3-F
Microfilm ID
93:338
Document ID
MBLB3052
Publisher
Thomas A. Edison Papers, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University