The Thomas A. Edison Papers Digital Edition

This folder contains documents, primarily correspondence, relating to the business of ESBCo. Included are letters pertaining to the outfit and supply of the ESBCo works, corporate finance, and the production and sale of batteries and by-products. Correspondents include Edison, Charles Edison, Robert A. Bachman, Donald M. Bliss, Miller Reese Hutchison, Stephen B. Mambert, Arthur Mudd, C. E. Sholes, and other ESBCo employees; investors Arthur I. Clymer, and William D. Sloane; and Frederick A. Hall, an efficiency engineer associated with Frank B. Gilbreth. Some of the items deal with supplies available from the Sangamo Electric Co., the Troy Electric Co., and the Quigley Furnace & Foundry Co. Other documents relate to the foreign sales of Edison storage batteries; the specifications for batteries required by the U.S. Navy; a sales company called the Transportation Engineering Corp., organized by one-time ESBCo employee, H. G. Thompson; and the development of an automotive starter by the Tidewater Equipment Co. Also included are memoranda and conference minutes summarizing the staffing and structure of the Engineering Department, Research Department, and Tube Inspection and Assembly Department; and an insurance report from 1918 providing the layout of the ESBCo manufacturing plant in West Orange.

Less than 10 percent of the documents have been selected. The items not selected include routine exchanges regarding the supply of equipment and material for ESBCo, the payment or deferral of accounts, and other matters of daily administration. Also not selected are letters of transmittal and acknowledgment and items that duplicate information in selected material.