[E1209-F]

https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/folder/E1209-F

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Part Of: Edison General File Series -- 1912

[E1209-F] (E-12-09) Battery, Storage

This folder contains incoming correspondence and interoffice communications relating to the commercial and technical development of Edison's alkaline storage battery at his laboratory and by representatives of Thomas A. Edison, Inc. Included is discussion of advertising, personnel, equipment and supplies, patent rights, and relations with competitors and clients, as well as specific commercial usages of storage batteries. There are several items written by Edison or bearing his marginalia, along with many letters to Edison by his personal representative and chief engineer Miller Reese Hutchison. Some of the internal communications relate to the Gouin battery, which was discussed by J. A. Montpellier at the International Congress of Electrical Applications in 1911. There are also items pertaining to cell tests conducted on behalf of the German government and to the use of storage batteries by electric locomotives, including a report from the General Electric Co. A few documents concern a "Battery Service System" for the General Vehicle Co. and negotiations with that company that directly involved Edison. Among the correspondents is John R. Markle of the International Electromotive Co. in Detroit, a longtime associate who wanted to establish a marketing agency for Edison's storage batteries. Other letters discuss recent or upcoming meetings with engineer and former associate Phillips B. Shaw, former laboratory employee Alfred J. Thompson, and representatives of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co.

Approximately 70 percent of the documents have been selected. The unselected items consist primarily of unsolicited correspondence, including a few letters concerning windmills, that received no reply or only a perfunctory response from Edison; additional letters by Hutchison that appeared as advertisements in the Army and Navy Journal; duplicates and documents that duplicate the information in selected items.

Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.

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