This folder contains correspondence and other documents relating to Edison's deafness and to devices for the hearing impaired. Included is correspondence with West Orange inventor William E. Shaw about a failed plan to employ "deaf mutes" at the Edison factory. Also included are letters to and from the British benevolent society, Fellowship of the Deaf, about the need for a device to help soldiers and sailors who had lost their hearing.
Approximately 10 percent of the documents have been selected. The unselected items include letters requesting Edison to recommend, invent, or try a hearing aid or asking if one sold under his name was authentic. Also not selected are form-letter replies stating that Edison had not invented any such device yet or that he did not like any of the existing ones he had tried.
[E1823AA], Letter from Ethel Inman, Fellowship of the Deaf to Thomas Alva Edison, February 6th, 1918 1918-02-06