The Thomas A. Edison Papers Digital Edition

The one selected item is a 1915 letter by Miller Reese Hutchison, Edison's chief engineer, inviting Madeleine Edison Sloane, the inventor's daughter, to come to the Navy Yard in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to "break the bottle" on the new L-8 submarine. The L-8 was the first submarine to be built by the Navy itself rather than by a private company and the first submarine to be equipped with an Edison storage battery. Hutchison also informs Madeleine that he has received verification of another battery order (for the E-2 submarine) "to the tune of $85,000" and mentions sales to the Navy of carbolic acid and battery cells for emergency wireless equipment on ships. "Altogether, I am quite well pleased with my day's work, which aggregates $415,000." Hutchison received a commission of 20 percent on all batteries sold to the Navy.