The Thomas A. Edison Papers Digital Edition

[The following note links only to the bibliography of Arthur E. Kennelly's publications by Vannevar Bush (see below). To view the documents in the letterbooks described here, use the "Which Series Notes?" button to enter the Series Notes or use the "Next Text" button to move to the first item in the Kennelly Letterbooks series.]

These seven letterbooks cover the period July 1888-January 1894. They contain correspondence, technical reports, and draft manuscripts written by Kennelly during his tenure directing the work in the Galvanometer Room. Included is material pertaining both to Kennelly's role as chief electrical experimenter and to his own professional activities. Some of the items are reports to Edison describing tests recorded in the Arthur E. Kennelly Notebooks (Notebook Series). Only the reports containing information not available in the notebooks, such as additional data or summary findings, have been selected. Much of the material relates to the laboratory's research for the Edison electric light and power interests. Among the correspondents from these various companies are John Kruesi, William J. Jenks, H. Ward Leonard, Samuel D. Greene, and Joseph C. Henderson.

There are also items that highlight Kennelly's involvement in the emergence of the electrical engineering profession. Included is material relating to the Committee on Grounding the Neutral and the Committee on Lightning Protection (Association of Edison Illuminating Companies), as well as items pertaining to the Committee on Units and Standards (American Institute of Electrical Engineers).

Reports and other items that were written by Kennelly as enclosures to correspondence appear immediately following their covering letters, even though the enclosures generally precede their covering letters in the letterbooks.

Drafts of technical articles that were subsequently published by Kennelly have not been selected. A bibliography of Kennelly's publications, some of which appear in draft form in these books, can be found in Vannevar Bush, "Arthur Edwin Kennelly, 1861-1939," National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs 22 (1940): 83-119. To view the bibliography, click the "List Documents" button at the bottom of this note. Additional categories of unselected material include correspondence regarding the procurement and shipment of laboratory supplies; conductor determinations for central stations in Brooklyn, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Chicago, San Francisco, and Newport, R.I.; arrangements for, and announcements of, meetings; and items that merely duplicate the information in selected documents.

The letterbooks are wholly or partially indexed. These indexes have not been selected. Although every technical effort has been made to ensure the legibility of the documents, many pages in these letterbooks are partially or entirely unreadable because of spreading, smearing, or fading ink; bleed-through; and water damage.

Related material can be found in the "West Orange Laboratory" and "Electric Light" folders in the Document File Series.