Part Of: Special Collections Series -- Naval Consulting Board and Wartime Research Papers

[MF28-F] Ship Sinkings (1917)

This folder contains correspondence and other documents relating to Edison's work on defending U.S. shipping against German submarines. Included are letters about strategy to Josephus Daniels, U.S. Secretary of the Navy, and Sir Eric Geddes, First Lord of the Admiralty. Also included are undated technical notes and drawings by Edison, along with information from the Bureau of Statistics regarding vessels engaged in the foreign trade. Edison's letter to Geddes was subsequently published in Lloyd N. Scott's official history, Naval Consulting Board of the United States. It can also be found in Edison Wartime Research Report No. 46, Charles Hummel Collection.

Approximately 10 percent of the documents have been selected. The unselected material includes long lists of geographical data (approximately 60 pages) concerning ship sinkings in European waters compiled by Edison, as well as similar lists by William H. Meadowcroft. Also not selected are numerous tables and rough calculations, along with draft documents concerning submarine strategy, most of which are unsigned and undated and do not appear to be directly related to Edison.

Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.

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