Part Of: Notebook Series -- Pocket Notebooks

[NP101-F] PN-14-12-05 (1914-1915)

The dated entries in this pocket notebook cover the period December 1914-April 1915. The book was used by Edison to record ideas about business matters, experiments to be tried, and other tasks to be performed. Some of the items have been crossed out. Included are technical notes pertaining to batteries, disc records, and chemicals. The business-related entries include notes about disc record demonstrators and sales, production costs per record, and types of music that should be recorded. There are numerous comments about rivals Columbia and Victor, including remarks about their sales, sales techniques, and types of music available on their records. Also included are suggestions regarding a new violinist, new phonograph horns for use in recording, and the "new studio." In addition, there are costs estimates for the new chemical plants and notes about projected phenol and benzol sales. In the middle of the book are three pages of notes, probably in the hand of Edison's assistant William H. Meadowcroft, entitled "Manufacture of Carbolic Acid" and "Calculation of Wages for Labor Manufacturing Phenol."

Among the numerous Edison employees mentioned in the book are H. H. Meno Kammerhoff, supervisor of operations at Edison's new chemical plants in Silver Lake, New Jersey; chemist Victor L. King; engineer William H. Mason, who supervised the installation of Edison's benzol plants at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and Woodward, Alabama; John V. Miller, Edison's brother-in-law and manager of the Edison Chemical Works at Silver Lake; William Walter Dinwiddie and Sherwood T. (Sam) Moore, two of Edison's principal assistants in the development of disc records; John J. Riley, manager of the Demonstration Dept. of the Recording Division; and construction engineer Seaton M. Scott. The inside back cover is inscribed "Liebold." The pages are unnumbered. Approximately 150 pages have been used.

Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.

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