The Thomas A. Edison Papers Digital Edition

[The following note covers all the unbound notes and drawings for 1887-1898.]

The loose technical notes and drawings constituting this collection relate to a variety of subjects, including the phonograph, electric lighting and power, ore milling, batteries, the kinetoscope, telegraphy, telephony, and x-rays. There are also documents pertaining to various other projects, such as a proposed cotton picker. Many of the notes and drawings are by Edison. There is also material by Charles Batchelor, Arthur E. Kennelly, John F. Ott, and other associates, as well as notes by various laboratory experimenters, including Jonas Walter Aylsworth, John Joseph Force, H. De Coursey Hamilton, and Joseph W. Harris. Numerous drawings from 1887 and 1888 are signed by Mina Miller Edison as a witness. Some of the notes and drawings carry inscriptions indicating that they were used in the preparation of caveats and patent applications. Other items, such as the series of kinetoscope drawings at the beginning of the "Undated Notes and Drawings, ca. 1888" folder, are also closely related to material in the Patent Series. Approximately 80 percent of the documents have been selected.

The dated notes and drawings are arranged by year. Also included in this series are undated items that seem to be continuations of dated entries, as well as related undated material (often pinned together with the dated documents).