The Thomas A. Edison Papers Digital Edition

[The first paragraph of this note covers all of the Unbound Notes and Drawings for Part I.]

The loose technical notes and drawings constituting this collection cover the years 1873-1878. They relate to a variety of subjects, including telegraphy, electric lighting and power, the electric pen and duplicating press, the telephone, and the phonograph. There are also documents pertaining to various other subjects, such as carbon rheostats, acoustic devices, the tasimeter, and the voltameter. The unbound notes and drawings are organized by year and within each year by subject. Undated notes and drawings, organized by subject, follow the dated material.

This folder contains approximately 400 pages of notes and drawings relating to telegraphy. Many are in Edison's hand. Some are by his assistant Charles Batchelor. The names of James Adams, George E. Carman, Martin N. Force, and John Kruesi also appear on some of the documents as authors or witnesses. A few items, such as a 15-page note from Edison to Batchelor near the beginning of the folder, are quite lengthy. There are also multipage drafts of caveats or patent applications.

The following items were discovered after the microfilm edition of Thomas A. Edison Papers, Part I (1850-1878) was published and were filmed in the Supplement Series of Thomas A. Edison Papers, Part III (1887-1898): images 25, 103, 106, 286, 288, 290, 304-377.

The following notes and drawings were published in The Papers of Thomas A. Edison, Vols. 1 and 2:

1. Doc. 151A: images 307-311
2. Doc. 298: image 127
3. Doc. 388: images 26-40