[D8805ADP], Letter from Holyoke Envelope Co, James Terry Abbe to Thomas Alva Edison, June 14th, 1888

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Title

[D8805ADP], Letter from Holyoke Envelope Co, James Terry Abbe to Thomas Alva Edison, June 14th, 1888

Editor's Notes

"We have taken the liberty to address the following to you sending it to Paine & Francis of Boston to mail as we have not your address. We send to them as they are about to put in an electric plant their mill. We desire a little information which we felt you might, perhaps, readily answer, or if not be able to determine without experienced, you would at least refer us to some electrician who as might employ if some experiments were necessary to answer the question. What we desire is to pick up paper by frictional electricity, and we thought you might be able to answer the question as to whether same was feasible. For instance, if reams of paper, say in size 5 x 3 inches, was held in one pile, could a metallic picker, in your judgment, be arranged so that we could raise from this pile one sheet at a time. This is all we desire to know. It occurred to us that the picker what ever it might be seen coming in contact with the pile would impart a current to the entire pile and tend to unite the whole; and if it would pick up that it would be as likely to pick up two or three sheets at a time as to pick up each singly; and, again we are told that frictional electricity in a damp day is liable to jump from the course intended, and if such is the case, could this be overcome? We wanted to consult some one, and write you in the absence of knowing any one competant to determine readily, thinking you would at least not hesitate to refer us to some competant person, and thinking, too, you might be prepared to answer the questions in a general way without any investigation on your part. We don't wish to enchroach upon your time, but felt that the reference asked could be the more readily obtained from you than any other." Respectfully, Jas. T. Abbe [Marginalia: "Kennelly Try this with Halz [?] + see? E.]

Date

1888-06-14

Type

Folder/Volume ID

D8805-F

Microfilm ID

121:371

Document ID

D8805ADP

Publisher

Thomas A. Edison Papers, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University
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