This folder contains documents relating to alkaline storage batteries and to the business of the Edison Storage Battery Co. (ESBCo). Among the items for 1917 are letters pertaining to wartime export conditions, to Ralph H. Beach and his defunct Federal Storage Battery Car Co., and to the efforts of Edison's chief engineer, Miller Reese Hutchison, to sell batteries to the U.S. Army and Navy. The correspondents include Charles Edison, ESBCo vice-president Robert A. Bachman, banker Frederick J. Lisman, and John F. Monnot, managing director of Edison Accumulators, Ltd., in London.

Approximately 20 percent of the documents have been selected. The unselected items include business documents merely initialed by Edison, routine correspondence and inquiries, and unsolicited letters and printed matter. Also not selected are items relating to ESBCo sales, daily and monthly production reports, and a report by Bachman to Stephen B. Mambert, vice president and financial executive of Thomas A. Edison, Inc., on cost savings due to new equipment and processes. There is also a copy of a 33-page report by consulting engineer Lamar Lyndon entitled "Report on Test of Edison Storage Battery Type S-18, 6 X 3, for U.S. Submarine L-8"; a copy of a 26-page ESBCo technical specification entitled "Description and General Instructions for the Care and Operation of the 'Navy Special' Heavy Duty, Type S-18 (6 X 3) Cells of Edison Storage Battery for Use in Submarine Torpedo Boats"; and two versions of installation and maintenance instructions for a gun-firing and sight-lighting battery for the Navy.