This folder contains correspondence and other documents relating to the purchase and use of tools and raw materials in Edison's laboratory and factories. The items for 1917 relate both to his personal research—including requests for vegetable seed samples, stranded wire, and silk fiber—and to raw materials for his disc record manufacturing operations. Included is a draft letter prepared by Edison to be mailed to wood products companies seeking large quantities of pulp (used as filler), along with another letter in regard to a machine capable of manufacturing wood flour. Attached to the drafts are lists of companies and addresses to which each letter was to be sent. The companies involved in the correspondence include the Fibre Corp., A. & F. Brown Co., and the Hughes Electric Heating Co., which donated an electric range to Edison for use in his laboratory.

Approximately 15 percent of the documents have been selected. The unselected items include routine documents relating to orders, shipping, bills, and payments, which were handled by laboratory staff; correspondence pertaining to catalogs and samples; and replies to Edison's two inquiry letters stating that the company could not supply the material requested.