[MF48-F] Correspondence (1919)
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Description
This folder contains correspondence and other documents pertaining to Edison's continuing association with the Naval Consulting Board (NCB) and his experimental research for the Navy during the year following the end of the war. The correspondents include Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels and Assistant Secretary Franklin D. Roosevelt; NCB members Andrew M. Hunt, Thomas Robins, and William L. Saunders; inventor William G. Ruggles, and experimenters Paul D. Payne and Bruce R. Silver. Included are items relating to the writing of an official history of the Naval Consulting Board by Lloyd N. Scott; Edison's use of the yacht USS Hauoli for experimental research; his opinion about the future role of the NCB; and ongoing questions about the planned Naval Research Laboratory. There are also documents pertaining to the end of the war, including the disposition of various supplies and equipment, the termination of experimental work by some of Edison's men, and a preliminary list of Edison's research projects prepared by his assistant William H. Meadowcroft for Rear Admiral W. Strother Smith, the Naval officer responsible for the NCB. Some of the letters discuss Newman Henry Holland's acoustic range finder and the submarine listening apparatus that Edison wished to have built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Approximately 50 percent of the documents have been selected. The unselected material includes routine items relating to financial, administrative, and personnel matters; unsolicited correspondence from inventors; routine thank-you letters signed by Edison; and documents, unrelated to Edison, regarding the future of the NCB.