This folder consists primarily of letters exchanged between William H. Meadowcroft, Edison's personal assistant, and J. Jarvis Butler of the Navy Dept. General Board, whom Edison used as a source for government-published data. Included are items pertaining to phonograph record production figures, Edison's plan for a reform in the U.S. currency system, and his idea for an emergency hydrogen-filled parachute for aviators, which he and Meadowcroft traveled to Washington to discuss with officers of the U.S. Air Service. There is also correspondence with Edgar G. Oberlin of the Naval Research Laboratory regarding Edison's refusal to lend political support to the laboratory, then under construction in Washington, D.C.

Approximately 40 percent of the documents have been selected. The unselected material consists primarily of personal correspondence between Butler and Meadowcroft, who appear to have been close family friends.