The Wizard of Menlo Park

by Randall E. Stross

  Movies made with Edison equipment: “Edison Batteries for New Ford Cars,” NYT, 11 January 1914.

  Edison dictating machines: E. G. Liebold to W. G. Bee, 20 January 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4–2.

  Cement made by the Edison Portland Cement Company: Walter S. Mallory to John Graham, 1 August 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4–4.

  Ford Motor’s chief architect: E. G. Liebold to W. G. Bee, 10 August 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4–4.

  Ford happened to be in New York: W. G. Bee to E. G. Liebold, 11 December 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4–5.

  Another $100,000 loan: Stephen Mambert to Henry Ford, 23 January 1918, HFM & GVRC, Box 16, Folder 52.

  when Edison was finalizing plans: TAE to E. G. Liebold, 23 February 1915, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-6.

  It turned out that there was no such thing: E. G. Liebold to W. H. Meadowcroft, 25 February 1915, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-6.

  Edison would have none: W. H. Meadowcroft to E. G. Liebold, 27 February 1915, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-6.

  he was “at a loss”: E. G. Liebold to W. H. Meadowcroft, 1 March 1915, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-6.

  Never mind: TAE to E. G. Liebold, telegram, 18 March 1915, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-6. This was not the end of the tale. Ford then offered the services of one of his senior executives who was in New York, who did call Edison and pay a visit. See E. G. Liebold to W. H. Meadowcroft, 18 March 1915, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-6.

  In October 1915: W. H. Meadowcroft to T. Commerford Martin, 5 October 1915, ENHS.

  accompanied by a police officer: “Edison’s Life Threatened,” NYT, 27 October 1915. The year before, Edison publicly had disavowed any plans to work on weapons: “Making things which kill men is against my fibre.” See “Edison Won’t Invent Man-Killing Devices,” NYT, 26 October 1914.

  could not avoid being surrounded: “Noted Pair Keep Walking Eight Hours,” San Francisco Chronicle, 20 October 1915.

  Edison and Ford also were feted: “Edison Laughs at Plight of Friend Ford,” San Francisco Chronicle, 21 October 1915.

  Edison had his secretary: W. H. Meadowcroft to Alice Verlet, 22 March 1916, ENHS.

  “I would not trouble”: L. C. Curlin to TAE, 8 March 1919, and TAE marginal note in HFM & GVRC, Box 5, Folder 5-4.

  When Meadowcroft dispatched: W. H. Meadowcroft to E. G. Liebold, 20 March 1919, HFM & GVRC, Box 5, Folder 5-4.

  Liebold received the request favorably: E. G. Liebold to W. H. Meadowcroft, 24 March 1919, HFM & GVRC, Box 5, Folder 5-4.

  no deal was arranged: Telephone interview with Jack Curlin, Lemuel Calvert Curlin’s grandson, 22 June 2006.

  In June 1914: TAE Jr. to E. G. Liebold, 3 July 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 8, Folder 17. For Madeleine Edison’s wedding, see “Bridal Party Dines on Eagle Rock,” NYT, 16 June 1914 and “Madeleine Edison a Bride,” NYT, 18 June 1914. Madeleine’s new husband, John Sloane, apparently wasted no time trying to use his marital tie to Edison to advance his own business interests as an airplane manufacturer. He arranged a deal to sell planes to the Russian government to be financed by Japan’s Mitsui Company and personally secured by funds he expected to obtain from his father-in-law. “Sloane found himself unable to get the financial aid he expected from his relatives,” the New York Times later reported, when the deal unraveled and Sloane sued Mitsui. See “Edison’s Son-in-Law Sues,” NYT, 1 May 1917.

  When it finally was shipped: E. G. Liebold to W. G. Bee, 3 July 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-4.

  sent a thank-you letter: TAE Jr. to E. G. Liebold, 3 July 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 8, Folder 17.

  The company took possession: E. G. Liebold to Ford Motor Company, Long Island City, 11 June 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 8, Folder 8-17.

  Tom Jr. did make a good case: TAE Jr. to Billy [W. G. Bee], 7 July 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-4.

  Bee served as his advocate: W. G. Bee to E. G. Liebold, 1 July 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-4.

  appears to have embarrassed Liebold: E. G. Liebold to W. G. Bee, 11 July 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-4.

  When Liebold agreed: Ibid.

  In January 1915, he wrote: TAE Jr. to Henry Ford, 15 January 1915, HFM & GVRC, Box 8, Folder 16.

  Later in the year, he addressed: TAE Jr. to Henry Ford, 14 November 1915, HFM & GVRC, Box 8, Folder 16.

  In 1917, after visiting Detroit: TAE Jr. to Henry Ford, 16 February 1917, HFM & GVRC, Box 8, Folder 16. For other thank-you notes in this time frame, see TAE Jr. to Henry Ford, 10 June 1917, and TAE Jr. to Henry Ford, 7 July 1917, HFM & GVRC, Box 8, Folder 16.

  The work on his gadget: Beatrice Edison to E. G. Liebold, 6 October 1919, HFM & GVRC, Box 8, Folder 17.

  His Ecometer attached: The Ecometer, pamphlet, n.d. [May 1921 conjectured], HFM & GVRC, Box 8, Folder 8-17.

  Ford’s engineers: Tom Jr. told Liebold that he was not discouraged by the test results because the tests at Ford must not have been conducted according to his instructions. He also said that “my head does bother me more than any living being knows and all I can say is that these dreadful pains are indeed one great big handicap to me.” TAE Jr. to E. G. Liebold, 7 May 1921; TAE Jr., and Beatrice Edison to E. G. Liebold, 8 June 1921; E. J. Farkas to E. G. Liebold, 28 July 1921, HFM & GVRC, Box 8, Folder 8-17. Junior’s company went into receivership in 1924. See “Receiver Gets Inventions,” NYT, 22 June 1924.

  In late 1913: W. G. Bee to E. G. Liebold, telegram, 20 November 1913, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-1.

  Liebold installed: E. G. Liebold to W. G. Bee, 10 April 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-3.

  As the sales manager: W. G. Bee to E. G. Liebold, 16 April 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-3.

  Edison would devote more time: W. G. Bee to Henry Ford, 7 May 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-3.

  “When Mr. Edison finds out”: W. G. Bee to E. G. Liebold, 27 July 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-4. Capitalization in the original letter.

  Ford showed impatience: W. G. Bee to E. G. Liebold, 23 July 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-4.

  Ford also complained: E. G. Liebold to W. G. Bee, 21 July 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-4.

  Bee avowed his innocence: W. G. Bee to E. G. Liebold, 23 July 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-4.

  Liebold, by the end of 1914: E. G. Liebold to W. G. Bee, 28 December 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-6.

  another company, Gray & Davis: E. G. Liebold to W. G. Bee, 21 July 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-4.

  Ford dealers also registered: E. G. Liebold to W. G. Bee, 25 July 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 4, Folder 4-4.

  Throughout the process: Ibid.

  After Ford extended: Stephen B. Mambert to Henry Ford, 27 December 1919, HFM & GVRC, Box 2, Folder 2-60.

  Edison did not give up: W. H. Meadowcroft to E. G. Liebold, 13 October 1919, HFM & GVRC, Box 5, Folder 5-4.

  But later that year: Stephen Mambert to Henry Ford, 23 January 1918, HFM & GVRC, Box 16, Folder 52.

  Having a personal friend: TAE to E. G. Liebold, 31 December 1917, HFM & GVRC, Box 2, Folder 2-57.

  The “little while”: Stephen Mambert to Henry Ford, 7 March 1919, HFM & GVRC, Box 16, Folder 52. For more payments that were not deposited immediately, see also Stephen Mambert to Henry Ford, 12 May 1919, HFM & GVRC, Box 16, Folder 52.

  There were other instances: Stephen B. Mambert to Henry Ford, 20 March 1918; Stephen B. Mambert to E. G. Liebold, 25 December 1922; TAE to Henry Ford, 16 July 1924, all at HFM & GVRC, Box 16, Folder 52.

  In 1925, Ford forgave: E. G. Liebold to Charles Edison, 25 November 1925, HFM & GVRC, Box 6, Folder 6-1.

  “the world’s worst businessman”: Ford, My Life and Work, 235.

  a camping vacation together: Firestone had accompanied the Edisons and the Fords in California in 1915. At the end of the California trip, Edison had suggested that the group plan to camp together the next year. Samuel Crowther, “My Vacations with Ford and Edison,” System, May 1926, 643–645. Business and pleasure were intertwined not only for Edison and Ford but also fo
r Firestone and Ford. In the middle of the series of trips, Firestone solidified his business ties with Ford, signing an agreement to supply 65 percent of the tires used by the Ford Motor Company. Dorothy Boyle Huyck, “Over Hill and Dale with Henry Ford and Famous Friends,” Smithsonian, June 1978, 92.

  The group traveled by car: John Burroughs to TAE and Harvey Firestone, 11 December 1916, HFM & GVRC, Vertical File—Ford, Henry—Camping.

  Schedules could not be arranged: For mention of camping plans that were not realized that year, see H. S. Firestone to TAE, telegram, 17 August 1917, HFM & GVRC, Box 2, Folder 2-56.

  A contemporary feature article: Mary B. Mullett, “Four Big Men Become Boys Again,” American Magazine, February 1919. Firestone said Edison would also frequently be found in the car reading. Samuel Crowther, “Was There Another Vacation Like This?” System, June 1926, 793.

  A trip diary: Harvey S. Firestone Jr. notes, followed by Harvey S. Firestone Sr., notes, typescript copy at HFM & GVRC, Vertical File—Ford, Henry—Camping; original held in Vierce Library, University of Akron, Firestone Collection.

  Edison would take a midday nap: John Burroughs to TAE and Harvey Firestone, 11 December 1916, HFM & GVRC, Vertical File—Ford, Henry—Camping.

  take up a newspaper: During President Harding’s stay in camp, the president’s friend Bishop W. F. Anderson delivered a sermon. While the president listened attentively, Edison “picked up a newspaper and buried himself in it.” “Harding in Camp with Noted Party; Chops Fire Wood,” NYT, 24 July 1921.

  the caravan had swollen: Josephson, Edison, 466.

  Newsreels about the campers: David L. Lewis, The Public Image of Henry Ford (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1976), 223.

  A diary entry: Our Happy Days of 1919 and 1920, scrapbook, n.d. [1921?], HFM & GVRC, Vertical File—Henry Ford—Camping, 12.

  Burroughs wrote in his diary: Edward Renehan, John Burroughs: An American Naturalist (Post Mills, Vt.: Chelsea Green, 1992), 276; Neil Baldwin, Henry Ford and the Jews (New York: Public Affairs, 2001), 88–89. Five years before the 1919 trip, Burroughs had spoken out and called for a new trial in Georgia in the case of Leo Frank, the Jewish defendant hastily convicted of rape and murder (and the next year abducted from the state prison farm and lynched). Burroughs also said that his position was shared by Edison and Ford as well, though they did not speak to the press themselves. See “Favors New Frank Trial,” NYT, 1 April 1914.

  The president arrived: Karl G. Pearson to W. D. Hines, 23 November 1931, cover letter and accompanying memo “Camping Trip Stories,” original in Vierce Library, University of Akron Firestone Collection; copy held in HFM & GVRC, Vertical Files: Henry Ford—Camping.

  When the president offered: Samuel Crowther, “What Vacations Have Taught Me About Business,” System, July 1926, 106; “Edison Prizes Chewing Tobacco from Harding,” NYT, 12 August 1922.

  Something went wrong: Nelson Durand to TAE, 20 July 1925, HFM & GVRC, Box 3, Folder 5.

  Henry Ford took: Lewis, Public Image of Henry Ford, 223.

  he claimed in his memoirs: Ford, My Life and Work, 240.

  Charles Sorensen: Charles Sorensen, My Forty Years with Ford (New York: Norton, 1956), 18.

  his daughter Madeleine: Madeleine Sloane, Oral History, 1 December 1972, ENHS, Interview #1, 28.

  After our little walk: Edward L. Bernays, Biography of an Idea: Memoirs of Public Relations Counsel Edward L. Bernays (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1965), 451.

  CHAPTER 12. LETTING GO

  The Man Who Defeated Darkness: The honorific titles listed here were heard at a single luncheon honoring Edison on the occasion of his seventy-seventh birthday. “Edison Honored by Movie Leaders,” NYT, 16 February 1924.

  When an eighth-grader: William Meadowcroft to Earle Shopen, 13 December 1915, ENHS.

  At the end of the experience: “Edison at 76, Talks of Tut-Ankh-Amen, also Ruhr and Girls,” NYT, 13 February 1923; “Navy Ignored 45 Inventions, Edison Relates on Birthday,” NYW, 13 February 1923.

  One moving tribute: W. C. Lathrop to TAE, 6 March 1921, ENHS. A copy of the letter is available online at the Library of Congress’s American Memory Web site: http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/99/edison/images/mrs2.gif. I am indebted to Leonard DeGraaf, the archivist at ENHS, for bringing the letter to my attention.

  a most gratifying letter: For another first-person testimonial that credits wives’ adoption of electrical appliances to increased availability to attend to the needs of husbands, see Anne Walker, “Three of Us and—Electricity,” Woman’s Home Companion, December 1919. Walker, speaking for herself and two friends, writes, “We three wives have less time for shopping, ‘tea-ing,’ and afternoon bridge, but we have lots more fun evenings with our husbands—motor trips, sextet dinners, theatre parties in town, and jolly games of cards.”

  Edison wrote to a correspondent: TAE to J. E. Franklin, 12 December 1916, ENHS.

  When he had left Edison’s side: Samuel Insull, The Memoirs of Samuel Insull: An Autobiography, ed. Larry Plachno (Polo, Ill.: Transportation Trails, 1992), 59, 62, 66, 76.

  new pricing schemes: Insull, Memoirs, 73–74.

  acquisition of neighboring utilities: Harold L. Platt, The Electric City: Energy and the Growth of the Chicago Area, 1880–1930 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 253.

  the spending of his wealth: Forrest McDonald, Insull (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), 240–241, 245. The new building was completed in the fall of 1929 and its first production staged ten days after the market crash, an entirely different fiscal era from the one in which it was conceived.

  placed on the cover of Time: Cover, Time, 29 November 1926.

  continued to make himself available: McDonald, Insull, 238–239.

  When asked in 1911: TAE to Port Huron Times-Herald, 1 April 1911, ENHS.

  to his own town: H. F. Miller to L. B. Markwith, 2 May 1911, ENHS.

  Aviation Section: TAE to Alan R. Hawley, 27 January 1916, ENHS.

  “colored section”: H. F. Miller to Chairman, Colored Branch Committee, YMCA, 8 May 1912, ENHS.

  Essex County Jail: H. F. Miller to Samuel Golcher, 31 December 1913, ENHS.

  New Jersey Soldiers’ Relief Concert: TAE to Mrs. I. M. Irwin, 18 July 1916, ENHS.

  telegraph-skills tournament: Walter P. Phillips, Sketches Old and New (New York: J. H. Bunnell, 1897), 181.

  No to Oberlin: H. T. Miller to Chas. W. Williams, 9 June 1910, ENHS, Letterbook, vol. 83.

  Edison did not himself invest: Edison poured two experimental buildings—a two-story gardener’s cottage and a garage—on the grounds of Glenmont and hired the New York firm of Mann & MacNeille to draw up plans that Edison made available royalty free to any builder willing to sell the completed house to “working men” at a price that capped the builder’s profits at 10 percent. Michael Peterson, “Thomas Edison’s Concrete Houses,” Invention and Technology 11 (Winter 1996): 54, 55.

  A New Jersey real estate investor: “Popularity of Concrete,” New York Tribune, 11 June 1911. At the same time that the only investor in his concrete-home designs was using them as rental properties, Edison continued to believe that he had developed a solution to working-class discontent because the concrete home could be purchased by even a day laborer. Edison said, “Social discontent will die out when the working man owns his own home.” See “Night Simply to Be Abolished,” Democrat (Madison, WI), 27 July 1911.

  The only philanthropist: “Cement Houses as Toys,” Morristown Jerseyman, 6 January 1911.

  Mina Edison’s ideas: Mrs. Thomas A. Edison, “Leisure and Contentment,” Playground and Recreation 23 (January 1930): 607.

  She and fellow members: “Mrs. Thos. A. Edison Makes Fight Against Low Neck Ball Gowns,” New York Evening World, 8 February 1916; “Women Divided in Attack on Low Neck Gowns That Stirs the Nation,” Superior (Wis.) Telegram, 2 February 1916.

  “Handsomely gowned women waited on”: “Society Women Sell Eggs; Open Store in Orange, NJ, and War On Grocers,” Cumberla
nd [MD] Times, 20 November 1913.

  The one philanthropic venture: “Boy, 16, Bishop’s Son, Is Winner of First Edison Scholarship,” NYT, 3 August 1929.

  At the time of the market crash: McDonald, Insull, 284.

  His personal fortune: Ibid., 277.

  The prosecution’s case: Ibid., 331–332.

  He had told a State Department escort: Ibid., 44–45n38.

  When environmental problems: William H. Hand, Oral History, 15 March 1973, ENHS, 13. Hand described how residents in the vicinity of Edison’s plant in Silver Lake would appear with dead animals, claiming the deaths had been caused by pollution, and sought compensation. In one instance, an angry crowd set fire to the laboratory on the property, destroying it. See Hand, 24.

  One resident who lived across the street: Joseph F. McCoy, Notes, 31 March 1937, ENHS, Biographical Collection: Edison Associates, Contemporaries, and Employees, Box 3, 18–19.

  placed in the care of a French governess: Charles Edison, Oral History, 14 April 1953, ENHS.

  Charles’s older sister, Madeleine: Madeleine Sloane, Oral History, 13 March 1973, ENHS, Interview #2, 65.

  She did sometimes wonder: Madeleine Sloane, Oral History, 1 December 1972, ENHS, Interview #1, 24.

  “Dear Fellow Criminal”: Charles Edison to Edsel Edison, 6 June 1914, HFM & GVRC, Box 8, Folder 8–15. A few months later, Charles sent Edsel a box of Philip Morris cigarettes with a card that read, “Wishing you many happy returns of the habit.” Walter Holland to Charles Edison, 8 November 1914, ENHS, Charles Edison Fund Collection, Charles Edison Papers, Box 1, Correspondence 1912–1956.

  Each of the three: William Maxwell, Edison Retail Sales Laboratory, 1915, ENHS, Primary Printed—Edison Companies, Box 50, Thomas A. Edison, Inc., Publications, 1.

  The Edison Shop of East Orange: WM [William Maxwell] to Robert Bolan, 22 October 1915, ENHS, TAE Inc. Records, Charles Edison’s Letterbooks, Box 4, 1915–1919.

  Edison gave his approval: William Maxwell, Edison Retail Sales Laboratory, 1915, ENHS, Primary Printed—Edison Companies, Box 50, Thomas A. Edison, Inc., Publications, 1.

  In September 1914: Charles Edison to Carolyn Hawkins, 29 September 1914, ENHS, Charles Edison Fund Collection, Charles Edison Papers, Box 1, Correspondence 1912–1956.