[The following note describes a series of company records that were not selected. For that reason, a "no Documents found" message will appear if the "List Documents" button at the bottom of the note is used. To see the selected company records, use the "Which Series Notes?" button to enter the Series Notes.]

The Edison Machine Works was established as a partnership around March 1881. It manufactured dynamos, motors, and other heavy equipment for the Edison electric lighting system. The partnership became a corporation in January 1884. Near the end of 1885 the company absorbed the Electric Tube Co. and the Edison Shafting Manufacturing Co. A year later, it moved its factory from Goerck Street in New York City to Schenectady. The company merged with several other Edison companies in 1889 to become the Edison General Electric Co.

Letterbook, LM-301. This letterbook covers the period March-September 1887. Most of the letters are by Edison's bookkeeper, John F. Randolph, and are addressed to the Edison Machine Works, the Germania Bank, or the Eleventh Ward Bank. There is also correspondence by Alfred O. Tate, Samuel Insull, and Charles Batchelor. The letters deal mainly with routine financial matters involving credits, notes, invoices, stocks, payrolls, and sundry expenses. Some items concern the laying of underground conductors for electric light systems, the closing of the company's Goerck Street factory, and relations with Drexel, Morgan & Co. The book contains 482 numbered pages and an index.

Scrapbooks.These two volumes each covers the period November 1886-July 1889. They contain blueprints, mostly drawings and technical data, relating to dynamos. One of the books is inscribed "Thomas A. Edison with the Compliments of The Edison Machine Works C.B. (Private and Confidential)."

Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.