[The following note has no documents attached to it. For that reason, a "no Documents found" message will appear if the "List Documents" button at the bottom of the note is used. The documents described by this note have been integrated into their appropriate places in the digital edition. The bound volumes from the Supplement can be easily identified in the Series Notes for Parts I and II, since they all have reel number 162 associated with them. Individually indexed correspondence and other loose items from the Supplement that have been integrated into the Part I and Part II folders can be identified by the designation "TAEM 162: [frame number]" in the information box above the document image. For these and other loose items, there is also an editorial note at the bottom of the image, identifying its proper place in the sequence of microfilmed images.]
These documents, found or recovered after the Part II microfilm edition was published, were filmed at the end of the Part III microfilm edition and subsequently integrated into their appropriate places in the digital edition. They consist primarily of notebooks and other technical notes and drawings by Edison and various laboratory assistants. Included also are patents and caveats, letters, reports, litigation records, and other items.
Five notebooks from the 1870s provide important new information about Edison's early technical career. Two of the books contain the earliest known record of Edison's work on automatic telegraph perforators (including electric perforators) and on electric sewing machines. Also included in these books are notes and drawings on other automatic telegraph components and on printing telegraphs. Another notebook is one of three books used by Edison during or immediately after his trip to England in the spring of 1873. Included are notes about proposed experiments on cable telegraphs and the earliest known entry regarding the carbon rheostat, which became the basis of Edison's carbon-button telephone transmitter four years later. Two other notebooks were used by Edison and Charles Batchelor in January and February 1877 to record ideas for a rotary autographic press that would reproduce stencils created by the electric pen.
Another significant group of technical material relates to Edison's work in 1873 and 1874 on a book about telegraphy, a project he never completed. Included among the recently discovered materials are the table of contents for the book and a complete chapter on break wheels. These can be found in Unbound Notes and Drawings: Telegraph -- Notes and Essays [NS7402]. Also dating from the 1870s are several hundred pages of unbound technical notes and drawings dealing mainly with Edison's work on telegraphy. There are also items regarding the development of the electric pen and the telephone, the phonograph, other acoustic devices, and various minor inventions. In addition, there are copies of early caveats on automatic telegraph perforators and typewriters.
Added to the Primary Printed Series for Part I are five items that were stolen from the Edison National Historical Park in 1976 and recovered in 1988: a 24-page pamphlet from 1877 containing testimonials about Edison's telephone and an account by Edward H. Johnson of its origin and development; three pamphlets from 1876 and 1877 regarding Edison's electric pen and duplicating press; and one pamphlet (ca. 1877) promoting his duplicating ink.
The documents from the 1880s consist of notes, drawings, and correspondence relating to Edison's work on electric lighting and the telephone. In addition, there are documents concerning acoustic, duplex, and quadruplex telegraphy and an extensive set of notes and drawings regarding the development of the phonoplex system. Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.
