The Edison Papers, By Bruce A. Bennett, NEC Digest, Winter, 2004
In case you missed it, this past October
marked the 125th anniversary of
Thomas Edisons invention of the
incandescent electric light. On October
21 & 22, 1879, Edison successfully conducted
an experiment that generated
light using a high-resistance carbon filament.
That experiment resulted in the
issuance of U.S. patent 223898 on
January 27, 1880, and later that year
gave birth to an industry that would forever
change the way we live and work.
Born in 1847, Thomas Alva Edison was arguably the greatest inventor this world has ever known. Before his death in 1931, hed amassed a world record 1,093 U.S. patents, beginning with his first successful application on October 13, 1868 at the tender age of 21. Not quite as impressive but equally amazing were the 500 to 600 unsuccessful applications he filed, which may or may not be a world record.
Fortunately for us, Edison not only had a brilliant technical mind, he also had a brilliant business mind. Unlike a lot of inventors, he didnt need to find an entrepreneur to bring his products to market; he was an entrepreneur. Less than twelve months after patenting his electric light, Edison formed the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York and demonstrated his electric lighting system to a group of New York City aldermen. The rest, as they say, is history.
As you can imagine, Edisons experiments, inventions and business ventures generated tons of paperwork literally. In 1871, two years after receiving his first patent, Edison began keeping extensive notes on all of his experiments and business endeavors. What began as an informal system of jotting down thoughts and ideas on scraps of paper evolved into the more sophisticated use of standardized notebooks that could be cataloged and cross-referenced. The archives at the Edison National Historic Site eventually contained over 3,000 of these notebooks, each containing approximately 280 pages.
Like most technical people, Thomas Edison was something of a packrat. Apparently he never threw anything away, so as his empire grew so, too, did his files. In addition to his notebooks, Edison accumulated rooms full of correspondence, financial records, inventory lists, legal documents, mortgages, deeds, insurance policies, advertising and promotional literature, blueprints, manufacturing data, labor records, and scrapbooks full of newspaper and magazine articles. In all, Edisons archives contain approximately 5.5 million pages of data that could undoubtedly give us a comprehensive portrait of one of the most brilliant minds mankind has ever known. There were just two problems. Number one, few people had access to the files and number two, because of that fact, nobody knew exactly what was in them.
All of that changed in 1978 when Rutgers University, the National Park Service, the Smithsonian Institution, and the New Jersey Historical Commission teamed up to launch the Thomas A. Edison Papers Project. Headed up by renowned Edison biographer, Dr. Paul Israel, the Edison Papers Projects mission is to go through the 5.5 million pages, extract the most pertinent information, and publish it in book form, on microfilm, and online so that anyone with an interest can access it. It was originally thought that the project, which is funded by a variety of government grants and corporate/public contributions, would take 20 years to complete. Considering the size of the archive is five-times what they originally estimated, experts now think it could take another 25 years to complete.
Progress to date has been excellent. In October the group released Volume 5 titled From Research to Development at Menlo Park (January 1879 March 1881), which, not coincidentally, covers the invention, development, and commercialization of the incandescent electric light. Arranged chronologically, the 1,000-plus page book contains 111 illustrations, 15 photos, and 272 line drawings. The project's website (http://edison.rutgers.edu) now contains over 180,000 document images, as well as a searchable database of 121,000 document records and 19,250 names.
I shudder to think what mightve happened to this historical treasure trove had those involved in the Edison Papers Project not cared enough to undertake their monumental mission. To them, and to the legislators, corporations, and individuals who fund them, I say thank you, not only for keeping history alive, but for making it readily accessible to everyone.
