Part V: 1911-1919

Part V Series Notes

The period documented in Part V was a time of intense activity for Edison, his laboratory, and his recently organized company, Thomas A. Edison, Inc. Several new inventions—such as the disc phonograph, the Ediphone dictating machine, the Home Projecting Kinetoscope, and the Kinetophone (motion pictures with synchronized sound)—were developed and marketed. Edison was also a major figure in war preparedness. His ideas spurred the creation of the Naval Consulting Board, on which he served as president, and he conducted research for the Navy. To overcome shortages of chemicals previously obtained from Germany, he developed plans for rapidly building new manufacturing plants and became a major supplier not only to U.S. industries but to the European allies and Japan as well. During this period Edison forged a longstanding friendship with the industrialist Henry Ford, with whom he embarked on a series of highly publicized camping trips that included industrialist Harvey Firestone and naturalist John Burroughs.