1875

4 January	Sells his quadruplex patent rights to Jay Gould for $30,000.
5–8 January	Discusses strategies with Gould for Atlantic and Pacific competition with Western Union.
	Purchases books and scientific equipment.
c. 11 January	Visits his family in Port Huron, Mich.
19 January	William Orton accepts terms for quadruplex purchase suggested by Edison in December.
20–21 January	Files arguments and amendments for applications examined by Patent Office on 31 December 1874 and requests immediate approval of all multiple-telegraphy cases that were not suspended.
23 January	Writes Commissioner of Patents to ask that quadruplex patents be assigned jointly with Harrington rather than Prescott.
	Writes William Orton, saying he cannot accept Western Union's terms.
28 January	Western Union begins legal proceedings against Edison in New Jersey over the quadruplex.
January	Begins serving as electrician of Atlantic and Pacific; inspects New York–Boston line.
	Edison and Murray begins manufacturing domestic-telegraph instruments for New York City lines and automatic instruments for Atlantic and Pacific.
11 February	With his wife, Mary, gives a masquerade party on his birthday.
24 February	Executes a patent application with Charles Batchelor for the domestic telegraph system.
27 February	Jay Gould agrees to pay expenses for roman-letter automatic experiments.
20 March	Commissioner of Patents orders that quadruplex patents be assigned jointly with Prescott rather than Harrington.
23 March	Files two patent applications (for a quadruplex repeater and for the domestic telegraph system designed with Batchelor); does not file another application for a year.
Late March	Demonstrates an automatic telegraph system employing a spectroscope to the secretary of the German telegraph system.
March–Early April	Moves family to a house on South Orange Ave. in Newark.
c. 1 April	Ezra Gilliland begins selling Edison and Murray products at new store in New York City.
16 April	Transfers to George Harrington and Josiah Reiff part of his interest in automatic-telegraph patents in expectation of a settlement from Atlantic and Pacific.
20 April	Agrees with Gold and Stock Telegraph Co. to settle their outstanding accounts.
	Assesses his financial situation by preparing a summary account of his assets and liabilities.
27 April	Swears affidavit presenting his argument to Secretary of the Interior Delano appealing the Patent Commissioner's decision on quadruplex applications.
30 April	Begins experiments to develop a new copying process.
7 May	Begins experiments on electromotograph repeater for automatic telegraphy.
16 May	Agrees with Joseph Murray to dissolve their manufacturing partnership; sets up separate laboratory at Ward St. shop.
31 May	With Charles Batchelor prepares list of proposed experimental topics and conducts first experiments in new laboratory.
2 June	Experiments to find new force for use in telegraphy.
30 June	Conceives electric-pen copying system.
15 July	Signs formal agreement dissolving Edison and Murray.
26 July	Proposes lease of Atlantic and Pacific wires for night-letter business to be run from laboratory.
July	Meets with William Orton to discuss acoustic telegraphy and draws alternative designs based on article about Philip Reis's telephone.
	Furnishes Ezra Gilliland with space and machinery in the Ward St. shop for the manufacturing enterprise Gilliland & Co.
5 August	Prepares list of inventions to be displayed at 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.
August	Suggests various terms for settling disputes over automatic and quadruplex patents during negotiations over possible merger of Atlantic and Pacific and Western Union.
16 September	Proposes duplexing Atlantic cable of Direct United States Cable Co.
Summer	Develops basic electric-pen copying system; begins manufacture and sale of system by early September.
23 September	Executes first caveat for electric-pen copying system.
	Leaves for Port Huron to visit family.
1 October	Signs first of several agreements for electric-pen agencies; this one includes his nephew Charles Edison.
2 October	Agrees to give Charles Batchelor and James Adams a percentage of profits from electric-pen sales.
c. 5 October	Proposes a system for transmitting stockbrokers' private messages to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
14–21 October	Develops new battery for electric pen.
30 October	Drafts caveat for facsimile telegraph system employing ideas from his other inventions—e.g., the electromotograph and electric pen.
16 November	Begins acoustic-telegraph experiments for Western Union.
22 November	Executes his first acoustic-telegraph caveat and develops new quadruplex designs.
	Notices phenomena he ascribes to "etheric force" while working with acoustic-telegraph apparatus and begins two weeks of intensive experiments on new force.
29 November	Gives newspaper reporters first interviews on etheric force.
	Again employs Robert Spice, this time as consultant and assistant on acoustic-telegraph experiments.
1 December	Agrees to assign rights in automatic telegraphy to the new American Automatic Telegraph Co. as part of strategy to force Atlantic and Pacific and Jay Gould to settle with those interested in the old Automatic Telegraph Co.
14 December	Signs contracts with Western Union to settle their mutual claims regarding the quadruplex controversy and to formalize the company's support for his work in acoustic telegraphy in exchange for control of his inventions.
	Conducts etheric-force experiments with Professor Henry Morton at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J.
16 December	Demonstrates etheric force with Dr. George Beard at a meeting of the Polytechnic Assoc. of the American Institute of New York.
23 December	Demonstrates etheric force at meeting of the Newark Scientific Assoc.
29 December	Purchases house and property in Menlo Park, N.J., for new home and laboratory.
December	Conducts numerous acoustic-telegraph experiments.

Chronology Details